Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, one of the most contentious issues was that CUPW had alleged that Canada Post wanted to lay off a good number of workers.
I suspect that losing the market share is going to hasten that kind of activity. If we cannot maintain the market share of Canada Post, there will be less work to do and as a result there will be fewer people working at Canada Post. It only follows.
I think the anecdote that I shared regarding my local paper is one instance in one constituency in one province of Canada. I am sure it can be multiplied by a good many times because other people will say that we are losing too much here, that it is too much of a risk with these constant interruptions in the postal service and therefore we will go to alternatives.
That is a sad state of affairs. We should have a good, strong, viable postal service in Canada so that when a letter is dropped into the slot, it is guaranteed that it will be delivered anywhere on the globe.
Of course, that is what we have had in the past and I do not see any reason why we could not have it in the future. The fact that we are here today debating to put the postal workers back to work and to reinstate the postal service tells you that there is something wrong.
We have had to do this before in the last ten years. We had to do it at least two other times. Why do we continue to legislate them back over and over again?
We need a system put in place that is going to resolve these things before they come to the work stoppage position and really harm innocent bystanders, people who really have no say in who goes to work and who does not.
We have put forth resolutions in this House, amendments to this bill, to use the final offer selection system by which, very basically put, the two sides will put forth the things that they do not agree on. They will agree to an arbitrator who will choose all their final positions or all the other final positions, one or the other. There is no compromise position in between.
As I have said before in this House, I believe that that is a tool that could be used effectively by labour and by management. I do not think it weights one side of the scale more than it does the other side. I believe that that is what we njeed to have as far as labour legislation in this country is concerned. We need to have a balance.
If we have the scales tilted too far to one side, then certainly there is going to be an undue advantage for that side. Therefore, this is a system that, if used to its ultimate, will not be used at all because the people who have it there as a tool to use will bargain very earnestly knowing that this is the legislated final step.
If they do not arrive at an agreement on their own, they will be compelled to go to this final step which really takes the decision out of their hands. I am sure that all parties would like to come to a negotiated settlement. However, I believe that final offer selection is a tool that could be used equally by each party. It would help in the negotiating process.
There are people who would argue that final offer selection takes away the right of these people to strike. I do not think it does. If we asked most people out on the picket line if they enjoy striking, they would say that they do not enjoy striking but feel compelled to do so.
Everybody likes stability. Everybody likes to have some control in their lives. When their paycheques stop and they are out on the picket line, it is not very pleasant especially in this November and December weather. I am sure those people would rather be gainfully employed and picking up their salaries just as they have for the past number of years.
I would suggest that what we are doing today takes the right to strike and to lock out away from these people more than final offer selection does. By mandating these people back to work we are saying that they do not have the right to strike, that they were on strike for nine or ten days but that is over with now and they have to go back to work. If they do not go back to work they are breaking a statute of Canada which is very serious.
We agree with the minister when he says that he takes very little satisfaction or no satisfaction in having to bring in back to work legislation. We agree with that. Something has to be done. We have to get the mail moving and it is obvious that the negotiation process was not going to get it moving.
We and everybody agree that the best solution is a negotiated solution. If the parties negotiated, they would all feel that they had a hand in it and that they were parties to the decision rather than having to throw everything up in the air and having the decision mandated by someone else.
I was very much surprised to see that the minister and his department would include the pay scales in this bill, that they would have the increases mandated. I was surprised to see a Liberal government bring this in. I was also surprised to hear some of the more left wing parties agree to this. They agreed to this idea in principle but amended it and juggled the figures a little. The NDP and the Bloc agreed to this mandated settlement. That really surprised me. I always thought they were the champions of labour and that they would want a negotiated settlement. We do too.
We think that part of the bill should have been removed. We suggested that and put forth amendments to that effect. I suppose the government in its wisdom and certainly in its numbers held sway and said whether the bill would live or die.
How has the last nine or ten days affected average Canadians? They have not received their newspapers through the mail. They have not received their cheques. Although we have had assurances from Canada Post that the old age pension cheques would be delivered, I had telephone calls from my constituency this week from some people who said that a lot of people on their block got their pension cheques but they did not get theirs. They say that it is December 1 and they do not know what to do. What can I say? How can I check it out for them since the post office is not working? All we can tell them is that their cheques were issued from Ottawa and we have no way of knowing where those cheques are gone.
The strike has had an effect on pensioners on a fixed income who depend on their pension cheques. Certainly I am not implying that seniors are living hand to mouth and pension cheque to pension cheque but they like to see it arrive on the regular day.
The post office in the smaller centres is sort of a social centre in the community. It is a place where you meet your neighbours. In a small town it is a place where you meet your business associates. Not everybody regularly attends the chamber of commerce meetings but they often attend the bank and the post office. They bump into their business associates and compare notes and talk about any manner of things. Of course when the post offices are closed that social aspect of the community is not there.
Not to mention the fact that charities at this time of the year are really dependent on the Christmas season for their biggest fund raisers. They raise about 80% of their funds in the month of December.
I know our political party likes to try to raise funds in November and December because it is getting close to tax time. Generally people have their end of year approaching and they have their finances pretty much in order. A lot of people budget a certain amount to give to charities and they do that usually in the last month of the year.
I am very pleased to see that the post office is going back to work. I hope it goes back very quickly and that all the talk of civil disobedience is just that, talk. I know that we have many very dedicated people in the post office workforce who pride themselves on doing an excellent job of delivering the mail through all sorts of conditions. I can hardly wait to get the mail system back to its normal condition.
The Minister of Labour has a great opportunity, one that perhaps has not been offered to other ministers of labour and that is to adopt and institute the final offer selection arbitration process. This process, as I have said many times in this House, is a great tool, one that would prevent the damage done to innocent third parties that have no control over these labour disruptions.
Oftentimes these labour disruptions are about power and there are struggles. I do not know that this particular instance was a power struggle but the possibility for that is always there. For third party persons who simply are users, constituents of the system, to be damaged by this to the effect that they have been during this postal strike is simply not fair.
We hear a lot of talk about fairness in this House and about balance. That is exactly what we should be striving for. Fairness and balance. I think the Canadian public, the consumers of the services of the post office deserve fairness and they deserve balanced legislation to make sure that that fairness is assured.
For the last two weeks 30 million Canadians have been denied the postal service. Within a matter of a few days I am very hopeful that we are going to see the resumption of those services.
I could probably continue and make several other points but time is running short. I look forward to hearing what my colleagues have to say.