Mr. Speaker, I will share my time with other Bloc colleagues.
Yesterday, we finally witnessed a long awaited moment. The minister responsible for the Canada Post Corporation introduced Bill C-24, an act to provide for the resumption and continuation of postal services. I say “awaited” because the way things were evolving, all those who sit in this House could see it coming.
The legislation before us forces some 45,000 Canada Post employees to go back to work, while also depriving them of fundamental rights, such as the right to negotiate working conditions that will give them satisfaction in their job while also being beneficial to their employer.
To put it simply, the dice were loaded. The Canada Post Corporation knew that it could count on special legislation from the minister responsible.
Remember the memo by the Canadian Direct Marketing Association made public by CUPW on August 7. According to the memo, Canada Post had received assurances from the minister responsible that, should a strike occur, the government would pass back to work legislation.
Bloc Quebecois members believe that, in this context, the deadlock in the negotiations is the result of the bad faith displayed by the Canada Post Corporation. This is why we say from the outset that we disagree with Bill C-24.
It is not so much the labour minister, but the minister responsible for the Canada Post Corporation who is to be blamed in this whole episode.
Quebeckers and Canadians must know that the minister responsible for Canada Post undermined the negotiations. For example, he said, on November 18, when both sides had undertaken exploratory talks, that the union was uncompromising, that it would be to blame should privatization occur, and that the government had the right to resort to special legislation. Enough is enough.
A brief look at what is at stake shows that, generally speaking, the union is asking for greater job security. This means converting overtime into permanent jobs. In this regard, it is interesting to note that the union agreed to reduce by half, from 3,000 to 1,500, the number of permanent jobs it wants to see created. The other union demands are: extending door to door postal services, a cost of living increase, plus a pay raise and a work contract for a period of 18 months to 2 years.
Canada Post, for its part, wants to cut salary costs by some $200 million, which amounts to cutting 4,000 jobs. It is offering to create 500 permanent positions rather than the 1,500 sought by the union. The government is missing a golden opportunity to create jobs, not vulnerable jobs, but permanent jobs and to spread the wealth among people who want to work. We must not forget that Canada Post is not running a deficit.
What is more, Canada Post is offering a salary increase over three years, with 1.5% the first year, 1.75% the second and 2% the third, plus the cost of living index. With its bill, the government is imposing salaries that are lower than those in the latest management offer of November 17, which proposed the same increases but six months earlier.
We were never given any indication that the employer was making concessions on its demand that it recover $200 million from salary costs. Bolstered by various interventions by the minister responsible for Canada Post, the corporation's management held the line while it awaited the special legislation introduced by the Liberal government.
Bill C-24 is therefore the result of abortive negotiations, in which the bargaining process did not follow its usual course. Had it done so, it would have been cemented by an agreement negotiated solely by the parties, as the Bloc Quebecois has called for since the outset.
The Bloc has always upheld the principle of free negotiations and it continues to do so. My colleagues and I are, however, aware that as things stand now the two parties are at an impasse. The situation is not surprising given that Canada Post is a subsidiary of the Liberal Party of Canada, the place where senators are appointed when there is no place for them in the Senate.
This is why the Bloc will be proposing a series of amendments when the House sits in committee of the whole. These amendments aim primarily at hastening the end of the dispute so as to improve labour-management relations, which were sorely tested, and to resume postal services to Quebeckers, who are waiting impatiently for them.
The clauses the Bloc has difficulty with are clauses 9, 12, 8, 10, 15 and 17.
Clause 9 sets out the principles guiding the mediator-arbitrator in reaching his decision. Specifically, it says that the mediator-arbitrator shall be guided by the need for terms and conditions of employment that are consistent with those in comparable industries in the private and public sectors and that will provide the necessary degree of flexibility to ensure the short- and long-term economic viability and competitiveness of the corporation. The Bloc Quebecois condemns these guidelines binding the mediator-arbitrator, because they represent an amendment to the Canada Post Corporation Act, which refers to a self-sustaining financial basis rather than competitiveness.
With clause 9, the Minister of Labour is clearly indicating that Canada Post must be run like a private business. This is at considerable odds with the public service character provided for under its own legislation, the Canada Post Corporation Act. The Bloc Quebecois therefore asked the government to give serious consideration to an amendment whereby the mediator-arbitrator must instead be guided by considerations consistent with a self-sustaining public service, as set out in Canada Post's incorporating statute. We already have the government's assurance that this amendment will be approved and that it will have a mitigating effect in the context of arbitration.
Clause 12 sets workers' rates of pay for the new agreement.
The Bloc Quebecois feels that the government could have left the salary issue in abeyance so as to give the union an opportunity to present its arguments to the mediator-arbitrator. This is why we are asking the government to amend clause 12 and give unions at least the rates of pay contained in the employer's last offer.
Clauses 8 and 10 make provision for the government to appoint the mediator-arbitrator. The Bloc rejects these clauses, being of the opinion that it is up to the government to see that unions are consulted. This, in our view, is a prerequisite to any real mediation that would be acceptable to everyone, because it would be someone above all suspicion, someone respected by all the parties.
Clause 15 also poses a problem. It states that the government will pass on the mediation bill to both parties. This strikes us as seriously wrong, given that the government played a primary role in the dispute now dragging on. The Bloc Quebecois feels that the government must pay the cost of the mediation it is imposing, and that is why we are asking that clause 15 be deleted.
Clause 17 sets the fines for those who contravene the legislation. A rapid calculation shows that it could cost the union up to $50 million a day to break the law. It is understandable—