Mr. Speaker, here we are discussing back to work legislation. This law will force some 45,000 workers to return to their jobs at Canada Post.
We would not have to deal with this if the government had calmly let contract negotiations unfold as they should have. Unfortunately, today, we have to consider a bill which is depriving 45,000 people of their fundamental rights, namely the right to negotiate their working conditions.
Our labour relations system is based essentially on this capacity that workers and management have to deal with each other, to strike a balance, to discuss and ensure that decisions are taken to improve work processes, that workers are satisfied with their work and that the employer also benefits.
That is how our system usually works. But that is not how it is going to be now at Canada Post. It will not be like that because the government has decided to intervene. I can tell you right now that it would be easy to engage in demagogy over this issue. Of course everyone wants to receive his or her mail at home. Everyone is really happy when letter carriers bring their mail to the door. Everybody considers this an essential service, a normal service.
Companies will be telling us, and in fact, some have already done so, how much money they are losing with this postal strike. There is no doubt about that and there are obviously hardships for business, for charitable organizations, and also for citizens. But it cannot be otherwise. This is a strike, this is an action by a group of workers that provides them with the means to exert pressure on their employer, Canada Post, and also on the government, because it is deeply involved in these negotiations. We should normally be letting these workers exercise their rights.
Of course if this action did not bother anyone, it would be nice for the public, but it would not give the workers much leverage. By definition, a strike hurts. This has been accepted for a long time in our society, and if we do not give this tool to the workers, if we do not let them express themselves as a group, if we do not allow them to negotiate their working conditions, we distort the rules and create problems for ourselves. Today the government has decided with this back to work legislation to create all these problems for itself.
What exactly is the situation with respect to the negotiations that have taken place? For several months now, the minister responsible for Canada Post and the Minister of Labour have been questioned in this House. We have even questioned the Prime Minister. What we have been asking is: What is going on with Canada Post? Is the government going to give negotiation a chance? Every time, the Prime Minister, or the Minister of Labour who got up ever so calmly and told us, about 50 times, “Yes, yes, just leave the process alone, let things work themselves out. They are talking, everything is going fine. We hope it will be settled”. The minister responsible for Canada Post has been saying the same thing. Right up to the Prime Minister who told us “Let those people negotiate. They are capable of negotiating their working conditions. We hope it will be settled”.
But how can it be that we now find ourselves in the situation we are in today, with such a seemingly well-intentioned government? How can it be that today they are using a special bill to take away workers' right to strike? Very simple: they have not played fair. Right from the start, as far back as August, the minister responsible for Canada Post has not played fair with negotiations. I am accusing the minister responsible for Canada Post of having acted in such a way as to deprive the 45,000 employees of Canada Post of their ability to deal with the employer. They have lost their power to negotiate.
The minister was so cool when he met with representatives of the Canadian Direct Marketing Association. He felt as comfortable with them as with his buddies. He told them “Don't worry about a mail strike. First of all, they will negotiate a bit, then they'll go out on strike because they won't get anything. They will definitely go out on strike. They will look bad as a result of that. Then, within a few days, after being on strike for seven or eight days, there will be so much public pressure that the government will be justified in passing special legislation. I promise you that not only will there be a strike, but it will be a short one, and the government will intervene with special legislation”.
On August 6, it was the minister responsible for Canada Post who took away the postal workers' right to strike. Today, that same minister is trying to pass himself off as an angel of mercy, the saviour of society, the saviour of Canada Post. The big bad posties will be forced back to work. This is the person whom I accuse of depriving workers of their right to strike.
This game the government is involved in is unacceptable. The government has imposed conditions which leave union executives and workers feeling that they have had the wool pulled over their eyes, that they have been abandoned. What is more, the government not only changed the rules and maintained an artificial climate of negotiations, unacceptable things happened between the union and management negotiators. Ground was lost. There was, however, evidence of good faith on the part of the unionized employees. Moves were made, but the employer remained intransigent.
When it gave in a little on points that hinted at progress, what happened? There was an altercation between the union and management negotiators. The government, the Canada Post Corporation has changed. I mistakenly said government rather than corporation, but everyone understands that it is six of one, half a dozen of the other. The government is distinguishable from Canada Post, but we know how close they are. The government has friends at the post office. Former colleagues work there. It is all related. These people are in touch every day. Do you think the government was not aware of the corporation's strategy? Come on. They are one and the same.
So the government, or its representative, Canada Post, changed negotiators and that is when things started to slip backward. The few advances made in the negotiations were lost. Things fell back to their original inflexibility.
We could go on at length about the demands, but, in the end, the employees want to keep their jobs. Can we blame them? They want to negotiate some salary increases after years of salary freeze, like everyone else, after the difficult situations they have experienced. We cannot blame them for wanting to improve their working conditions. It is normal, human and proper. We do not have to take sides in the debate in order to understand that these people are behaving well under the circumstances. They exercised their right to strike to preserve a number of jobs. Yes, postal workers are concerned. Yes, they have been and are still hard hit by technological changes on a daily basis. Yes, they have experienced many job losses in the past and the government has announced another 4,000 layoffs this time around.
Of course, they want to defend themselves. Of course, they want to do some damage control. Can anyone listening to us blame postal workers for fighting with all their might for their jobs, their job security, their wages and their working conditions? Of course not. We can however blame the government for showing so little compassion and open-mindedness and acting this way when it is responsible for tilting the balance in the negotiation process.
The saddest thing of it all is that, if we were looking for someone to blame, the person who messed everything up, we would have to point a finger at the minister responsible for the Canada Post Corporation.
Not only is the government forcing these people back to work, but it is doing so with an extremely tough piece of legislation. Fortunately, negotiations are ongoing between the opposition and the government to ensure that this bill can be passed today without what I might call overzealousness. These discussions will soften the bill somewhat.
I am pleased to report that, at least one of the sections of the bill that poses a major problem, the one dealing with the context in which the mediation-arbitration process is to be conducted, will be changed. We have the assurance that the government will agree to change the whole context set in section 9, which basically states that the mediator-arbitrator will be required to perform his duties in a context where the Canada Post Corporation is expected to meet the criteria applicable to private enterprise, where the word competitiveness is used and reference is made, although not explicitly, to potential privatization.
The context in which the mediator-arbitrator is expected to perform his duties makes no sense. It is important to understand that the Canada Post Corporation is a public service. The corporation must be efficient. Yes, performance requirements are necessary. Yes, Canada Post must be as competitive as possible. Yes, the level of service provided must not only compare with but exceed that provided by the private sector. But this has to be done in the context of a government service, a public service, not in the context of a corporation that some would want to privatize as quickly as possible to make even more money, without regard for services provided to the public.
So, we have the assurance that, through its work, the opposition—namely the Bloc Quebecois and the New Democratic Party—will have obtained a softening of the arbitration rules by the government. Now, the arbitrator, whose hands were tied by the government even before he was appointed—even before he started his job—will at least have some flexibility. He will have some leeway, which means that workers may get an opportunity to be heard and their representations might influence the decision of the arbitrator who will be appointed.
We got this assurance and we are proud of that. The required amendments will be tabled during consideration in committee of the whole by an NDP member, but we are certain that they will be accepted.
We will also table other amendments. Bloc members will ask the government to make sure union members are consulted regarding the appointment of the mediator-arbitrator—after all, it is bad enough to force Canada Post employees to go back to work. If there is a possibility of an agreement, why would the government refuse to consult union members to appoint someone who may be able to enlist everyone's support, since that person would be entirely above suspicion and respected by all sides? We will be suggesting changes along these lines and we will see how they are received by the government.
There is also the question of salaries. Not only is the government forcing postal workers back to work, but it is giving them less than the last offer. The last salary offer was pushed back, resulting in losses for workers. Unless it was out of some sort of revenge, why would the government not give these people everything that was negotiated in good faith, the best deal possible so that there is some benefit for them?
We will also be moving amendments with respect to the obligation that the costs of the mediator-arbitrator be evenly split between the parties. The government must be asked to show some open-mindedness.
If, despite the mistakes it is making in this issue, the government were to agree during this working day to take some steps in the right direction—and I appeal to the common sense of those who sincerely do not want the situation at Canada Post to deteriorate—if the government were to agree humanely and in an open-minded manner, with the feeling that they have to make up for the gaffe of the minister responsible, they must be aware of it, if they were to agree to move, to make some accommodation, I have absolutely no doubt that Canada Post employees would return to work.
Yes, it would be with the feeling that they had in a sense been deceived by the government, but at least with the feeling that lawmakers on the government side, who are not necessarily party to the government strategy, those elected to represent the people, also represented them in this debate.
And without driving Canada Post into bankruptcy, without forcing anyone to shut down, without ignoring the need to be competitive, to provide good service, to rationalize, to do all these things, the legislator would at least have been sensitive to those who, for 12 days now, have been outside and who are quite properly calling for better working conditions.
In closing, I will say that the Bloc Quebecois is against this bill. We are not about to take away workers' rights when we know full well that they have been backed into a corner by the minister responsible for Canada Post. The government simply has to understand that the opposition is going to do the responsible thing and move amendments to the bill that are designed to improve matters, to make up for this government's blunders.