Mr. Speaker, I am encouraged that I did not give encouragement to a member of the Bloc. One of the reasons I may not have given him or members of the NDP such encouragement was that they were obviously not listening.
I was not castigating post office workers. I was talking about the leadership of the union, the people who are challenging and saying that they will close airports, bridges and roads. What kind of a democracy do they think we live in?
The government is elected and has every right and every responsibility to deal with the issue. There is a lot more in terms of rights and being involved in a union than simply the right to strike. There is the right to organize. There are rules and regulations within federal and provincial labour boards. They have a right to be part of a union to better the working conditions for the men and women they work alongside. They do not have a right to break the law. Nobody has that right.
I also fully believe in my heart that the rank and file do not want this strike. The rank and file want to go back to work and get their paycheques so they can have a decent Christmas and build a good life for their families. We support the rank and file. We do not support the militancy of the leadership of that union.