Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring to light the current crisis concerning the negotiations between Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. It is due to government interference that this situation has developed into the state it is in now.
I refer to a memo that describes a meeting between the Minister of Public Works and Government Services and the president of the Canadian Direct Marketing Association. According to the memo the minister suggested that the government might use conciliation to delay negotiations, blame the unions for a strike and then introduce back to work legislation within eight days of any strike action.
This strategy by the government and the management at Canada Post makes a mockery of the collective bargaining process. It suggests the conciliation process was never intended to resolve the major issues and is tantamount to denying the postal workers their legal right to strike.
I suggest to the minister that he remove the threat of back to work legislation and allow the union and management to seriously negotiate a collective agreement.