Mr. Speaker, in the post office strike the government had a far heavier hammer than strike breakers. It had legislation and brought it in to stop the strike. If that is not breaking a strike, I am not sure what is.
What we need in this whole area is balance. The only recourse a business has if the business cannot keep going during a lawful strike is to either let the business go under, as happened just recently with Maple Leaf Foods, or cave in to whatever demands are being made in the bargaining process, no matter how unreasonable or economically injurious they are.
Is that what the member is suggesting happens, that the hands of one of the parties in the bargaining process be completely tied behind their back with no recourse? Is that the kind of balance the Liberals are suggesting happens or are the Liberals just saying “If it really gets bad, we will just legislate everybody back to work and we will not have to worry about the whole issue”?
That is completely hypocritical and it is not going to help good labour relations and peaceful work experiences in the Canadian economy for workers.