Mr. Speaker, I want to follow up by saying it is very relevant to Motion No. 7. I am trying to build the case in this debate that the idea of balance is brought in by our Motion No. 7. I use that as an example. We brought in an amendment and the government accepted it which I think that was good and very wise in that case. I would urge them again on this one, Motion No. 7 to get to the nub of this debate, which is to try to bring balance into it.
Do workers have the right to organize? A quote from our party's principles is that Canadian workers have the right to join unions, to organize, to strike peacefully. That is a basic democratic right in a free society. We say that is a right and it must be maintained. Now we get into the how to make this a balanced and fair procedure.
When my company was unionized many years ago it was a pretty straightforward process although I will not get into some of the shenanigans that went on. The process in essence was that union organizers did their best to convince employees they would be better off in the union.
It was kind of a strange twist at the time. I remember thinking it was so ironic. We had just sent our entire staff and their spouses on a free trip to Hawaii. Maybe that was coercion but what happened of course is that they used all kinds of tactics to organize. They will do that. Organizers have their own way of doing that. They convinced enough workers to go so they convinced them in a vote. People voted and they were able to go forward.
Did we go to the labour relations board and say this should not happen, that this was an injustice? We said we would have to adjust some of our things accordingly. They wanted to be paid on a scale and they asked us to remove all the bonuses. I could not understand it, never could and never will. We removed the bonus system and other stuff and they preferred it. That was the workers' choice. They made the choice and went ahead.
The choice is theirs and should be theirs in a secret ballot. There should be no way they have to stand up at a public meeting and ask if anyone dares to stand up against the motion and people cower in the background. Of course not. They should be able to say “I am going to go to the ballot box and make my vote. I either want to join the union or I do not”. It is their choice to make. By all means, that is the balance. That is the check and the balance in itself in the secret ballot box.
What this motion tries to correct is the error in the government legislation. The government can say “Only a third of the people voted for that but we think we know better than they do. We think we can read their minds, we are omniscient. We have that special power available only to government ministers and we can tell that they did not really mean it, so we will override their democratic choice and we will get them to join that union whether they like it or not”.
I wonder what would happen on the decertification side. What would the unions say if they said that only 35% voted to decertify but they could tell the rest of them did not really mean it? Sure they voted, it was a secret ballot, they put their minds around the issue and they made it up on their own, but really they are what? Are they children? They are not. These are adults making a choice in a free and democratic society. They should no more be decertified on a 35% vote than they should be certified.
It is a simple case. If the board said that it felt something coercive was going on, if it felt somebody was out of line in some way, then it should order another vote. It should say that it will not stand for whatever the activity might be. If the union is out of line by pressuring somebody or the employer threatens somebody, we can deal with that. That is illegal. You cannot coerce people on this. So we are going to deal with that activity and then we are going to order another vote. As a free society we have secret ballots and choice on so many issues. We should also have that choice to join or not to join a union.
This Reform motion tries to bring that balance into the legislation. There is a need for workers to make that choice and they have a right to know that choice will be respected when the ballots are counted. This balance is not in this legislation. The balance we propose under Motion No. 7 brings it back in.
I would love to talk about final offer binding arbitration and another way to balance conflicting interests but I will do that during debate on a further group of amendments.