Mr. Speaker, obviously the member was not listening to my speech when I went into great lengths about how the government denied them a pay raise for six years and denied them the right to bargain, and that it had the right to impose a settlement rather than binding arbitration. The democratic rights of many people have been taken away, including the people who work for the government.
This government, if it wants to have a good working relationship with its employees, should bargain in good faith, rather than allow the situation to deteriorate to the point where we are now legislating them back to work.
It is not that these 70 people want to have a stranglehold on the economy, but the point is that they do. They do have a stranglehold on the economy. By virtue of the fact that those 70 people have gone on strike hundreds of thousands of people have had their livelihoods affected. Those hundreds of thousands of people have absolutely nothing to do with the dispute. They have no input in the debate. They are the ones who are greatly at risk. That is why we have to think seriously about helping them.