Mr. Speaker, on March 4, I rose in the House to ask the Minister of Labour a question concerning the Radio-Canada negotiations. Radio-Canada employees were here on the Hill, in Parliament, in order to present to members, to elected representatives, the problem they were having with Radio-Canada, particularly in the Quebec and Moncton areas concerning the lockout at the time, which is still going on today.
The minister replied as follows:
Mr. Speaker, both parties have met in the presence of our mediators, last week and again since Monday of this week.
It is important that both parties sign a new collective agreement. At this point, it is crucial to let the parties address their problems so that a good collective agreement will ensue.
This is not the time for us to start taking one side or the other.
CBC president Robert Rabinovitch sent me the following letter:
Furthermore, I would point out to you that Radio-Canada has no objection to its employees presenting their point of view to MPs. What the corporation objects to is the fact that its employees signed a written undertaking to respect the media blackout agreed to on April 3 in order to restore the climate of trust necessary for a negotiated settlement. The union broke its promise by appearing on the Hill on April 10, and Radio-Canada could not let this go by in silence.
Radio-Canada has admitted in this letter that it actually did punish its employees at the bargaining table because those employees came here to Ottawa.
I find this truly discriminatory and against the spirit of democracy. When the Minister of Labour tells us that this is not the time for us to start taking one side or the other, I wonder what the federal government said during the negotiations with Canada Post. Canada Post employees had not yet voted to strike when the federal parliament decided that employees would be ordered back to work if ever they voted to strike. Now, the government is washing its hands of the matter because it is the employer who kicked people out, who has ordered a lockout.
I would like to see how the government can take up these two cases. On the one hand, Canada Post employees had not yet gone on strike when legislation was passed here in the House of Commons by the Liberal majority. On the other hand, Radio-Canada has locked out its employees and the government does not want to interfere in the negotiations to give listeners in Quebec and in the Moncton and Atlantic region the chance to hear something else than music on Radio-Canada. I have nothing against music. However, Radio-Canada is presently making money on the backs of the employees who have lost their jobs.
Moreover, in Quebec and in Moncton, only 51% of the employees are full time employees. However, at the CBC, from Ottawa to British Columbia, 71% of the employees are full time employees. Why that difference within the corporation?
This is why I cannot agree with the CEO. It is to be hoped that the labour minister iwill ntervene and tell Radio-Canada to negotiate in good faith and, in particular, to settle with pay equity. It is unacceptable that Radio-Canada employees in Quebec and Moncton are treated differently from CBC employees in the rest of the country.
Therefore, I would like to hear what the parliamentary secretary has to say about this.