Mr. Speaker, it is a great pleasure to speak today on this bill. This is a bill that I feel very strongly about, as do all the members of the Bloc Quebecois and a number of members in other parties, apparently.
Members have been asking over and over for such a bill to be passed. In this respect, I think that my colleague from Laurentides deserves our heartfelt gratitude. I do hope that this opposition day dedicated to this issue will help convince hon. members, particularly those in the Liberal majority, that it is appropriate to support this bill.
When this issue is raised in Quebec, the first thing people do is ask, “What are you talking about? We already have anti-strikebreaking legislation in Quebec. It has been in place for nearly 25 years. What is going on at the federal level? Why are you telling us there is no federal legislation dealing with this?”
Then we explain to them that the federal Parliament, through the Canada Labour Code, has never settled this matter, even though we raise it as often as we can. The thing that is difficult to understand is that, initially, when it was in opposition, the Liberal Party of Canada supported anti-scab legislation, and since it has been in power, it is systematically against it.
Usually, private members' bills provide an opportunity for members to express their views without having to toe the party line. Regarding the present bill introduced by the hon. member for Laurentides, we have even seen that a Liberal member will vote with the Bloc Quebecois on this motion, as will the NDP. I hope that members of the Liberal Party of Canada will help the minister and parliamentary secretary understand the facts. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Labour said;
The government believes the balanced approach that is set out in part I of the Canada Labour Code is the best way to deal with the issue in the federal jurisdiction. We do not see any compelling reason to change the law now.
That is something special. In my copy of the text, this sentence is underlined because, in fact, while the parliamentary secretary was speaking on behalf of the minister, the minister told us the same thing this morning. She said there is not any compelling reason to change the law now, but the fact is that some disputes go on for years.
For the employees at Cargill, happily, it will be over soon. In the case of the strike at Radio-Nord, some employees of that company have come here to express their support for this anti-scab bill. At Vidéotron, the strike lasted many months.
In all these examples, we note that if there had been an anti-strikebreaking law, perhaps there still would have been a strike, but in the distribution and balance of powers, it would not prevent people from resorting to their right to strike when appropriate. We would certainly have had disputes that lasted a much shorter time than they have.
I believe the Liberal Party needs to change its position. I call upon its members, every individual, every man and every woman, to reflect on this and think about whether the fairest point of view would not be the one they adopted before becoming the government, when they supported a similar bill. What logic can they use for having changed their minds today? It strikes me as totally unjustified.
What is worse, they are on side with the Canadian Alliance, which is opposed to this bill. We have read into the record some very convincing texts on this, which show what a really anti-union attitude the Alliance has, as it is even against the right to representation.
This is an attitude that ought not to be shared by the House as a whole. I invite hon. members, particularly those in the Liberal majority, to support my colleague's bill, one which is moreover supported by the New Democratic Party and the Progressive Conservative Party.
In the NDP, the member for Winnipeg—Transcona, who has always been very firm about what he has been know to call “Quebec separatists”, said these very words on this issue:
I am sure that I speak for all my colleagues when I say that I hope one day our country will be as progressive as the Province of Quebec with respect to our labour code.
When those words come from the mouth of the member for Winnipeg—Transcona, it must mean he was deeply concerned. As a sovereignist member of Parliament who wants to see Quebec become a country, I do not often enjoy the support of that colleague. Today, my colleague from Laurentides has obtained it for this anti-strikebreaker bill. I think this ought to lead to some reflection on the position each member will have to take when the bill is voted on.
The Progressive Conservative Party also supported the bill. The member for St. John's East said the following:
These are all reasonable clauses that should help employees and employers in their efforts to resolve differences in a very professional and rational manner.
We have had the possibility of passing such an anti-scab bill numerous times over the past 10 or 15 years. I think it would reflect well on this Parliament if it did so.
I will take this opportunity to tell the Speaker, since I forgot to do so when I started my speech, that I will be sharing my time with the member for Jonquière.
If the House of Commons were to pass the bill, if today there seemed to be support in the House, in this Parliament, for the Bloc Quebecois' bill, the Minister of Labour would be compelled to reflect and take action, move forward rather than backward on this matter.
Currently, she is very defensive, saying that the Canada Labour Code reflects what the unions and employers were both prepared to accept. But the Minister of Labour is responsible for ensuring not only that the measures on which both parties agree are included in a labour code, but also that the Canada Labour Code is progressive.
In Quebec, scabs have not been used for the past 25 years, and this has led to healthier worker-employer relationships; this then is a good example to follow. If the Minister of Labour wants to be progressive, if she wants labour relations in Canada to improve, if she wants productivity rates to increase, if she wants the number of days unfortunately lost to strikes to decrease, if she also wants the families of workers in long term disputes not to suffer the consequences, then she must have a positive attitude.
Parliament should tell the Minister of Labour to take action, to go to the employers and the unions to tell them that she wants to work to enact anti-scab legislation; perhaps then we would see results, and the end result would be good.
In 1978, Pierre-Marc Johnson was Quebec's minister of labour in the first Parti Quebecois government. There was what is known in politics as a honeymoon, and there was a desire for change, and anti-scab legislation was implemented.
Today, no one in the Quebec Parliament would question those things because they have made for healthier relations between employers and employees. People who were opposed to them then for the same reasons as those who are opposed to them now realized that their arguments were groundless, and that it was advantageous for Quebec society, as it would be for Canadian society, to bring more civility to our labour relations.
Then we would have people who could bargain on an equal footing and reach better agreements.
The fact that the Quebec Labour Code banned the use of scabs resulted in employers being better respected by unionized workers and workers being better respected by employers. In the end, collective agreements were signed faster and better agreements were reached. Today, nobody is questioning this piece of legislation.
We would have expected the federal government to act. It is faced with terrible examples. I repeat: Vidéotron, a one-year strike; Cargill, a three-year strike; Radio Nord is currently on strike and the repercussions are far-reaching. A whole region is dependent on this communications network; journalists and strikebreakers are replacing those who were doing the job before. It creates a very unhealthy climate in the area. The situation is getting worse because the current law is not being amended. If it were, this situation would not recur in the future.
At Vidéotron, the strike would not have lasted one year if they had not used scabs, much less at Cargill. You should have seen the ships arriving at Baie-Comeau and the people who had been hired to unload them. We went there to see them and we saw them going in.
In conclusion, I will say this. The member for Laurentides deserves all our support for her bill. I hope that when the time comes to vote, we will be behind her and we will be part of a historical moment that—