Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague from Halifax for her thoughts. As the past leader of the NDP, she has worked long and hard for fairness for ordinary working families and, because of her commitment to the cause of working people, she understands what workers are up against from coast to coast to coast.
As for the work atmosphere and the relationship between CN and its workers, I have to say that there must be a lot of tension in that workplace, because workers do not go on strike or take strike votes frivolously. They give it a lot of thought. Workers go to the bargaining table with just demands, seeking provisions that will make their lives and the lives of their families better. They seek to inform the employer about how those demands can be met and how, in most cases, they can have civil negotiations.
When workers come to the end of their rope, so to speak, or to the end of the tracks in this case, they decide that they need to take a strike vote to underscore it for the employer because the employer is not hearing what they are saying. They take that strike vote and go out there. I know that in the case of so many workers across this country they do not take this frivolously. It is a very serious issue. When they are out on strike, they do not get the same level of income. They could be out there for a long time, or not for very long, as the case may be. They have to be very serious about it because it impacts their family income. They take it very seriously.
It must be a pretty tense situation and the morale must be very low when the workers find out that the Government of Canada can impose back to work legislation on them that says they do not have any rights. It says they do not have the right to go out on strike and they do not have the right to free collective bargaining.
As well, what does that do to the labour movement in general? It puts a black mark on the history of Canada when we do this to workers, because in Canada we have a Labour Code that says we have the right to free collective bargaining. We take away those rights when we impose this kind of legislation.
When workers go to the bargaining table, all they are asking for is fairness, a level of fairness such that they can go to work, be safe and come home at the end of the day to be with their families.