Pardon me, yes, $350,000. He would have liked my numbers. No worries; the president of Air Canada is not going to get $350 million, but rather $350,000 a year.
What does the government think of that? It says that such people are hard to find. I cannot say for sure, but I think there are people who would take the job for less than that, especially since the company is always whining about how much trouble it is in.
Let us come back to the government's motion. I was talking about Air Canada, but let us look at Canada Post. Canada Post is in the process of negotiating a collective agreement with its employees. They are at the bargaining table. There is no problem; they are negotiating.
Basically, in the negotiation process, employees have the right to vote in favour of strike action or to go on a rotating strike, which is what they did. But Canada Post was not happy, because it wanted the employees to go on a full strike. Is it normal for a crown corporation to want its employees to go on strike? The reason is because it wanted the government to legislate the employees back to work. Is it normal for a crown corporation to want the government to legislate its employees back to work? There is only one possible reason for this: the government has something to gain. The minister said earlier that this was not about taking sides. Why do corporations like Air Canada and Canada Post have the benefit of back-to-work legislation? Because it is to their advantage.
The game the government is starting to play is very dangerous. If it sends a clear message to Canadians that it has no choice because its mandate is to promote economic recovery and that is all it cares about, in that case, workers better fasten their seat belts. That means that the government will not stop at Air Canada and Canada Post. It means this is just the beginning and it will always do this in the future.
Let us not forget why there is a union and why the right to free bargaining and the right to strike exist. These things exist to avoid a repeat of what happened in the 1930s, when everyone had to take to the streets to defend their rights. Workers had to organize. Together, they established a mechanism that won legal recognition. There is legislation in place that gives the right to free bargaining and the right to strike. However, Air Canada workers do not have that right. It is being taken away from them before the bargaining period even ends.
It is the same thing for Canada Post. The law says that citizens have to receive their mail every day. What is Canada Post doing to provoke the workers? It has started having mail delivered three days a week only, suggesting there was not enough volume in the Canada Post depots to justify daily mail delivery.
The letter carrier does not come to our house every day. The legislation does not say that letter carriers come only when there is enough mail and their mailbag is full. It says that citizens will receive their mail. Canada Post reacts by reining in its workers and having them work three days a week in order to make the public suffer, in the hope that the public becomes outraged and cries wolf. The government then claims it is bowing to public pressure and has no choice but to introduce special legislation in the House. We have yet to hear anything from the public. I am not hearing the public crying wolf. It is the same thing for Air Canada. I have not heard the public complaining, but the government is already introducing back-to-work legislation.
How can the government claim it is doing this in the best interests of Canadians? Is it saying that workers are not Canadian, that the whole workforce is not Canadian? The men and women who get up in the morning, build this country and work hard, are they not Canadian?
The government is saying that in the best interests of Canadians it is going to interfere in the negotiations, that it will help businesses to ensure that pension plans are not kept and employers to reduce the wages of workers. And the government is saying that it is doing this in the best of Canadians? Well, I hope workers are considered Canadians.
This is not in the best interests of Canadians. It is the wrong thing to do. For the government to get involved and legislate people back to work is the wrong message to send to industry and crown corporations, because now they do not have to do anything in negotiations and just let the government come in and do it for them.
Where is free bargaining? Where is the right to strike? Is it a sin to go on strike? It is not a sin. It is a fundamental right that workers have under the law.
I am talking directly to the people of our country. How would Canadians like it if tomorrow the government brought their wages down? How would they like it if their pensions were taken away? How would they like it if, after working all their lives and are 60 or 65 years-old, the company that had used them all along in production was enriched by it, like Mr. Robert Milton who walked away with $87 million and all those other CEOs getting paid millions of dollars in wages, but who say to workers when they retire they do not care if they go on welfare, that they do not care if the workers have a poor life, that they do not care if the workers get nothing for a good retirement? So many people have called my office and said they cannot even afford to pay their bills or engage in even a little recreation or travel.
Is that the direction we are going in? Is that what the Conservative government is promoting now? It is not even waiting for the negotiations to finish and giving them some time.
There is no crisis. Air Canada itself said there was no crisis. Air Canada said that the longest delays were about 15 minutes long at airports. Well, they are beating their record, because as members know, sometimes we have to wait half an hour or an hour for a plane. Air Canada is saying now that delays are no longer than 15 minutes. They are getting better.