Mr. Speaker, it is tough for them. The minute a third party comes in and decides what will be in the collective agreement, it helps a company to go one way and it helps it succeed in beating the workers, who have no defence because the government has come in with a law.
What does it say to the whole world? What does it say to all those companies in the forestry industry that closed their plants after so many years and to the people who worked in those plants and paid into their pension plans?
When people go to negotiation, that is the way it goes. They could negotiate upfront the money they will get. If they want $1 increase, they will get that dollar right away. That is safe. That is put in their pockets right away. However, they may ask that a portion of that $1 be put aside for their pension plans, so when they retire, they will have good lives with their families, realizing they have spent more time with their employers than their families.
The workers then might want to retire after 30 years. They check their pensions to find out that the 20¢ they had asked the employer to put on their pensions is gone. What the company has done, not the government because I am not allowed to say it, is stolen the money from the workers. It has walked away with it. This is unfair to the men and women who have built our country.
This is totally unfair and unacceptable. That is why I say that government has no right to get involved.