Madam Speaker, before I begin, I would like to say that I will be sharing my time with the member for Hochelaga.
Today is a very black Friday, a day on which postal workers' rights are being completely undermined.
The Liberals promised in 2015 that they would never go as far as the Harper government to force workers back to work. They were up in arms in 2011 when the Conservatives legislated postal workers back to work. Today, they are doing the exact same thing, but it is even worse because the super-closure motion currently before the House, on which the Liberals thought it would be a good idea to limit the length of debate, is completely undemocratic.
We are debating a motion that explicitly states that the bill to be debated later this evening, shortly after 8 p.m., can be debated for less than three hours. Furthermore, at third reading, we will not be allowed to ask questions.
Is this the kind of transparency and democracy that the Liberals promised when they came to power in 2015?
I do not think so.
We are here because the government that promised—and I repeat this often—with hand over heart to defend the rights of workers and the middle class is belittling the work that we can do to improve the working conditions of postal workers in particular. That sends a rather strange message to all of the other workers who may want to fight in the coming years to improve their situation and that of the entire community by extension.
The Liberals are really being shamelessly hypocritical today. I cannot believe they are doing this. They too have many workers, mail carriers, who are literally working themselves to death every day.
There has already been a 25% increase in injuries for 2017. An increasing number of mail carriers are experiencing stress because they are overworked. The number of parcels to be delivered is growing. There has been a 100% increase in the number of parcels over the past two years. Since Canada Post was restructured, there are also fewer workers. I will give more details about that a little later in my speech, but I just wanted to point out how postal workers' working conditions are becoming increasingly precarious.
For 11 months, Canada Post did not put forward a single proposal. The government did not make a single public statement about intervening in negotiations either, and that is what would be expected of the government. Then, all of a sudden, two weeks ago, the labour minister threatened to use every means available to end the labour dispute. As many of us have pointed out here, rotating strikes—and it has been five weeks of rotating strikes, not a general strike—are a pressure tactic postal workers are using as a tool to put pressure on their employer, to make their demands heard. That is all. Yes, that job action has an economic impact. We agree that can be inconvenient. Nobody is happy about it, but at the same time, there have to be consequences at some point to prove just how important and appreciated postal workers' work is.
If businesses cannot receive their parcels and people do not receive their letters, that puts pressure on management to negotiate in good faith and consider the unionized workers' offers. If there are no consequences and no pressure, how are the workers going to make management listen to them? They will not really have any leverage.
This financial pressure is therefore necessary. There is no danger to public health or public safety. The Liberals need to stop saying that the government must take responsibility. There is no responsibility to be taken; all they had to do was let the employer and the union negotiate in good faith.
Labour organizations have been negotiating for years. This is not the first time. No one is outraged. No business owners have come to my office to complain about the mail carrier situation. I have not gotten any calls, any emails, or any letters. The Liberals sided with Canada Post and there is not even a national crisis. The Liberals have entirely manufactured this crisis.
I would like to acknowledge postal workers, who are doing everything in their power to ensure that no one is short of anything. They are continuing to deliver all government cheques. They do their job in a respectful manner and ensure that there are no major consequences for the public. As we have repeated today, some of them work on a volunteer basis for several hours, because in rural areas like mine, Salaberry—Suroît, where 29 out of 30 municipalities are rural, overtime is not paid. Is that normal? Would any members of Parliament agree to work overtime on a volunteer basis every week? I seriously doubt it.
However, I would like to remind MPs that union struggles have served to improve the living conditions of millions of people in Canada and around the world. They have led to employment insurance and maternity leave. Working hours were also regulated, being set at 35 or 40 hours a week. Children were also prohibited from working and given the right to attend school. Several significant improvements in workers' lives have resulted from union struggles. I tip my hat to all unionized workers who stand up every day despite the threat of special back-to-work legislation that governments can impose on them.
I would remind members that negotiation takes place between two sides. For several months now, Canada Post has said nothing and has not tried to negotiate, and then it completely dismissed the union's proposals. Today the Liberals continue to trample 50,000 workers' right to negotiate, so this is affecting 50,000 families in this country. The Liberals continue to act as though this right does not exist, as thought postal workers are not human beings. These people have families and want to see their kids in the evening. The Liberals keep going on about how important work-life balance is, yet they are doing absolutely nothing to recognize that postal workers are being affected by an explosion in the number of parcels.
Some of my staffers spoke with Julie today, a rural mail carrier who interrupted her delivery route to speak with them. She begins her route at 7 a.m. and finishes around 4 p.m. She is paid for nine hours of work, which comes out to $20 an hour. However, when she goes over that time, she does not get any more pay and she still has to finish her route. She does not get paid for overtime.
My colleague from Abitibi—Témiscamingue talked about road conditions. When Julie's truck breaks down, she is not paid for that time, and she also has to use her own telephone, since no phones are provided.
Trucks are not provided in all rural areas. As a result, there are inequities between rural and urban areas, but also between men and women. Most carriers in rural areas are women.