Mr. Speaker, I do not know how many members of this House ever had the opportunity to sit at a bargaining table on the union side, but I did. The only power that labour ultimately has is the right to withdraw its services. Without that, it has no ultimate negotiating power. Here is something else: Strikes cause economic pressure; that is the very point of them. That right does not just exist for labour whose withdrawal of services does not produce consequences. It is like saying that workers with effective strike pressure cannot exercise that right.
At the Port of Montreal, the government is intervening before those workers even have a chance to exercise their right or exert pressure. My hon. colleague said that this is not a victory for employers or employees. Well, it is a victory for employers, because no employers sit at a table and bargain seriously if they know that a government will intervene and ultimately take away the right of the workers to strike, and guarantee an arbitrated result.
Why does the member not support workers' rights to strike and exercise the only fundamental constitutional right they have, or is that a right only for workers whose withdrawal of services does not actually impact anybody?