Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my colleague from Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères.
Before I start, I would like to apologize to the interpreters because I will not be reading a text. I know that they like to have a copy of our speaking notes, and I understand why. I will try not to speak too quickly.
I want to start by paying tribute to all workers because tomorrow, April 28, is the National Day of Mourning for those killed or injured on the job. It is an opportunity to remember that we must work together to ensure that workplaces are healthy and safe. This includes harmonious labour relations and good living and working conditions for workers.
Today is a dark day. It is sunny outside, but it is a dark day in the House when the government introduces special legislation to end negotiations and deprive workers of any means of action. No, it is not the last resort or the only option, and no, it is not inevitable. It would have been possible to take another course of action.
I am not going to spend 10 minutes going over all of the International Labour Organization conventions that Canada has signed, but I do want to point out one thing. The Port of Montreal workers and the employer are trying to renew a contract that expired nearly two years ago. This process requires free collective bargaining, a balance of power and the ability to take action, such as a strike.
In 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada constitutionalized the right to strike in a precedent-setting case involving health care, highway and other public sector workers in Saskatchewan. I will not read out the entire ruling, because that would take me until midnight, but the Supreme Court found that without the right to strike, the right to bargain collectively is meaningless. The court concluded that a prohibition on designated employees participating in strike action as part of the bargaining process amounts to a substantial interference with collective bargaining. Therefore, the right to strike is constitutionally protected.
The special legislation before us denies two fundamental rights: the right to free collective bargaining and the right to strike.
We are being asked to act urgently because action is urgently needed and there is no other choice. That is not true. There were plenty of signals during negotiations that should have alerted the department of labour, the government and the Prime Minister himself that this labour dispute would not be easily resolved.
The government cannot simply send in the best, most experienced mediators for 100 days, read their reports, and then decide that the negotiations are not going anywhere and that it will do nothing. Doing nothing is not an answer.
The latest signal came on April 9 when the employer sent a notice regarding job security and then changed work schedules a few days later. Those facts alone helped escalate the dispute.
Workers took job action, first with an overtime strike and then with a weekend strike before moving on to an unlimited general strike.
Not just one but four times in one week, the union stated publicly for all to hear that, if the employer were to walk back these two changes, which were a violation of the collective agreement, the union members would cease all job action. That was a strong signal. Did the employer just not hear them? Why did the employer not take action and try to strike a balance in order to pursue mediation?
That is not what happened though. The threat of special legislation has been looming for about a month now.
How could free collective bargaining and a balance of power prevail when everyone knew the government would hand the employer special legislation on a silver platter before workers even staged an unlimited general strike, which is the most useful pressure tactic?
I want to make it clear that workers are never happy about getting to that point in a dispute.
This government could have shown leadership. When we look closely at what is happening with the labour dispute, we see that there were other signals. As I was saying during question period, there was a strike last August. Economic and labour force stakeholders were already sending signals that the government needed to do something to help the parties reach a negotiated collective agreement. They were worried about what had happened and the impact that those strike days would have.
At that point, the government could have thought about what conditions it should implement besides special mediators. When disputes start to escalate and it seems that no agreement will be reached, the Minister of Labour and the Prime Minister should at least show an interest in what is happening. They should at least make some calls, offer to listen to both parties and try to find ways to help bridge the gap between them. I will not talk here about the basics of good bargaining with good governance, but the government has let this labour relations issue go on for too long.
I would also remind the House that the parties have been negotiating for two and a half years, or 30 months to be exact. This is turning into a farce. In the first year of negotiations, the employer itself took the union to court to try to take away its right to strike. The employer lost, because the Supreme Court upheld the union's right to strike.
The bill before us negates that. The first clause of the bill extends the term of the collective agreement to include the period beginning in January. However, this does not guarantee that the union will be go back to work based on the agreement. Considering what has happened in the last few weeks, this would be like going back to work with the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads.
A mediator-arbitrator will have the powers and duties to select the terms of the collective agreement, depending on the final offer. We see this as another right being violated.
For all these reasons, we cannot support the special legislation before us. Instead, every possible effort must be made to ensure genuine negotiations, in order to remove this sword of Damocles from above the workers' heads. The government has a duty to do so.