Debates of May 24th, 2024

Canada Labour Code

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I would ask for the unanimous consent of the House to split my time with the member for Burnaby South.

[The Acting Speaker, Bloc, Gabriel Ste-Marie]

Is it agreed?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Acting Speaker, Bloc, Gabriel Ste-Marie]

The hon. member for Timmins—James Bay.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, today is a powerful day, a day that I never thought I would actually see in the House of Commons, after eight efforts over the years in my time to bring forward legislation to protect workers from anti-scab actions by employers to deny them their fundamental rights. We are here today to bring this into law.

On my way here, I learned that, today, the International Court of Justice has called out Israel for the brutal genocide that is happening in Gaza and Rafah, calling on Israel to end this horrific campaign.

This is a day of justice. I think of Martin Luther King Jr.'s beautiful statement that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” That slogan has been used many times over the years, but what people do not often reflect on is that the bending of that arc of justice is done in the face of immense opposition. It is done in the face of threat. It is done in the face of harassment. It is often done in the face of violence. However, the arc of the moral universe will move, inevitably, toward justice.

I was thinking about that, because my mom called me last night. My mom is a hardrock miner's daughter. In fact, her father, Joe MacNeil, started in the Cape Breton coal mines, back when Dominion Steel used to use the army against the coal miners in New Waterford and Glace Bay. They had a classic tactic. They would make the men and the families sleep in tents in the winter to break them. They called them communists, radicals and extremists. There was nothing radical or extreme about fighting for a living wage. What was radical and extreme was the capitalists who would use the army, putting a machine gun in the church steeple in New Waterford to try to intimidate working people.

However, in that moral universe, the arc bent relentlessly toward justice, because there is a moment when people just cannot put up with it anymore and will not put up with anymore.

Mom called me last night and told me how inspired she was. These are dark times, but my mom always sees hope. She said to me that she was so inspired to see the young people marching out of those university commencements, university students in the United States who were putting their careers on the line, facing serious harassment, being called all kinds of hateful things by an establishment that wants to shut them down. My mom said that young people get it. They are not going to sit silent in the face of a genocide.

Again, what bends toward justice is bending in the face of the harassment and the intimidation and the false threats that these young students are somehow extremists and radicals. There is nothing extreme about speaking up against the mass killing of children. What is extreme is going along with it, like last night. When the International Criminal Court has called for indictments against Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes, the government and its key ministers would be drinking wine and schnaps with Israeli leaders here in Ottawa. We can say that we are friends. We are. Canada has a long, deep friendship with Israel, but friends do not let friends commit war crimes.

My mom said that she was so inspired by these young people who are standing up, walking out and marching in the streets. My mother said to me that she was going to get her walker and go down and walk with them. My mother has never been to a demonstration in her life, but she sees the mark of—

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

The hon. member for Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley is rising on a point of order.

[Marty Morantz, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

Mr. Speaker, I do not know if this is relevant to the bill we are actually discussing.

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

I will remind everyone about relevancy.

The hon. member for Timmins—James Bay.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I invite the hon. member to come talk to my mom. She would give him a few lessons in moral justice. The reason why I am talking about my mom is that my mom is a hard-rock miner's daughter. My mom always said to me to do the right thing throughout my life. Do we know what my dad said? He said to never cross a picket line. That was the family that we grew up in. When my mom calls me about justice, I listen, and I think the hon. member should listen about justice too, because my mom is not an extremist. My mom stands up for what is right. We are all called to stand up for what is right, which brings us to this bill.

Year in and year out, workers have had to fight for their basic right to be recognized. If they are facing injustice or poor pay, they have a right to withdraw their labour. Nobody ever gave the union movement or the labour movement anything in this country, certainly not any Conservative who has ever lived.

In my community, the fight for the eight-hour day was won at the Coniagas Mine in 1914. The miners who went on strike at the Coniagas Mine knew what the consequences were. The consequences were that half that workforce was fired and their families were evicted from their homes. None of those men were radicals or extremists like the Conservatives of the time called them, but they had reached a point where they were not going to put up with the brutal conditions underground anymore. They knew what the odds were. They knew that, if they stood up, many of them would be thrown out on the street, their families not able to be fed. They did it for the bigger vision, the bigger right. The arc of the moral universe may be long and it may take a long time, but it bends inevitably toward justice.

I think of all the strikes and labour battles that we have seen in the north and some of them have been brutal. They are stories that are told in our region. There was the 1958 Inco strike, which one of my old-timer friends, Mike Farrell, told me was the Mine Mill union's Stalingrad. Families lost everything in that fight. They lost homes. They lost their cars. They lost their marriages. When I was walking with the copper and nickel miners in 2010 during the Vale strike, their grandchildren told me that their grandfather and grandmother were in that 1958 strike and that they were there today to live up to that obligation, because the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice, because people know what is right.

What I see from Conservatives is that they tell me that we should not speak up about international things and just talk about what is at home. That is not the Canadian way. That we should not get involved in something that has nothing to do with us is not the Canadian way. The Canadian way is that we bend toward justice because it is the right thing.

We are at this moment in Parliament where we may finally pass anti-scab. I have to say that I have my suspicions. If a Conservative government comes in, does one actually think Conservatives will ever defend workers? There is not a chance. We are going to see them stand up and see whether they stand for the right thing, because this is the moment.

I was talking about the strikes in the north. There is nothing more bitter than when someone brings in scabs to tell a family that they are going to starve them out, that they are going to bust them, that they are going to use the cops and use the state to beat workers down and take away the one right that we have as workers, the right to either supply our employment or take it away if we are not being treated with justice. We have had many of these horrific battles.

It was mentioned earlier about Peggy Witte, one of the most horrible corporate leaders ever, who was lionized by the Canadian mining industry and who led to the nine men being killed in Yellowknife's Giant Mine. What they also do not tell us about what Peggy Witte did was that she robbed the pensions of workers from my region at Pamour mine, and she got away with it.

We have to have laws that protect workers and protect them in strikes so that they can engage fairly. On this day, when we are here at the final moment to maybe get past the finish line with anti-scab, while the international community is now calling out the genocide in Gaza, we have to think about how powerful it is to be at this moment. Yes, the struggle is long, the struggle is hard and the struggle does not end easy, but we have to always bend that power toward justice, fairness and the right of the individual, whether in their union or as a civil human being, to live in dignity. That is what we are here for.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, I had the opportunity to speak to the legislation earlier, but one thing I would like to amplify is that the federal legislation is fantastic, we are glad to see it and it will hopefully receive the support of every member in the House. However, I am thinking of the impact in the rest of the country in terms of other provincial legislatures. British Columbia and Quebec already have anti-scab legislation. The potential message that it sends to other provinces and territories is that having anti-scab legislation is okay. We do not need to be fearful of it.

Could the member could provide his thoughts on the potential of this legislation to influence provincial jurisdictions, where more workers would benefit by having anti-scab legislation?

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it is really important that we see that commitment to workers' rights at the federal government level to withdraw their wages and not have to deal with the private security companies, the scab buses coming in and the violence that ends up on the picket lines. I have seen the abuse of workers' rights in the mining communities I represent. When we establish a norm, it will bring both sides back to the table quicker. When mines have not stockpiled a year's worth of nickel and decide they are going to use scab labour and starve their out opponents, that destroys not just the relationship but communities in the long term. People leave and do not put up with it. This is a good way to settle this.

[Xavier Barsalou-Duval, Bloc, Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the member for Timmins—James Bay on his excellent speech. It was one of the most inspiring speeches we have heard in support of the cause of workers. If there is anything that needs to be recognized today, it is that the NDP always defends workers in its speeches. I am glad to hear that.

However, the Bloc Québécois had proposed an amendment in committee to ensure that the bill would come into force immediately after being passed, not a year later. In his speech earlier, my colleague referred to people who stop earning wages when they are on strike, so they have a hard time putting food on the table and paying their mortgage. Then they see scabs right under their noses, doing their jobs in their place, which is particularly frustrating. I was wondering where the NDP's fine speeches were when they voted against our amendment.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, that is a good question.

Obviously, I am concerned about the Liberals' plan for the coming into force of the bill. This is clearly a problem for workers across Canada, especially with the possibility that the next government will be Conservative. The Liberal government must fulfill its obligation to implement this bill now for Canadian workers.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I was reflecting on my colleague's use of the term “arc”, and that arc does not bend on its own. In many cases, we have to force it to bend. While I can take pride, as a New Democrat, today for having brought the House of Commons to this moment, I recognize that with this effort and the many efforts of NDP MPs over the years, we did not arrive at this moment alone. It was those in the labour movement that fought for this change. They were the agitators, the people who forced MPs to arrive at this moment.

Can my colleague reflect on that incredible activism of the labour movement that brought the House of Commons to where it is today?

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I will share with my colleague that when I was in his region on Vancouver Island, I visited a graveyard that had been desecrated. The graves of Japanese families who worked in the mines were desecrated in the Second World War. There was a plaque on the wall saying miners had rebuilt the graveyard as best they could. The plaque was made by the nickel and copper miners who belonged to Mine Mill Local 598 in Sudbury. The miners heard about what had happened to the Japanese and raised money in the 1950s so that people on Vancouver Island would know that their comrades were there.

That is the arc of justice. It bends because people stand up and say they are going to make it bend, and that is what we are here to do today.

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I am really honoured to be able to follow after my colleague and dear friend, the member for Timmins—James Bay. This is a really special occasion. I want to talk a bit about where I am speaking to you from today, which is the Union Centre in Winnipeg, after having just met with representatives of the Manitoba Federation of Labour. What is so poignant about that—

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

There is a point of order from the hon. member for Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley.

[Marty Morantz, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

Mr. Speaker, the member clearly has a prop in the view right behind him. If members want, the next time I speak, I will bring in a big poster that says the message I want to say and put it right up here behind me. The member has to be called out of order, and he cannot speak until he removes the prop.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Mr. Speaker, you have already ruled on this in the past. There have been MPs speaking from a variety of locations.

I would ask you to ensure that Conservative MPs respect the member's speech and respect the bill. If they are in favour of anti-scab legislation, there should be no problem with allowing the speech to continue. It is absolutely appropriate, as you have ruled in the past.

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

While I appreciate that, there have been a number of occasions in the House, especially during the time that we had a lot of online participation, when we ruled on not having props in the background, not having words in the background and in some cases not having flags in the background. Therefore, maybe I can ask that we get rid of the wording in the background. That is perfect. There we go; when we ask, it shall be done.

The hon. member for Burnaby South.

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I notice that the Conservatives are upset because I was going to reference the Winnipeg strike, actually, and there are pictures of the Winnipeg strike behind me, which actually capture the story even better than the words do. I want to talk about why the strike is so important. Maybe this is why the Conservatives are upset: They do not like it when the power of workers comes together to fight back and defend working people.

What happened in 1919, in the very same time in we find ourselves in right now, which is mid-May to late June, 30,000 workers, basically the entire workforce of Winnipeg, and in a lot of ways all of Manitoba at the time, came together and shut down the city and effectively shut down the province, fighting for fairness for workers. They were protesting the unfair work conditions, the poverty and specifically about issues like collective bargaining.

It is so poignant that I am here in Winnipeg at the Union Centre, having just spoken with representatives of the Manitoba Federation of Labour and its president, Kevin Rebeck, whom I want to thank for all of his hard work. I also want to thank the MFL for all of its hard work.

It is so poignant to be speaking to the bill today in this place, from this spot. I have to say what an honour it is that today our Bill C-58, which we fought for, would ban scabs once and for all at the federal level. It is a historic result of the hard work of New Democrats, and I have to say this would not have happened were it not for New Democrats' forcing the government to do it.

I also have to acknowledge that this would not have happened were it not for labour and for unions that have long led the charge for anti-scab legislation, and I want to thank them. I also have to acknowledge that it is an accomplishment we have achieved that we are debating this right now in the House and that the Manitoba NDP is also going to move forward with it. I want to salute and acknowledge that.

I have to say that it has been a long time coming. New Democrats have been fighting for decades for it to happen. In the past 15 years, New Democrats have tabled anti-scab legislation eight times. That is eight times that our unions, labour and New Democrats have fought for this. The last time it came up for a vote, in 2016, the Liberals and Conservatives teamed up to vote against it. The leader of the Conservatives voted against banning scabs eight times in the past, so it is clear whose side the Conservatives stand on. However, with the supporting guidance of our labour allies, union leaders and activists, we have finally secured this moment.

The legislation is about giving more power to workers. It is about giving power to workers so they can negotiate a fair deal and so we can ban scabs once and for all. Let us talk about what that means. Banning scabs is about giving more power to workers and less power to the big bosses and to CEOs. It is about ensuring that when a worker makes the difficult decision to go on strike, their job is not stolen by scabs. That is what this is about.

Banning scabs at the federal level is unprecedented. As with many things, Quebec was forward-thinking and already legislated this at the provincial level. This federal bill, which was negotiated by my colleague from Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, is inspired by the Quebec legislation, but goes even further.

Many Quebeckers working in federally regulated businesses will now have more power thanks to the NDP. It is not thanks to the Bloc Québécois, the Conservatives or the Liberals, but thanks to the NDP. If our party had been in power, the bill would have been even better, but we were forced to work with the Liberals. Throughout these negotiations, the Liberals sided with the big union bosses. We sided with labour and I am proud of the work of my team.

This is an historic moment. Banning replacement workers will give more power to workers and less power to the CEOs. Workers will have more power to negotiate better salaries. During this inflationary period, that is what workers need.

This bill, Bill C-58, is about making sure that workers get the respect they deserve, which is needed now more than ever because we know times are tough. We know that workers are getting gouged by corporate greed, corporate greed at the grocery stores, corporate greed when it comes to corporate landlords jacking up rents and corporate greed in telcos that charge Canadians some of the highest fees in the world for their cellphones and for Internet services.

Workers are fighting back. We are seeing workers organizing across this country. We are seeing it recently in Starbucks and in Amazon. We are seeing it in the public and in the private sectors. Unions are on the front line of fighting inflation because that is what unions do; they fight for working people, and New Democrats do as well. This anti-scab legislation is one additional tool to protect workers from getting ripped off and exploited by big bosses.

However, I want to acknowledge that this is not the only thing New Democrats have fought for, specifically for workers. We have forced the federal government to bring in two additional measures already. We have made it the law of the land in Canada that federally regulated workers will get 10 paid days of sick leave, which was never the law before, and we made that happen. We also forced the Liberal government to bring in a sustainable jobs act, which would ensure that workers have a seat at the table, by law, and that anytime we discuss the future of jobs in our country, we talk about training opportunities for workers that go through unions and that we create good union jobs with good wages as we look towards a net zero economy. That is what we established with the sustainable jobs act, which again, is something that Conservatives tried to fight against every step of the way.

Speaking of fighting every step of the way, I want to be very clear. When I say New Democrats made this happen, it is because we had to force the Liberals, we had to force the Prime Minister, to act. We know that the Prime Minister and the Liberal Party voted against anti-scab legislation just a few years ago. Without unions and without the New Democrats, nothing happens; none of this happens. New Democrats had to force the Prime Minister to bring in this legislation after decades, and even after forcing the Liberals to bring it in, they missed the mark. We had to fight to strengthen the legislation for workers with amendments. Earlier this month, we amended the bill to speed up the implementation from 18 months to 12 months. Workers will be protected sooner because of that.

We also made sure that we closed loopholes to prevent any attempts of employers from skirting these laws. As well, we specifically made sure that workers will not be exploited by employers who try to use employees from another workplace, or use students or volunteers as scab workers. This is about ensuring that employees can strike for better wages without their bargaining rights being threatened. Big bosses will have to now show up in good faith to bargain at the bargaining table and to negotiate in a manner of good faith. However, imagine what we could have done if the out-of-touch Liberals were not in the way. Strong anti-scab legislation would already have been in place. Corporate greed and big bosses would be in check.

I also want to talk about the serious risk presented by the leader of the Conservatives. The leader of the Conservatives likes to cosplay that he is there for working people, but we all know that the leader of the Conservatives and the Conservative Party want to wage a war against unions, a war against workers, in direct contrast to what this bill, Bill C-58, is all about. The leader of the Conservative Party would bring back anti-union legislation, as he did when he was in cabinet with the Harper government. He would bring in laws to make it harder for workers to fight for better deals. In 2013, the leader of the Conservative party said, very boldly, “I am the first federal politician to make a dedicated push toward this goal”—

[The Deputy Speaker, Conservative, Chris d'Entremont]

I have to apologize to the hon. member, but the 10 minutes has gone by in a flash. Maybe he will have an opportunity to finish his speech in response to some of the questions.

Questions and comments, the hon. parliamentary secretary to the government House leader.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate where the leader of the New Democratic Party is. In fact, if he went a bit further down Main Street, he would see that we have the iconic image of the streetcar sculpture. It is a very significant icon because of its meaning with respect to the 1919 general strike, not only for Winnipeg but also, I would suggest, for all of Canada. It is really ironic in the sense that, today, we have anti-scab legislation, and that streetcar was perceived as coming in with replacement workers, so I really appreciate the background.

It looks as though the legislation will get all-party support in passing, if not today, then possibly Monday. Whenever it happens, it happens. Does the member agree with me that it sends a very encouraging message to other jurisdictions? Hopefully, for example, the Province of Manitoba will quickly have anti-scab legislation on the books too. Could the leader of the New Democratic Party provide his thoughts on the federal legislation we have before us today?

[Jagmeet Singh, NDP, Burnaby South, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I had always hoped, and I know labour and union leaders had always hoped, that establishing anti-scab legislation at the federal level would be used as a tool to inspire and inform other provincial jurisdictions to bring in similar legislation. For New Democrats, union leaders and labour leaders, the goal is to ensure that nowhere in our country, in no jurisdiction and at no level, will workers ever be threatened with scabs stealing their jobs. That is ultimately the goal of New Democrats, and we want to make it very clear: We want workers to be able to negotiate fair deals and, if they choose to have to go on strike to fight for that fairness and fight for fair wages, to be able to do so without the threat of a scab stealing their job. That is what I hope to achieve with the bill. New Democrats and the labour movement hope it will inspire other provincial jurisdictions to bring it in.

However, with Manitoba, rest assured, there is already a strong commitment from the premier to bring in anti-scab legislation. They have already tabled it, and it will be moving forward.

[Monique Pauzé, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I wanted to thank the member for Burnaby South for his speech. However, he did not give much credit to the Bloc Québécois. I would like to point out to the member that there are still holes in the bill. For example, federal public servants are not among the workers covered by this bill.

There is, however, one aspect that interests me above all others, and that is the fact that the bill will come into force only 12 months after royal assent. The Bloc Québécois had proposed an amendment to bring it into force immediately after royal assent, as is the case for other bills.

Could the member for Burnaby South explain how this 12-month delay is reasonable, considering that we are in a minority government and, therefore, the bill could die on the Order Paper?