Marcel Massé

[Division No. 359, March 23rd, 1999]

No, Mr. Chairman. That is done through other means. It is the designation as workers in essential services.

In the present case we have a specific problem. We are solving it through the back to work legislation until this agreement expires and another one replaces it.

[Division No. 359, March 23rd, 1999]

Mr. Chairman, our basic desire of course is always to come to negotiated settlements. In cases like this, I think it is clear that the domestic law predominates.

[Division No. 359, March 23rd, 1999]

Mr. Chairman, we have evaluated that agreement in terms of domestic law, of Canadian law and not in terms of international law.

[Division No. 359, March 23rd, 1999]

Mr. Chairman, I am advised that even when the right to arbitration existed, the PSAC, the CXs, have never used it.

Second, the conciliation board report is a useful instrument, but as I mentioned, in the case of the blue collar workers we thought that the conciliation board report made a lot of sense and the blue collar workers refused it. We used exactly the same right in this case. Also we have to remember that in the case of the CXs, in December we had had an agreement with the negotiators. Hon. members will remember that even the union thought that the agreement with the correctional officers was a good one and recommended to the union to accept it. But in the end, the employees did not accept it.

[Division No. 359, March 23rd, 1999]

Mr. Chairman, there is nothing in the agreement on that subject.

[Division No. 359, March 23rd, 1999]

Mr. Chairman, the normal period for the ratification process is four to six weeks. In this case the union negotiators have indicated to us that they will try to do it within two weeks.

[Division No. 359, March 23rd, 1999]

Mr. Chairman, the union has indicated that it is not ready to let go of the right to strike during the ratification time period.

[Division No. 359, March 23rd, 1999]

Mr. Chairman, our intention is clear. We have said what we intend to do and we hope that the way the amendments are drafted expresses our intention equally clearly. If the initialed agreement is ratified by the blue collar workers, that is the agreement that will become the contract between the employer and the employees.

[Division No. 359, March 23rd, 1999]

Mr. Chairman, in the case of the blue collar workers there was a conciliation report that we were ready to accept but the workers decided to reject.

In the case of the corrections employees, there was a report that was in our opinion excessive and that we decided not to accept. Both sides have an equal right to accept or reject. We decided not to accept it.

However, there are clauses in the conciliation report for the correctional workers that are in our opinion very useful. We have already indicated to the union that we are ready to accept them.

[Division No. 359, March 23rd, 1999]

Mr. Chairman, these people have already been designated as essential workers and they do not have the right to strike. As I mentioned, 500 to 600 of them now have the right to strike because of a quirk. We are correcting that quirk. Because there is the possibility that these 500 to 600 would strike, and they have indicated that it was their intention to disrupt the services in penitentiaries and so on, we have to bring in back to work legislation that will prevent these people who unfortunately now have the right to strike from having that right in the future.