Government Operations committee  No, actually, my comment was just the opposite. I'm sorry if I wasn't articulate on that. What I said was that over the last decade we've enjoyed relative labour peace, at least at the national level. That hasn't always reflected itself at the shop floor or at the local level. My point was—

Government Operations committee  Yes, it was backwards. Things got better over the last decade at the national level, more than they did at the local level. We were just—

Government Operations committee  In terms of the process, the right to refuse unsafe work under the Canada Labour Code is an individual right; it's not a collective right.

Government Operations committee  No, sorry, that's incorrect.

Government Operations committee  We've always been clear with our members that they have rights under the Canada Labour Code and that they are not expected to put their health and safety at risk. Any union will tell their members, “You protect yourself. You have rights”--

Government Operations committee  They first go to their supervisor.

Government Operations committee  Yes, the employer. They go to the supervisor, and I guess it's the supervisor who brings in Labour Canada. If Labour Canada comes in and says this is unsafe, the employee has the right to refuse to do that work. Or they say it's safe and go back and do the job.

Government Operations committee  Not unless the member decides they want to take a union representative with them for their protection when they speak with management. That's where the union would get involved, but it's the individual who invokes the right to refuse. I want to talk to you a bit about how we would see this happening in the future.

Government Operations committee  We'd like to see some management-union engagement. We'd like to see some of that! In fact, I don't know a lot about the employee engagement program. So far it's manifested itself by having the president and some senior vice-presidents go around and visit the various workplaces.

Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  They don't have the right to decide not to deliver them, and if they fail to deliver householders, Canada Post will fire them.

Government Operations committee  No. That's management's job, to manage the workplace.

Government Operations committee  We have supervisory staff in the workplace. Our members are working; they don't have time to monitor their co-workers. Certainly if we see real service issues, if we see trends that we think are really going to have an impact on service, then we talk to our members about that, but it's certainly not our role in the workplace to do that.

Government Operations committee  I've never carried mail. I was an inside clerk and I was a wicket clerk. But I know there is a lot of overburdening, and many of our members are finding it hard to complete their day and to deliver all their mail in their workday.

Government Operations committee  Canada Post has that option, and Canada Post isn't shy about disciplining our members for failing to meet their job functions, for failing to provide a service, and for failing to do their job. Canada Post will discipline them.