Human Resources committee  Do you mean people are questioning their skills when contractors are brought in? Is that where you're going with this?

Human Resources committee  Maybe it's a different issue with the federal government. I'm not sure. What I can say is that we have workplaces and employers who try to contract out large amounts of work. We have many collective agreements across this country at all levels, in provincial and federal sectors, with provisions that give workers support and that say certain work can't be contracted out.

Human Resources committee  Fundamentally, what our government and representatives are here to do is make sure that all Canadians have a standard of living that supports their families. I'll leave it at that.

Human Resources committee  Part of the problem here is free trade, but I don't have time to get into that.

Human Resources committee  We have collective agreements with employers across this country, over 4,000 of them. In some of those cases, consultants or contractors are utilized. Generally, they're in places where there may be a unique skill set that's needed for a short period of time, like piledriving—things that members of CUPE wouldn't necessarily have.

Human Resources committee  Yes, absolutely. I touched on that in my earlier answer. We're Canada's largest union, with 740,000 members. We have locals with as many as 30,000 members working for the City of Toronto, and we have very small locals as well. It's not exclusively a big-local or small-local issue when workers go on strike or are locked out.

Human Resources committee  I'll be very quick. There are no union members out there who want to strike. When they have a strike, they want to find a solution that works for them and their employers. That's the bottom line. With 740,000 members, we have strikes. We have 2,100 local unions and 4,000 collective agreements, and a very small percentage end up on strike.

Human Resources committee  There's definitely a union advantage. I'm glad your son is enjoying that. My kids have both also had union jobs and definitely experienced much better conditions when they worked in those environments. With respect to fines, I have no problem with them being higher at all. When we use unions and do something that an employer does not think is right, it doesn't take long for the employer to take us to whichever labour board it may be—provincial or federal—and the threats of fines are significant.

Human Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon to all the members of the committee. My name is Mark Hancock, and I'm the national president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees. CUPE represents more than 740,000 frontline public service workers across the country. Over 30,000 CUPE members work in federally regulated industries, such as airlines, communications, public transportation, ports, cash transit and security, as well as in indigenous councils and services.