MPs still on Hill to debate back-to-work legislation for mail workers

POSTMEDIA NEWS

OTTAWA — MPs were settled in on Parliament Hill Thursday night for what was expected to be at least one long night of debate, as Canadians wait to find out when postal service will resume.

The debate on legislation that would force locked-out Canada Post employees back to work started its final stretch shortly after 8:30 p.m., after the issue had already been discussed in the House of Commons for eight hours throughout the day.

And with an NDP determined to stop this legislation from passing, there’s no real saying when the debate will end.

Once it is voted on, the bill is expected to pass into law with the Conservative majority. And once that happens, Labour Minister Lisa Raitt — who said she is open to changing parts of the legislation — expects postal workers to be back on the job within 24 hours.

But how many hours, days or weeks it will take to pass the back-to-work legislation, officially known as Bill C-6, is uncertain.

“We do not support the legislation,” NDP leader Jack Layton said as the debate got underway.

The main sticking point between politicians on both sides of the House is the wage settlements the federal government wrote into the bill.

Opposition MPs have condemned the wage conditions specifically and the bill as a whole, saying it undermines the right to collective bargaining.

The salary conditions the federal government included are lower than what managers offered earlier this month during negotiations.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said the wages are fair, and are “rates this government agreed to with its other public service workers.”

The NDP will be introducing amendments to the bill, all of which will be debated and voted on — a process that can take hours, depending how many are introduced.

While the debate could feasibly take weeks, there is some speculation the business will be settled sooner.

Bloc MP Louis Plamondon speculated the debate likely would be wrapped up by Saturday, since workers have already lost a week of salary, and it would not be in Parliament’s interest to make them lose more.

The Liberals and Conservatives have said they plan to work in shifts, allowing one batch of members to rest and to wash up before heading back to the chamber for more debate.

But the lone Green party member in the house, leader Elizabeth May, has nobody to tag-team with. So she said she’ll be staying put except for “the minimum amount that one needs to occasionally freshen up.”

When the parliamentary battle over the legislation was reignited Thursday, it was just hours after talks aimed at coming to a settlement broke off.

Canada Post locked out its employees on June 14, after the Canadian Union of Postal Workers conducted 12 days of rotating strikes.

Meanwhile Thursday, protesters were occupying federal MP John Baird’s constituency office in Ottawa in sympathy with locked-out postal workers.

Participants said they aren’t members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers but are sympathetic to their fight.

“The contract Harper wants to force on CUPW will shortchange postal workers even more than Canada Post would have,” said protester James Meades in a written statement announcing the occupation. “By passing back-to-work legislation, the Harper government is attacking every worker in the country, both private and public, union and non-union.”

Thursday evening, MPs passed a motion allowing the back-to-work legislation to be passed in one sitting.

Typically, a bill goes through three readings and is studied by a committee before being voted on.

Bill C-6, however, will go through the House of Commons in one sitting, meaning MPs will stay in the chamber until the bill is “disposed of,” or voted on.