The crisis in the financial money markets over the past
two years has hit pension plans particularly hard. It should never have
come to this.
Through no fault of their own, workers who invested in
pension plans – expecting these plans would pay dividends once they
reached retirement – are suddenly finding themselves the victims of
money managers whose incompetence and greed have seriously compromised
the future financial security of tens of thousands of hard-working
people in Canada and around the globe.
Where they once expected to retire with a reasonable
level of financial comfort, many victims of the pension disaster now
find themselves working into their late 60s and 70s just to make ends
meet.
As a union, what lessons have we learned? Are there
steps can we take to ensure that this mess fails to repeat itself?
It should seem clear by now that too much faith was
placed in private money markets. For too long it was assumed that the
so-called wizards of Wall Street and Bay Street actually knew what they
were doing to protect – and grow – the value of pension plans.
Painfully, the evidence has proved otherwise.
To ensure that we never again repeat this disaster, we
must start from the premise that a decent standard of living in
retirement is a right – not a privilege. That means the government must
take a leadership role in delivering on this right because it’s not in
the interest of the private sector alone to do so.
With this in mind, OPSEU’s executive board last month
adopted a resolution that it will take to next month’s annual meeting of
the Ontario Federation of Labour.
The resolution calls on the OFL to “work on all fronts
to campaign for an improved private pension system and an expanded
Canada Pension Plan.”
It’s important to stress the need to revamp the CPP.
Only one in five private sector workers can look forward to the prospect
of a retirement pension. In the absence of a private plan, it is the
responsibility of governments to expand pension benefits so that these
workers can achieve the right to a decent standard of living in
retirement.
On the occasion of OPSEU’s pension resolution to the OFL
it’s worth reinforcing labour’s long-standing position that the private
sector alone must not be the stewards of the pension industry. All
sectors – government, sponsors, trade unions and plan members – have a
stake in the future of a healthy financial retirement system.
As we take steps to repair the damage inflicted on
pension plans over the past two years, let’s recommit ourselves to a
course of action that draws together all parties in the pension industry
so that no well-deserving retiree is left behind to face a future of
insecurity, doubt and fear.
