Hotline Summer 2010

Taking action to improve retirement security for Canadians

Labour’s pension reform campaign spreads the word

Armed with more than a million leaflets, trained activists set out across Canada in May to spread the word about a better way to improve retirement security for Canadians.

Organized by the Canadian Labour Congress that represents more than 3 million workers across Canada, the pension reform campaign is part of an overall strategy to convince government that pension reform needs to focus on making improvements to the CPP and putting in place security measures to ensure retirees aren’t living in poverty at the end of their working careers.

IBEW Local 258 Organizer Nicole Biernaczyk was one of the activists who worked on the recent campaign and reported she participated in 42 local meetings with labour union members, union Executive Boards and local MLAs and MPs. “It has been a whirlwind campaign,” said Sister Biernaczyk. “We worked our butts off for 3 weeks across the lower mainland and distributed more than 11,000 brochures, but most importantly, we had the chance to speak with Canadians who are very concerned about not only their retirement, but what’s in store for their children and grandchildren when they look forward to retirement.”

Nicole added she knows that convincing the government isn’t an easy task, that’s what has motivated her over the past few weeks. “Once people know they can actually do something to effect change – and important change like pension reform – you see them take action, and that has been a very satisfying part of the hard work that went into this campaign,” she said.

A ‘public consultation’ organized by MP Ted Menzies (Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s parliamentary assistant) took place in Richmond in early May where more than a hundred workers, including Local 258’s President Michelle Laurie, told the government representatives that the CLC’s recommendations to improve the CPP need to be instituted now. Although many workers have been lobbying their MPs and MLAs, there are also many reports of strong opposition from the banks and financial institutions that make big profits from RRSP sales – despite bank economists admitting the RRSP approach has failed in securing retirement income.