MEDIA ADVISORY-Leaders of largest public sector unions to unveil actuarial report showing pension plans in good shape
Redford government's proposed cuts to public-sector pensions are "unjustified, unfair and reckless"
Leaders of largest public-sector unions unveil actuarial report showing pension plans in good shape
EDMONTON – A new study prepared by an independent, professional actuary shows that Alberta's largest public-sector pension plans are healthy and well on the way to returning to fully-funded status – even without any changes to benefits will be released today.
What:Union Leaders Release report showing pension plans are healthy
When: 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, January 14
Where: UNA Offices (700 – 11150 Jasper Ave., Edmonton)
Who: AFL president Gil McGowan
AUPE president Guy Smith
HSAA president Elisabeth Ballermann
UNA president Heather Smith
CUPE Alberta president Marle Roberts
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MEDIA CONTACT:
Olav Rokne, Communications Director, Alberta Federation of Labour at 780.289.6528 (cell)or via e-mail [email protected]
Redford government’s proposed cuts to public-sector pensions are “unjustified, unfair and reckless”
New actuarial study demonstrates that Alberta pension plans are healthy and getting healthier – even without benefit changes
EDMONTON – A new study prepared by an independent, professional actuary shows that Alberta's largest public-sector pension plans are healthy and well on the way to returning to fully funded status – even without any changes to benefits.
The results of the study fly in the face of arguments used by the Redford government to justify its plan to roll back pensions covering almost 300,000 public-sector workers and pensioners in Alberta.
In the fall, provincial Finance Minister Doug Horner announced that major changes would be made to Alberta's four public-sector pension plans, including the two biggest, the Local Authorities Pension Plan (LAPP) and the Public Service Pension Plan (PSPP).
In particular, Horner said he would bring in legislation in the spring of 2014 that will allow him to eliminate guaranteed cost-of-living adjustments and all early retirement incentives for workers covered by plans like the LAPP and PSPP.
Taken together, Horner's proposed changes would slash the value of pensions earned by Alberta public-sector workers by 25 per cent or more on benefits earned after January 1, 2016.
Horner has said the changes are necessary to ensure the sustainability of Alberta's pension plans. However, the report from actuaries at Vancouver-based George & Bell Consulting shows that both the LAPP and PSPP are sustainable and healthy over the long-term without any changes.
The George & Bell study concludes that, under the most likely economic scenario and with no major changes to benefits, both the LAPP and PSPP will return to fully funded status within nine years.
The total costs of the plans are also expected to drop. Costs for the LAPP will drop to the equivalent of 20 percent of payroll (split between employers and employees) and costs for the PSPP will drop to 16 percent (also split between employers and employees).
Even under the most pessimistic scenarios, the study shows that both the LAPP and PSPP will dramatically improve their funding status and keep costs under control – without having to resort to any of the deep cuts proposed by the Redford government.
The George & Bell study was commissioned by a coalition of unions and associations that have members in LAPP and PSPP. The coalition includes: the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), the Alberta Fire Fighters Association (AFFA), the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE), the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), the Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA), the United Nurses of Alberta (UNA) and a number of smaller unions.
The study was recently submitted to the Minister Horner in support of a brief from the Coalition opposing the government's plan to make major changes to pension plans like the LAPP.
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MEDIA CONTACT:
Olav Rokne, Communications Director, Alberta Federation of Labour at 780.289.6528 (cell) or via e-mail [email protected]
Link: Backgrounder - Fast Facts on Pensions
Commentary from Union Leaders
"These pension plans are the cornerstone of retirement security for hundreds of thousands of Albertans. If the government is going to unilaterally undermine that security, then they had better have a damn good reason. What this study shows is that they government hasn't managed to get its facts straight. They've failed to make the case for the big rollbacks they're proposing." - Gil McGowan, President, Alberta Federation of Labour
"Despite all heated rhetoric that the government has been using to justify their slash-and-burn plan for pensions, the reality is that there is no crisis. Our pension plans are healthy. In fact, they're on track to getting even healthier without making any major changes." - Guy Smith, President, Alberta Union of Provincial Employees
"The government's plan for pension cuts is unjustified, unfair and reckless. In the name of sustainability, they're actually going to make the plans less sustainable by tying the hands of the people who manage the plans and undermining the confidence of the workers and employers who participate in the plans." - Heather Smith, President, United Nurses of Alberta
"There's an old saying that if something isn't broken, you shouldn't try to fix it. This is a perfect time for Albertans to be reminded of that saying." - Elisabeth Ballermann, President, Health Sciences Association of Alberta
"Where's the government's evidence? We've commissioned an independent actuarial study showing that Alberta pension plans are healthy and getting healthier, even without cuts or changes. Why hasn't the government released its own actuarial study? Could it be that their actuary came to the same conclusion as the actuaries at George & Bell?" - Marle Roberts, President, Canadian Union of Public Employees (Alberta Division)
Mintz email to Finance on PST Paper
AFL exposes secret grant
"Are Tories attempting to buy academic endorsement of government policy?" asks McGowan
Edmonton – The Alberta Federation of Labour has released documents that suggest the Redford government has been spending taxpayer money in an effort to buy academic approval for their policies.
In March, 2012, just days after a provincial election was called, the government awarded a secret $500,000 grant to the U of C School of Public Policy and a $1-million grant to the U of C Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy. As reported in today's Calgary Herald, there was no record of an announcement of either grant.
Additional documents, obtained by the AFL under Freedom of Information laws, show U of C School of Public Policy chair Jack Mintz asked the Government of Alberta to vet his paper on imposing a sales tax in Alberta, before it was peer-reviewed or published.
Questions have also been raised about Mintz's seat on the board of Imperial Oil.
"All of our universities are publicly funded, so receiving money from the government is not the problem," AFL president Gil McGowan said. "The problem is the secrecy and the fact that the money was tied to supporting the government's policy agenda."
The contracts for the grants explicitly said the money was for research that "supports the policy agenda of Alberta Energy." Documentation for both grants also includes clauses that the U of C will "not make any public announcement or issue any news release regarding this agreement or the grant, except in consultation with the province and with the approval of the province."
"These secret grants raise concerns that the government is using public money to essentially buy an academic stamp of approval for its policies," McGowan said. "If academics are sitting on the boards of big corporations and receiving secret grants from government that seem to have political strings attached, how can the public trust their independence and objectivity?"
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MEDIA CONTACT:
Gil McGowan, President, Alberta Federation of Labour at 780-218-9888 (cell)
Olav Rokne, Communications Director, Alberta Federation of Labour at 780.289.6528 (cell)
or via e-mail [email protected]
500 000 grant to U of C School on Public Policy
December 2013: Anti-worker Bills 45 and 46-FAQs, fact sheets, news releases; Labour leaders stand up for retirement income; did you know-facts on retirement income, AFL Open House
Urgent Action
Alberta Federation of Labour Open House
On Tuesday, February 11, the Alberta Federation of Labour invites you to attend our annual open house.
The open house, which is usually held in December each year, was postponed so that we could move into our new offices, which are located at #300, 10408 – 124 Street, Edmonton.
We are looking forward to seeing everyone in the New Year in our new offices.
When: Tuesday, Feb. 11 from 4:30 to 7:00 p.m.
Where: AFL Offices (#300, 10408 – 124 Street, Edmonton)
RSVP: 7 80-483-3021
Download the invitation here...
News
AFL and allies gearing up to fight unconstitutional anti-worker bills
Alberta's union movement is responding to a new assault on worker rights.
In early December, the province brought in laws impeding the ability of public-sector unions to negotiate with the government, and muzzling anyone who calls for those workers to strike. The unpopular new laws, which are being widely criticized by the media, will be challenged by the Alberta Federation of Labour.
"Workers in Alberta have a fight on their hands. It's not a fight of their choosing, but one forced on us by the reckless, punitive and unconstitutional anti-worker laws that Redford brought in," Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan said.
The Federation of Labour, affiliated unions and unaffiliated allies will be collaborating to oppose the laws through legal action, but warn that the battle for workers' rights can't be left to the courtrooms.
"We have the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms on our side, but the process of challenging these laws in court will take time. It will take years," McGowan said. "In the meantime, we're going to see several unions, and hundreds of thousands of workers facing unfair bargaining tactics and diminished rights. We will have to work together, with direct action and with effective advocacy to ensure these workers are heard."
Frequently asked questions on Bills 45 and 46
AFL press release on Bills 45 and 46 –AFL Release November 29, AFL Release December 4, AFL Release December 5
Letter from Union Leaders to the Premier
Fact Sheet 1 – Breaking a Promise and the Law: Rollbacks
Fact Sheet 2 – Breaking a Promise and Breaking the Law: Supreme Court
Fact Sheet 3 – Alberta Economy Booming
Fact Sheet 4 – Breaking a Promise and the Law: Public Sector Wages
Fact Sheet 5 – Breaking a Promise and the Law: Public Services Stretched
Fact Sheet 6 – Alberta has a Revenue Problem
News
Labour leaders stand up for retirement security
Alberta's labour movement is opposing the scaling back of the province's pension plans, while urging that the Canadian Pension Plan be expanded.
In September, Finance Minister Doug Horner announced the government was planning to bring in sweeping changes to public service pension plans. If the changes are implemented, as Horner indicated he is determined to do, the bottom line is that Alberta public employees will have diminished pensions. Members of Alberta's public service pension plans would have to work longer to retire, and when they retire their benefits will be reduced. In addition, their retirement incomes will more rapidly fall behind inflation.
"There are currently about 300,000 people paying into the plans in question, working in health care, universities, colleges, municipalities and various departments of the provincial government. There are another 90,000 retirees currently receiving benefits from the plans," Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan said. "That means that 15 percent of Alberta's workforce and about 20 percent of Alberta retirees will be potentially be affected by these changes. The retirement plans of thousands of thousands of Albertans will be affected and a majority of Alberta families will be touched in one way or another."
The real crisis in retirement is that so many Albertans have no retirement security – Only one in three Albertans has put anything into an RRSP. Canada needs to expand the highly successful Canadian Pension Plan that has helped so many seniors.
"Minister Horner has said he's disappointed that Ottawa has closed the door on CPP expansion," McGowan said. "Perhaps if he'd presented a united front with all of the other provincial finance ministers who were all calling for CPP expansion, the Federal government would have had to listen."
Read AFL release here
Did you know ...
• 1 in 4 Alberta seniors receive the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) because they do not have enough income.
• 2 out of every 3 working Albertans don't make RRSP contributions.
• Only 1 in 3 Albertans has an employer-sponsored pension plan of any kind.
• The average income for a woman senior citizen in Alberta is $20,000.
Events
• December 20: Day of International Solidarity
• January 13-18: AFL/CLC Winter Labour School
• February 11 & 12: AFL Executive Committee & Council
• February. 11: AFL Open House
AFL blasts Northern Gateway decision
Conditions placed on approval won't stop pipeline from shipping high-value jobs overseas
Edmonton – Despite the evidence that the Northern Gateway will be detrimental to the interests of Canadians, the National Energy Board's Joint Review Panel has given the go-ahead for a pipeline that will transport hundreds of thousands of barrels of raw bitumen to refineries in China every day.
The approval, which places more than 200 caveats and conditions on the pipeline, was announced on Thursday. The province's labour movement, which has provided research and evidence throughout the debate over the pipeline, took aim at the decision.
"This is a decision that Canadians will come to regret, and it's a decision that ignores the evidence," Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan said. "They've placed more than 200 conditions on this approval, but none of those caveats change the fact that this pipeline will siphon jobs out of Alberta, out of Canada and out of North America. It's a monstrous bitumen superhighway which will send thousands of high-paying jobs in upgrading and refining out of the country. Instead of those jobs being created Fort McMurray or Fort Saskatchewan, they'll be created in Shanghai or Bejing."
McGowan vowed that the Alberta Federation of Labour will support First Nations and environmental groups that will almost certainly continue to fight against the pipeline.
The AFL has shown that pipeline project will only create 228 permanent jobs, and barely 1,500 short-term construction jobs. Meanwhile, more than 26,000 long-term high-value upgrading jobs will be farmed out to low-wage jurisdictions overseas.
The AFL has spent more than two years examining the Northern Gateway pipeline, sifting through evidence and participating in cross-examination on the economic benefits of the project. According to the research presented by the Federation, shipping an unrefined product overseas will be detrimental to existing upgrading in Canada, and will further undermine the pricing of Canadian natural resources. The pipeline will drive up costs for Canadian upgraders by more than $800 million dollars.
Other evidence submitted by the AFL and various experts shows that:
• Canada only captures about 35 per cent of the potential value of bitumen when it's shipped raw, compared to 75 per cent of the value when it's upgraded to Synthetic Crude (SCO) before being exported
• With the construction of new bitumen export pipelines like Northern Gateway, the Alberta government's own studies show that the per centage of bitumen upgraded in Canada will collapse to as little as 23 per cent, compared to the 65 per cent that has traditionally been upgraded in the country.
"Governments at all levels pay lip service to wanting to keep good jobs in Canada, but they always end up putting the narrow interests of big energy corporations ahead of the broader public interests of Canadians," McGowan said, adding this is this is the AFL's fourth intervention against raw bitumen exports in recent years.
McGowan said he was pleased the review panel at least acknowledged that the AFL and the Communication Energy Paperworkers union (CEP) had raised "valid public interest considerations" in the arguments they made about lost Canadian jobs. But he was "disappointed and frustrated" by panel's conclusion that private energy companies would build more upgraders and refineries in Canada if it was economic to do so.
"The panel is ignoring the fact that governments in both the U.S. and China heavily subsidize their refining industries. That's why they've decided to rip and ship our resources and send them to refineries in their home countries. Given that these are resources owned by the Canadian public, the question that Canadians should be asking themselves is this: does it make sense for us to let other countries keep the jobs for themselves and leave us with the pollution and a few economic crumbs from the table?"
McGowan said the panel report demonstrates the need for a clear national energy strategy that puts the needs and interests of the Canadian public first.
"We shouldn't expect bureaucrats like those who worked on the review panel to stand up to big oil companies," McGowan said. "They can't and they won't. What we need, instead, are politicians with courage; politicians who remember that they work for Canadians citizens, not multi-national oil companies. More specifically, we need a made-in-Canada energy strategy that puts a priority on long-term job creation for Canadians and energy security for Canada. Every other energy-producing country in the world, including the U.S., has a strategy to protect and promote their own domestic interests. It's time for our politicians to get their heads out of the oil sands, pardon the pun, and start standing up for Canadians, instead of caving in to the Exxons and Sinopecs of the world."
For a particularly thoughtful analysis of the Northern Gateway debate, please watch the video recently prepared by independent economist Robyn Allan, who appeared as an expert witness for the AFL during the joint panel hearings. The video can be found at this address: http://www.robynallan.com/2013/12/09/pipelines-and-oil-tankers/
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MEDIA CONTACT:
Gil McGowan, President, Alberta Federation of Labour at 780-218-9888 (cell)
Olav Rokne, Communications Director, Alberta Federation of Labour at 780.289.6528 (cell) or via e-mail [email protected]
Redford needs to stop blocking sensible CPP reforms
Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) ads say Redford has an opportunity to make positive history – or to go down in the books as the Premier who ignored Canada’s retirement income crisis
Edmonton – The Redford government has an historic opportunity to be part of the solution or part of the problem when it comes to dealing with Canada’s looming crisis of inadequate retirement income for seniors.
As finance ministers from across the country gather this weekend to discuss the crucial issue of reform to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), the provinces largest workers’ advocacy group, the Alberta Federation of Labour has placed ads in Alberta’s four largest daily newspapers urging Premier Redford to do the right thing and drop her opposition to CPP expansion.
“All the experts and eight out of ten provinces agree. Millions of middle-income Canadians who don’t have workplace pensions are facing the prospect of poverty or significantly reduced standards of living after they retire if something isn’t done,” AFL president Gil McGowan said. “Right here in Alberta, Canada’s wealthiest province, only one in three people will be able to retire with a measure of security. This is a crisis and an expanded CPP is clearly a big part of the solution.”
The ads remind Albertans that before she became Premier, Redford told labour and seniors’ advocates that she supported an expanded CPP. Since being chosen as Premier, she has bowed to pressure from business and banking lobby groups who oppose CPP reform for reasons related to ideology and self interest.
McGowan says Redford is actually making the crisis worse by attacking the pensions of the minority of Albertans who have them.
“Instead of pulling up those who don’t have retirement security by supporting and expanded CPP, she’s dragging down those who have some security by attacking pensions for public sector workers,” McGowan said. “But it doesn’t have to be this way. This weekend, the Alberta government has an opportunity to do the right thing. If Premier Redford joins the majority of provinces who support CPP expansion, future generations of seniors, both here in Alberta and across the country, will thank her.”
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MEDIA CONTACT:
Olav Rokne, Communications Director, Alberta Federation of Labour at 780.289.6528 (cell)
or via e-mail [email protected]
Harper undermines postal service to justify eventual privatization
In Harper’s warped world, postal workers are too essential to strike, not essential enough to deliver the mail
Edmonton – The elimination of door-to-door mail delivery is the latest example of the Harper government’s attempt to undermine essential services Canadians rely on, Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour said.
McGowan’s comments came in response to the news that Canada Post will eliminate all of door-to-door regular mail service in the country over the next five years.
“All Canadians will feel the pain from these proposed changes, not just the 8,000 workers who will lose their jobs across Canada or the 1,000 here in Alberta. Seniors or people living with disabilities will be particularly hard hit,” McGowan said.
“The irony of today’s announcement is that the Harper government says that postal workers are too essential to strike, but not essential enough to actually deliver the mail.”
McGowan adds the impact will be particularly acute for smaller cities and towns that rely on postal service as a pillar of the local economy in addition to the economic impact of the loss of local employment provided by Canada Post.
“The Canada Post Corporation has already cut thousands of jobs across the country by closing post offices and eliminating rural mail delivery,” McGowan said. “What’s really frustrating is that these cuts would have been unnecessary if the Harper government allowed the Canada Post Corporation to innovate with new services, like expanding into postal banking, which has been a huge success in Germany.”
“All this has been done with the blessing of the Harper government which is deliberately undermined the postal service in order to simply create a market for full-blown privatization.”
“The Canada Post Corporation announced these sweeping changes with the blessing of the Harper government, but there’s hope. The continuing chipping away at public services and the rights of workers that deliver them increases the odds that there won’t be a Harper government after the next election.”
Members of the AFL’s Executive Council, who represent most unions in Alberta, have committed to supporting the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) in their fight to protect services for Canadians and jobs for their members.
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MEDIA CONTACT:
Gil McGowan, President, Alberta Federation of Labour at 780-218-9888 (cell) or via e-mail [email protected]