CURC commits to continuing pension fight
CURC will continue to fight for fair pensions for all Canadians, more than 100 delegates to the 10th Constitutional Convention unanimously decided.
Delegates ratified a motion from the Ottawa Area Council which commits our Congress to:
- continue to support the Canadian Labour Congress “Retirement Security for Everyone” campaign, which seeks to double benefits from the Canada/Quebec pension plans,
- lobby to increase the Guaranteed Income Supplement by 15%, to a level sufficient to eliminate poverty among the elderly,
- work to establish a federal system of mandatory national pension insurance,
- expose the flaws of the Tory government’s private-sector Pooled Registered Pension Plan and the financial industry’s self-serving lobbying for the plan. And
- work with other like-minded organizations and individuals to inform Canadians of our Retirement Security campaigns.
Support was strong from every corner of the convention hall when the resolution came up for debate.
“The Conservatives and their friends get people scared by calling [CPP expansion] a paroll tax,” said Rick Irving of the Ottawa Area Council. “An expansion of the CPP would actually help businesses to defray their costs. But they don’t understand that because of their ideology.”
The Tories’ plan for a privately run so-called “pool pension plan” has “serious, serious problems,” said Don Wright of the Toronto Area Council.
Speaking of the bashing of public-sector retirees because of their guaranteed pensions, Suzanne Clancy of the Ontario Federation of Union Retirees said people need to realize that pensions are deferred wages.
“I used to wonder why I never had enough money at the end of the month, but after I retired, I realized it was because I was paying into my pension plan,” she said. “We’re not doing a good job of informing the public that we paid for our pensions.”
