NLPSPA President Sharron Callahan Presentation to Pensioners - - PDF document

NLPSPA President Sharron Callahan Presentation to Pensioners’ Meetings March 23 - May 17, 2011 INTRODUCTION: Thank you very much for joining in this meeting this evening. The turnout has been tremendous and it is obvious by this huge attendance that you all are equally concerned about your pensions as are the member organizations

• f the Public Sector Pensioners’ and Retirees Coalition. Many forces have

stood in our way to getting what is justly and rightly ours and after today/tonight it is our hope that you will understand the issues better and realize that each of you can play a significant role in this struggle to achieve that increase that has been denied us for 22 years. HISTORY: Over the years, member associations of the Pensioners’ Coalition (NLPSPA, NAPE Retirees, RTANL, SJRFFA, RNCVA, Correctional Officers, and MUNPA) and those who went before the time of the establishment of the Coalition struggled on various fronts to promote your concerns about the inadequacies of the public sector pension plan. Much of that focus has been

• n failures by past Governments to meet their obligations to their former

employees, today’s pensioners. When you were employed, you placed your faith in a contractual arrangement that would see you receive a pension benefit equal to your years of service x 2% based on your best 5 years of service. So, what is it that Government did to breach its employment relationship with its former workers?

• Even though the Public Service (Pensions) Act came into effect in 1968,

all pension contributions were paid into and mixed with other revenue in the province’s Consolidated Revenue Fund. While we expected our pension deposits to be safeguarded, our pension funds instead paid for the development of our province.

• From 1968 until 1981 when a distinct pension fund was established,

Government did not match workers’ contributions. This resulted in the pension fund being saddled with substantial liabilities and underfunding. These realities continue to haunt us and the Government continues to use them as an excuse not to improve our current pensions.

• From 1991 to 1994, Government took a holiday from making the

employer’s contributions to the pension plan, thus adding further to the pension fund’s liabilities.

NLPSPA President Sharron Callahan Presentation to Pensioners’ Meetings March 23 - May 17, 2011

• Many of you will also recall the periods of wage freezes and wage roll-

backs, all of which negatively impacted the expected benefits of those who would have used those years for purposes of pension calculation. We have repeatedly heard from Government that we did not pay into an indexed pension plan. Despite this position, facts exist to demonstrate the contrary:

• Until the infamous year of 1989 (as Theodore Roosevelt coined “a date

that will go down in infamy”), Government recognized that the contract with its workers included indexing and regularly enacted legislation (Increase of Pensions Acts of 1980 to 1989) to compensate for the rise of

• inflation. Unfortunately, since the unilateral discontinuation in 1989,

pensioners have seen the value of their pensions diminish at a rate where that dollar is now worth less than 50 per cent of the value at the time of their retirement.

• Government’s recognition that it owed its former workers indexing

enhancements led to a partial cost of living index in 2002. However, this is capped at 1.2 per cent of the consumer price index, making our pension plan the one with the worst indexing benefit in Canada.

• So, despite Government’s statements, the precedence has been set,

increases have been given in the past, and in these days of plenty, we have every right to claim our due and expect an increase now. ACTIONS TO DATE: So, what has been happening, on your behalf, to remedy this situation? 1) FORMATION OF COALITION Over the years, various retired public service membership associations have struggled on various fronts to promote the pension concerns of their membership to Government. While we owe these past leaders a debt for keeping our struggle alive, it has been in the past three (3) years that new initiatives began to take place. In 2008, the now Public Sector Pensioners’ Coalition was formed and as each day and month goes on, our memberships are growing stronger and more vocal than ever before. From this formation, the Coalition undertook to engage with Government to remedy the stalemate

• f 1989. We met many times, all meetings looking more promising that the
• ne before. At one time, when Minister Kennedy was briefly Minister of

Finance we were actually talking money and every one engaged in the discussion process was very optimistic. We don’t really know what happened at that point (Ralph will tell you what he has heard), and while

NLPSPA President Sharron Callahan Presentation to Pensioners’ Meetings March 23 - May 17, 2011 certain actions to benefit the politicians were taking place behind the scenes at the same time, our hopes for remediation were immediately dashed by the departure of Minister Kennedy, only to be replaced by our arch-nemesis, Minister Marshall. 2) “FISH OR CUT BAIT”: Finally in September of 2009, Bob Langdon, the then President of NLPSPA, coined his famous phrase “its time to fish or cut bait” in a press conference called to express our public disgust at the MHA’s compensation package announced just days prior to the annual Convention. At that time, your representative associations took a deliberate strategy to no longer go to “nice” meetings with Government. Since then, Government has continually ignored our issues, have not responded to requests, and have even taken to publicly speaking out against public sector pensioners as if we are a blight

• n our great Province.

3) MHA COMPENSATION PACKAGE: Following the announcement in September of 2009 of the MHA’s compensation package (and just wait until Ralph shares some information about that with you), your associations immediately undertook an active role in overturning that plan. We immediately prepared a brief and presented it at the province wide hearings. In that public presentation we focused on the argument that regardless of whether Government continued its “rich” compensation package for MHA’s, the discrepancies and the gap that currently existed between the benefits for MHA’s and public sector pensioners was nothing short of abhorrent and that whatever decision Government took, it would be born on the backs of pensioners (and other citizens of the Province. MHA’s should be expected to be compensated fairly for their work, but not to a level that is elitist and immoral to those whom they serve. At these hearings we were heard, we were instrumental in halting this increase, and this encouraged us to publicly continue our attempts at redress of our issues. 4) BYE-ELECTIONS: During 2009 and 2010, we took deliberate actions during the by-elections in Terra Nova, CBE/Bell Island, and most recently in Humber West, by directly writing each member in the electoral district, distributing our Fact Sheet, and running ads in local papers and doing interviews

NLPSPA President Sharron Callahan Presentation to Pensioners’ Meetings March 23 - May 17, 2011 5) COMMUNICATION/MEDIA STRATEGY: In September 2010, we took a more directed approach aimed at getting the attention of the Premier to redress the injustices of the past. In so developing this campaign, we recognized two obstacles to our cause: 1) the widespread perception that the public will be paying for any pension enhancements and 2) for whatever reason, top Government officials have already decided that there will be no pension enhancements, as Government needs “to treat all seniors equally”. I am sure every one of you here have heard this categorization of our issues as being those of seniors and how Government seduces the general public into believing our issues are taken care of by their Seniors’ Strategy. Nothing is further from the truth. We have said it many times already and we say it here again tonight, our issues are not seniors’ issues; our issues are those of an employment arrangement we had with our employer and that employer has broken faith and its contract with us. So last September, following a Press Conference when we took our/your issues directly to the general public, we continued with a series of Letters to the Editor, published in the Telegram, in 6 rural newspapers, and in the Herald, we ran advertisements in these newspapers and did live radio spots. These letters had a particular focus, the first being this “Deliberate Confusion” being made by Government to confuse our issues as being those

• f seniors, the second being the “Real Truth about Pensions”, and the third

being the “breach of contractual obligations with former workers”. The four radio spots that were developed, also along these themes, were broadcast

• ver 200 times. An in-depth interview was done by Ralph and I on Out of

the Fog, and a Facebook site has been set-up that is still functioning. 6) PRE-BUDGET CONSULTATION 2011 In January, we made a presentation to the public pre-budget consultations for 2011 and held media interviews afterwards. Regrettably, the Minister of Finance publicly took exception to our presentation in front of various businesses, educational, and other volunteer presenters giving ammunition to these agencies to use his negative comments to further their causes, as seen by the recent attack from Richard Alexander of the Employer’s Council who recently was quoted as saying “people who retired from the public service are looking for special treatment at the expense of all other taxpayers of the province”. This presents a new phenomenon for us, with the Government engaging with business and corporations to solve the “problem of public

NLPSPA President Sharron Callahan Presentation to Pensioners’ Meetings March 23 - May 17, 2011 sector pensions”. Did we go somewhere? Have we suddenly become invisible to the Government? Maybe they are hoping we will feel the pressure of the business community and back off from our fight. If they think that, we have only just begun to fight. We will not be treated this way. 7) BOARD OF TRADE: How many of you saw the recent article in the Telegram, wherein Minister Marshall called upon the St. John’s Board of Trade for advice on dealing with the problem of the unfunded pension liability? To the Board of Trade, Minister Marshall states that “public sector pensions are one of the biggest challenges to balancing the provincial books”. Minister Marshall is quoted as “calling on the Board to look at this and to speak out and give the Government the benefit of its advice”. I am outraged and I hope you and all pensioners are as well. How dare he? What audacity to look for advice from business, who would undermine your defined benefit plan in a heartbeat and, with a smile, convince Government that would be the right thing to do for the benefit of taxpayers and business. While this fight we are in now is about past injustice, let me loudly caution our unions and current employees to be very aware of this “consultation”. Stand up for your plan, protect it at all costs, and never let some business or corporation have an inroad into your hard earned pension benefits. 8) PETITION TO HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY: Now for an interesting observation! You may have heard that a part of this communications strategy included a petition campaign. The petitions were collected and during the week immediately prior to Budget Day, Ralph, I and Clayton Rice (RTANL) met with Yvonne Jones to ask her to present the petition in the House of Assembly. This was done, with close to 10,000 signatures supporting our cause. 9) “NOT ON MY WATCH”: Immediately upon the resignation of Premier Williams, we realized that “not

• n my watch” was over and undertook to arrange for a meeting with Premier
• Dunderdale. So far that meeting has not occurred. We have been referred to

meet with Minister Marshall, and while we have seen no evidence that the position of Government may have softened, we are still uncertain. Therefore, if a meeting should occur, we will meet with the Minister but with the emphatic position that if Government/Premier has not given the

NLPSPA President Sharron Callahan Presentation to Pensioners’ Meetings March 23 - May 17, 2011 Minister a mandate to settle our issues, the continuation of the meeting will be useless. 10) REPORT OF AUDITOR GENERAL: Another interesting development happened a few weeks ago. As you know, in the recent Auditor’ General’s report there was reference (in fact a particular chapter #4) to the Pooled Pension Fund and Government’s Health Benefits Plan. Because a lot of the AG’s comments were unclear, we asked for a meeting, which we were granted, with the concession that we submit a list of questions to be posed. Of course we complied, only to be turned away

• n the Saturday before the Monday meeting that the meeting would not be

rescheduled but would not even happen. We were directed to ask our questions to Government. Obviously we had struck a nerve. 11) SO WHAT HAS BEEN HAPPENING LATELY AND WHAT CAN YOU DO? On March 23, we began a province-wide schedule of meetings to bring our pension issues to pensioners in the communities where they live and also to the general public in the areas. The first meeting was in Marystown, was well organized, could have had more attendance, but folks engaged and informed; Badger’s Quay, well organized and well attended, close to 70 people; Twillingate, short notice, but organized and managed satisfactorily, close to 30 people in attendance; Springdale, well attended and well

• rganized, 70 persons, local press coverage, PC Association representative

in attendance; Lewisporte, attended by Ralph (I had to return home), 70 + people, well organized, local press coverage; Carbonear, over 50 people, well organized, lots of questions; Bonavista, well organized, 70 + persons, staff person for Ministers Fitzgerald and Wiseman in attendance; Corner Brook, a bit disappointing in numbers attending, venue a bit of a problem with stairs and lack of parking; Port Saunders, well organized, about 30 people, very engaged; Grand Falls/Windsor, best attendance so far, close to 140 persons, lots of interaction, engaged, full media coverage by Rogers Cable, NTV, and local paper; Gander well attended, 120 persons, local newspaper coverage, folks engaged and committed; Clarenville well attended, close to 50 people, very engaged and expressed outrage at Government’s inaction to our issues; Happy Valley low attendance, but good press coverage, supported by Mayor, very publicly visible meeting; St. John’s had an astounding turnout and the follow-up contacts are continuing daily.

NLPSPA President Sharron Callahan Presentation to Pensioners’ Meetings March 23 - May 17, 2011 This meeting this evening (St. John’s) is the last of this cycle and we are so pleased with this turnout. All public sector pensioners are becoming engaged in an assertive way, and with the information and facts that we are giving to you this evening, it is our call to you to address them to all electoral candidates in your ridings, which ever they might be, in the upcoming provincial election. We hope pensioners come away from tonight with a confidence and resolve that you will not continue to tolerate the continuing negative response from Government. Come to any follow-up pension meetings that might be held, come to the annual convention in September, tell your friends who live elsewhere that some additional meetings will take place in the larger centers of the province, speak to the politicians and their workers and ask them what they intend to do about your situation, ask them pointed questions, expect scripted answers and if you don’t feel you are getting the answer you want to hear challenge the answers, question whether you should continue to seek temporary employment with potential MHA’s who may not have the slightest interest to take your issues seriously, speak out locally and encourage others to speak up about the issues that concern public sector pensioners, and while we would never presume to tell you how to cast your vote on election day maybe the answer will be obvious to you if you challenge those who knock

• n your door or speak at local political rallies and you continue to get the

same answers that we have been given for the past 22 years. Make sure that your elected officials and those who would seek your vote understand the impact Government’s 22 year intractable position has had on your personal life circumstances, and most importantly that you convince your elected official or intended official that you have a personal expectation that he/she will speak up on your behalf. When it comes to Election Day in October, we hope you will consider all of the information we have presented today and then when casting your ballot, make the choice that you feel is best for you and your family. It is time to send a message and the best and

• nly time to strongly get that message across is at election time.

The Associations of the Coalition cannot fight this fight alone; we need all

• f you to do your individual part to make an impression upon Government.

It is up to you if public sector pensioners become a force to reckon with in the next provincial election.

NLPSPA President Sharron Callahan Presentation to Pensioners’ Meetings March 23 - May 17, 2011 Thank you.