Quebec Workers Defend Their Rights
Municipal Workers and Retirees' Constitutional Challenge to Anti-Worker Pension Act
Montreal municipal workers demonstrate in defence
of their
pensions, April 23, 2014. (SCFP)
Dozens of unions representing municipal workers in
Quebec are pursuing a constitutional challenge to Bill 15, An Act
to foster the financial health and sustainability of municipal defined
benefit pension plans, which the Quebec government adopted in
December 2014. The unions involved represent tens of thousands of
municipal
employees across Quebec, blue collar, white collar, fire fighters and
police.
According to the unions, the pension legislation, among
other things, violates the right to collective bargaining. They say
Article 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
protects workers' freedom of association, which is required if the
right to collective bargaining is to have any meaning in practice.
In a press release dated June 21, the Canadian Union of
Public Employees (Quebec) reports that after 85 days of hearings before
the Quebec Superior Court, all the evidence provided by both parties
has now been entered. The next step is the presentation of arguments of
both parties, which is expected to begin in August and last two
weeks.
The Quebec government and mayors of major cities such as
Montreal and Quebec City presented the Act in 2014, as a necessary step
to
foster the sustainability of municipal defined benefit pension plans
and to ensure "intergenerational equity." They used figures alleging
huge deficits in certain municipal pension plans, which the workers and
their
unions challenged as being inaccurate and fraudulent. In the case of
Montreal, the figures did not take into account the fact that the
alleged deficits were based on the City of Montreal for years not
putting the money it was legally bound to put into the plans.
A main feature of Bill 15 is to remove from collective
bargaining issues related to municipal employee pensions and instead
make them a matter of government dictate. The Act decreed 50-50
employer/employee contribution rates for upcoming pensions and banned
any automatic indexing. The act broke existing collective agreements
and
required workers and retirees to pay 50 per cent of any predicted
actuarial deficits, which were the responsibility of the municipalities
according to past collective agreements.
In the case of retirees, the bill allowed municipalities
to cancel indexing of their pensions and to use that money to pay off
any deficits. It is estimated that Montreal municipal retirees have
been deprived of millions of dollars in pensions since the City of
Montreal suspended indexation on retirement plans in 2016. To damage
public opinion
opposing this attack on pensioners and their rights, the monopoly media
launched slanderous propaganda that municipal retirees were well off
and abusing the budget of the city. The truth is far from what the
propaganda alleged with most retirees living on $30,000 or even $20,000
a year, depending on when they retired. Workers reject with
contempt that a decree of the state can force retirees into poverty and
deprive them of their contracted rights.
The Act has forced retrogressive restructuring of some
216 different
defined benefit pension plans in 1,100 municipalities across Quebec.
Municipal workers now pay considerably more in contributions to the
pension plans, amounting to an actual significant reduction in their
wages during their working life in addition to the amounts they
had to pay for past deficits, which were not their responsibility.
Through their words and deeds the municipal authorities
in Montreal and Quebec acknowledge that this state-organized theft of
pensions and lowering of the living standards of city workers was
initiated so they could divert more of the wealth produced by municipal
workers and at their disposal into pay-the-rich schemes for global
companies. They seek to make their cities a hub for investment by
global supranational private interests at the expense of active and
retired workers' well-being and rights.
Municipal workers and their allies waged a protracted
struggle in an effort to prevent the government from passing Bill 15,
organizing demonstrations and local strikes. A general strike of
Montreal white collar workers in 2014 had as its central theme
opposition to the bill and defence of pensions and the right to
collective bargaining.
Since Bill 15 was passed, municipal workers have tried
to offset some of its negative impacts in their negotiations for new
collective agreements. An example is the case of the Montreal Transit
Corporation maintenance workers who negotiated and organized actions
over the course of 23 months in defence of their rights and were able
to obtain in 2019 a premium from the employer to offset the increase in
contributions they have to make to fund their pension plans.
Workers have not reconciled with the Quebec government's
abuse of state power. The constitutional challenge is part of the fight
to have Bill 15 withdrawn. Municipal workers, retirees and their allies
demand the withdrawal of the act and redress for the damage already
inflicted. Workers have the right to negotiate collectively their terms
of
employment, which include a say on their standard of living while
working and in retirement.
This article was published in
Number 24 - June 27, 2019
Article Link:
Quebec Workers Defend Their Rights: Municipal Workers and Retirees' Constitutional Challenge to Anti-Worker Pension Act
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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