Legalized Theft of Pension Funds Must Not Stand!The Alberta Federation of Labour has released a report, "Don't You Dare!" demanding that the Kenney government reverse the changes to public sector pensions made in Bill 22, the Reform of Agencies, Boards and Commissions and Government Enterprises Act that established government control of public sector pensions through executive or police powers. More than 350,000 active and retired workers are affected by the changes. The report can be found here.
The AFL report explains that Bill 22 made drastic changes to pension member protections, in particular for the rights of part-time, non-unionized employees to participate in the pension plans. Of great concern is that Bill 22 removed successor rights provisions which allowed pension plan members to stay in the plans if their work was contracted out or privatized. The Kenney government has announced it is looking at privatizing public medical labs, contracting out hospital environmental, food and laundry services, moving surgical procedures to private clinics, and who knows what else. Under Bill 22, the workers could be deprived of their pensions and right to security in retirement. Together, these changes amount to legalized theft of the pensions of public sector workers through the use of executive police powers. Not only can the Kenney government use these provisions to deprive workers of pensions, but it allows wholesale government dictate over investments decisions. The report outlines signs that the UCP government is considering using Albertans' pension money to invest in oil and gas projects that are having trouble finding private investors, and that workers are saying to Jason Kenney, "Don't you dare use our pension funds to further your political agenda!" Barely a month after Bill 22 received Royal Assent, AIMCo and the private equity corporation KKR, said to be one of the largest U.S. buyout companies, announced they had acquired a 65 per cent stake in the Coastal GasLink natural-gas pipeline from TC Energy Corp. Alberta public sector workers' pension funds are being used for a pipeline crossing unceded Wet'suet'en territory without the consent of the hereditary chiefs who are the Indigenous title holders. This is unconscionable!
These actions show criminal disregard for the workers, the socialized economy and for the natural environment. They continue to tie the Alberta economy to the U.S. war machine and economy and an unsustainable dependence on oil and gas extraction. A new direction for the economy is needed. Pension funds come from the social wealth that workers produce but do not control. It is this lack of control by the workers, who are the producers, over what is produced and how it is produced that is at the heart of the problem. The social wealth produced by workers must be reinvested in a socially responsible manner to build a diverse economy that has an internal self-reliant strength and trades with others for mutual benefit and development. Such an economy must have the aim to guarantee the rights and well-being of all, and humanize the social and natural environment. In a modern Canada pensions are a right that belongs to workers by virtue of their contributions to the economy, and all people have a right to pensions which provide security in retirement by virtue of being human. Governments have a social responsibility to guarantee pensions and security in retirement. To defend the pensions we have is to defend the rights of all! Repeal Bill 22!
This article was published in Article Link:   Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca |
Bill
22 put the Alberta Teachers Retirement Fund under
control of the Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo). All
public sector pension boards have been deprived of their ability to
select a pension administrator, and will all be managed by AIMCo, which
means that pension boards have no say on how the pension funds are
managed. Cabinet can veto any appointments made by unions and public
sector employers to the pension boards. As for direct control over
AIMCo decisions, the legislation under which AIMCo operates requires it
to comply with directives from the Minister. Through these changes the
Kenney government has seized control of $115 billion in
pension funds which belong to workers employed by the Alberta
government, Alberta Health Services, school boards, municipalities,
post-secondary colleges and universities, and other public sector
employers.
The Kenney
government does not recognize that workers
have any rights as human beings or because of their contribution to the
economy. He is engaging in legalized theft of what belongs to the
workers by right in order to dictate which private interests have
access to the pension funds. Many are expressing concern that this will
lead to
increasingly risky ventures and bailouts being propped up with public
sector pension funds, putting the security of workers in retirement at
risk. It goes without saying that such decisions will be made without
regard for the need to address climate change, take care of Mother
Earth, and uphold the rights of Indigenous peoples.