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Fight to Take Over Worker Pension Funds Intensifies Hands Off Workers' Pensions!The Alberta government has moved to seize control of all public-sector pension plans in the province. The target is the pensions of more than 450,000 active and retired workers. Workers in all sectors are denouncing this brazen government move to control their pensions.
Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews signed ministerial orders on December 23, imposing government controlled "investment management agreements" (IMAs) on public sector pension funds. Toews informed the pension funds of the unilateral dictate on January 4. The ministerial decrees follow the 2019 omnibus Bill 22, the Reform of Agencies, Boards and Commissions and Government Enterprises Act. Bill 22 requires all public sector pensions to use AIMCo as sole investment manager. The dictate includes the Alberta Teachers Retirement Fund, which has managed its own fund since inception. The act orders pension plan boards to negotiate agreements with AIMCo regarding governance. No pension board has yet been able to negotiate a satisfactory agreement despite what are termed "intensive negotiations." Instead the government has once again used its police powers and issued ministerial orders to dictate terms to the pension boards, which even though the pension money they control belongs to workers alone as an earned benefit, are comprised of representatives of both employees and employers. The Ministerial Orders give AIMCo authority to veto any decisions of the pension boards if, in the sole opinion of AIMCo, such decisions would threaten AIMCO's "economies of scale or operational efficiencies." Such a broad statement could mean anything but emphasizes that according to the Alberta government, workers' pension funds do not belong to workers but are a source of money for the government to pay the rich in one way or another. No appeal or arbitration of the veto is allowed. The orders directly contradict statements made by the government during debate of the omnibus Bill 22 in 2019. The government said at the time that control of how pension funds are invested will remain with the pension boards. Responding to the opposition to Bill 22 from the Alberta Teachers Association, Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews said on November 7, 2019, "The Alberta Teachers Retirement Fund Board (ATRF) will remain in control of determining how the pension funds are invested at a strategic level as well as retaining ownership of the plan's assets. That is, AIMCo will invest according to the policies set by the ATRF board." The arbitrary actions of Bill 22 and the ministerial decrees amount to gross interference in the financial affairs of the working class. The pension funds of workers belong to them and they should have control and final say as to how their social wealth is invested and the institutional forms they need to exercise effective control over their money. Bill 22 and subsequent decrees amount to theft of social wealth that does not belong to the government and is tantamount to telling workers how they should spend their money. Pensions represent social wealth the working class reproduces through their work and belongs to them just as much as the wages they receive at the time of working. The government and financial oligarchy have no right to seize control of workers' social wealth that belongs to them by right and over which they must exercise control. The issue of how workers' pension funds should be invested and distributed is for workers themselves to decide and work out through their own organizations without government interference. Active and retired workers have broadly responded to the Alberta government's anti-people bill and decree saying Hands Off Workers' Pensions! Whose Pensions? Our Pensions! Who Decides! We Decide!
This article was published in Article Link:   Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca |
The
ministerial orders give veto power over public-sector pension
investment decisions to a crown corporation called AIMCo. This
provincial government investment company already controls $119 billion
in funds comprised of Alberta government funds, pensions and the
Workers' Compensation Board (WCB) Accident Fund. AIMCo's CEO is
appointed by, answers to, and must take direction from the Alberta
Minister of Finance.