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February 8, 2021 - No. 3
Fight to Take Over Worker Pension Funds Intensifies
Hands Off Workers' Pensions!
 
• Kenney Government Wants Control of Pension Funds to Pay the Rich
• Alberta Unions Respond to Arrogant Government Decree to Seize Control of Public Sector Pension Funds
Canada Post Mississauga Plant
• Postal Worker Dies as Canada Post Fails to Control COVID-19 Outbreak
Demands for Action in Defence of Rail Workers' Safety
• Investigation Launched into 2019 Derailment
Fight to Take Over Worker Pension Funds Intensifies
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.
 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.
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!
 The government is racking up big deficits borrowing money from the
financial oligarchy for its pay-the-rich schemes to guarantee the
profits of the oil oligarchs and other uses. At the same time, the
government says it has "no money" for health care, education and to
look after Albertans. It has also now seized total control over how
workers' pension funds are invested to finance its pay-the-rich
schemes.
Outrage is growing over the UCP government scandal of handing over
$6.5 billion of public funds to the owners of TC Energy as an equity
stake and loan guarantees to build the Keystone XL pipeline south to
the U.S. Gulf Coast. The imminent demise of that venture was hardly a
secret when the billions in public money were handed over as
a brazen gift to the rich, with U.S. President Biden now confirming its
collapse.
The Kenney government has used both legislation and most recently
ministerial orders to seize control of public sector pension funds to
give even greater control of workers' pooled social wealth to the
global oligarchs to use what belongs to the working class by right in
yet more "investment strategies" to pay the rich.
Alberta
public sector workers are not alone in confronting this problem of
control over their pension money. How and where these pension funds are
invested is a big issue in Canada and elsewhere. Pension funds are huge
pools of social wealth that the working class has claimed through its
work and belongs to workers by right. However the
global oligarchs, using financial companies, in most cases exercise
control and the power of decision over workers' pensions and saved
money. These funds end up the hands of the global oligarchs to serve
their narrow private interests all over the world in ways that favour
them and not the people. Workers are demanding an end to this abuse of
their money.
 Recently, Canadians have witnessed the devastating consequences of
pension investments in for-profit long-term care homes such as Revera
Inc. Long-term care homes including Revera have experienced an
extremely high rate of COVID-19 infections and deaths and have been
accused of diverting the money they receive from governments and
others into profits rather than the well-being of the seniors in their
care. PSP Investments, which controls the public sector pension funds
of federal workers, is the investment company that owns Revera.
Workers' pension funds are being broadly used against the interests
of the working class and nation-building such as to strengthen private
ownership of medical labs and other health care facilities and
production, public education and infrastructure. Ironically, workers
and their allies are fighting for public ownership and human-centred
control
of all sectors of the health care system while their pension funds are
being used to defeat their just cause. This must stop! Workers
themselves through their independent collectives have the right to
decide how their pension funds are invested to ensure this is done in
ways that directly benefit nation-building, the working class and
society.
The fight over control of workers' pension funds is an important
part of the struggle for a new direction for the economy, to stop
paying the rich and increase investments in social programs. This forms
part of the struggle for democratic renewal to empower working people
and stay the hand of governments from issuing decrees that favour the
global oligarchy.
Speaking at a news conference held January 14, Alberta Federation
of Labour President Gil McGowan said the government decrees to seize
control of all public sector pension plans is unprecedented, outrageous
and brazen.[1] AFL President
McGowan said Bill 22 and the subsequent decree on
December 23, 2020 amount to theft of pension funds that belong to
working people and not to the government. Union leaders said the
Ministerial Order from Finance Minister Travis Toews is designed to
finish the work that the government started in the fall of 2019 with
the passage of omnibus Bill 22.
President McGowan said the ministerial orders will be challenged in
the courts, as well as in a broad public campaign to demand Hands Off
Our Pensions! and the immediate rescinding of the anti-worker
ministerial orders and decree.
 Other
unions point out that Premier Kenney is not only going after the public
sector pension funds. He is floating the idea of taking Alberta out of
the Canada Pension Plan and establishing a separate provincial plan
where he can control pension funds to pay the rich with whom he is
connected. This fight forms part of the struggle of
competing private interests for control of workers' pension and other
funds.
Workers cannot afford to watch this fight amongst the rich over
their money proceed without immediate and stern intervention.
Workers pension funds are theirs to control and decide on where they
are invested and how they are distributed. Pension funds form part of
the claim workers make in return for the sale of their capacity to work
to
those who own and control the economy. Workers have the right to
control and decide how they spend their wages and any benefits, such as pensions, they may
receive from the sale of their capacity to work.
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. Alberta public
sector workers forced the government to retreat from its schemes to
wreck their defined benefit pensions in 2013, and continue to stand
firm that pensions belong to the workers and that workers themselves
must be in control so that their pension funds are invested in
human-centred ways. Active and retired workers have broadly responded
to the Kenney government’s anti-worker actions with slogans to
affirm their right to decide: Hands Off Workers' Pensions! Whose Pensions? Our Pensions! Who Decides! We Decide!
Note
1. Also present at the January 14 news conference of trade unions to denounce the Kenney government's anti-worker decree:
Guy Smith, President of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE)
Heather Smith, President of the United Nurses of Alberta (UNA)
Mike Parker, President of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA)
Rory Gill, President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees,
Alberta Division (CUPE)
The Alberta Teachers Association President Jason Schilling
also issued a statement demanding that the Kenney orders to seize
control of public sector pensions be rescinded.
Canada Post Mississauga Plant
January
28, 2021. Workers at Canada Post facilities in Scarborough
organized a moment of silence in honour of postal worker Godfrey Yeung
who died from COVID-19.
 Postal workers in Toronto and across the country are mourning the death
of Godfrey Yeung, a night shift worker at the Gateway plant in
Mississauga.[1] He passed away on January 26 as he was self-isolating at home less than a week after a positive COVID-19 test on January 19.
Qaiser Maroof, the president of the Toronto local of the Canadian
Union of Postal Workers, calls it a "sad day for Postal Workers" and an
"unnecessary loss of life." He went on to say, "This tragedy
underscores why we have been insisting to the governments that the
postal workers are indeed frontline workers. When will the government
ensure that our members are treated like frontline workers? When will
our health and safety be treated with high importance?"
Workers Forum condemns the flagrant disregard for workers'
safety by Canada Post. Postal workers tell us that since the beginning
of the pandemic it has been a constant battle to have management take
worker safety seriously. There have been outbreaks at multiple Canada
Post sorting stations. The union has taken the initiative to take
members out of production and assigned them to do health and safety
monitoring, encouraging workers to wear PPE and to keep adequately
distanced.
Dr. Lawrence Loh, Chief Medical Officer of Health for Peel Region
has started an investigation into the tragic event at the Gateway
facility. Throughout January there was an alarming increase in COVID-19
infections there. As of January 30, the most recent information
available, 273 workers had tested positive since the beginning of the
month and dozens more cases were coming to light each day. On January
22 Peel Public Health officials directed Canada Post to close down the
afternoon shift (Shift #3) and over 300 workers were advised to
self-isolate at home for 14 days. In addition, all day shift workers
(Shift #2) were tested at an onsite clinic that has been set up. The
public
health authorities directed that mandatory testing at the Gateway
facility be ramped up and that employees who had already been tested
must be assessed again. Canada Post implemented the following measures:
- full sanitization of the plant;
- enhanced measures to promote physical distancing;
- proper and sufficient personal protective equipment will be available; and
- increased safety inspections and information to be provided to the union.
All the measures that Canada Post is committing to implement now in
the Gateway plant postal workers have been fighting for all along.
Since the beginning of the pandemic postal workers have continued to
process and deliver mail and parcels and provide services at retail
counters. In carrying out this work, they have not only risked
infection but have also fought tooth and nail across the country to
ensure that health and safety rights at each workplace are respected.
 There are countless examples of workers having to invoke the right
to refuse unsafe work because the corporation has refused to provide
proper personal protective equipment, maintain proper cleaning in
plants and depots, ensure proper physical distancing and so on. Workers
have been denied leaves needed to protect themselves and their
families -- even to be tested if they are not well. They
are disciplined for coming to work if they subsequently prove to be
infected. Workers are also threatened with discipline for social media
posts that are critical of the Corporation. Parcel handling is at
record levels due to the increase in online shopping. Canada Post
reports that since the
COVID pandemic they have distributed a record number of parcels: 181
consecutive days of over 1 million parcels daily compared to the best
previously of 67. This increases the risk of workers contracting
COVID-19 as workers are pressured to do 12-hour shifts to handle the
volume, including replacing workers who are sick or have to
self-quarantine. Temporary workers hired for Christmas processing and
delivery have been called back. Many of these workers are new
immigrants and particularly vulnerable to pressure to work all the hours they can
because their pay increases are based on accumulating at least 1,000
hours a year. In spite of all this Canada Post is blaming the workers
for the
outbreak -- for lack of social distancing, for coming to work when
they were not well. It is unconscionable.
Workers' Forum fully supports the fight of the postal workers
and of all workers to work under healthy and secure working conditions
on which they have say and control.
Note
1. The Gateway plant in Mississauga is
Canada Post's largest facility with more than 4,500 postal workers who
work in mail processing, technical services, transportation and
administration.
Demands for Action in Defence of Rail Workers' Safety
February 4 marked the second anniversary of the tragic deaths of three
CP rail workers in a derailment near Field, BC. Conductor Dylan
Paradis, engineer Andrew Dockrell and trainee Daniel
Waldenberger-Bulmer died when CP Train 301 derailed near Field, British
Columbia and plunged into the Kicking Horse River. On the anniversary
Lyndon Isaak, President of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, issued
a commemorative statement which read, in part, "With the anticipated
release of the Transportation Safety Board's investigation expected in
the coming months and the RCMP investigation underway we are hopeful we
will have some answers to many of the outstanding
questions surrounding this tragic event. We are committed to fighting
for improvements to rail safety and ending these senseless tragedies
that have plagued the rail industry over the recent years."
The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, working with Niki Ashton, NDP
MP for Churchill -- Keewatinook Aski, and the families of the three
workers, had organized an e-petition to Parliament and video appeals to
Prime Minister Trudeau. The petition stated "The CP investigation has
led to deeply concerning allegations and a call for an
independent criminal investigation; The handling of the investigation
has raised major concerns about the ongoing role of the railway police
forces; The government of Canada through the department of Transport
and the department of Public Safety have failed to ask the RCMP to
launch a full and independent investigation on the accident; and
The safety of rail workers, who are essential workers, is at stake and
the families of those who perished deserve answers." Petitioners called upon
the government to "launch a full and independent criminal investigation
into the deadly derailment of CP train 301."
The CBC reports that the RCMP's major crimes unit in British
Columbia has now opened a criminal investigation into the derailment. A
spokesperson for the RCMP is quoted as saying that the BC
prosecutor's office agreed that "potentially there could be some
criminality here and that it warranted further investigation."
The two main rail monopolies in Canada, Canadian National (CN) and
Canadian Pacific (CP) each have their own private police forces. The CP
Police conducted an initial investigation which was ended only a month
after the tragedy. The investigation only looked at the actions of the
crew in the period before the derailment. It did not look at any of the
policies and actions of the company. One of the officers involved in
the investigation, who subsequently quit and is now an RCMP officer in
Golden, BC, told the CBC's Fifth Estate that the investigation was
hampered by CP which failed to provide investigators with information
they needed. A separate Transportation Safety Board investigation is
yet to be completed. On its website, the Transportation Safety Board of
Canada lists investigation R19C0015 into the Field derailment, last
updated February 1, 2021, with the notification that "The investigation
is in the report phase, the final phase of a TSB investigation. The
draft report will be circulated to designated reviewers on a
confidential basis for comment. For more information, please refer to
the TSB investigation process." No date is given for when the report is
to be released. In any event the TSB has no power to lay charges but
can only publish findings and make recommendations.
 Rail workers work in dangerous conditions. The need for adequate
rest and training, for the implementation of rigorous safety procedures
and for safety standards related to crew size, transportation of
hazardous goods, and matters such as the length of trains on mountain
passes, modifying or halting operations in extreme weather situations,
are
of utmost concern. In 2019 the workers waged an eight-day strike over
safety conditions which resulted in some improvements but conditions
remain far from satisfactory. The TSB, in its annual 2019 report on
"rail transportation occurrences," states that 72 people, five of them
employees, were "rail fatalities" that year, "up from 57 reported last
year and approximately the same as the previous 10-year average of 73."
In 2019, besides the increase in fatalities, in comparison to the
average in the years 2009-2108, there was a 17 per cent increase in rail
accidents, a 42 per cent increase in the number of main-track accidents per
million main-track train miles, an increase in the number of accidents
that
involved dangerous goods, and the number of accidents resulting in
release of dangerous goods was eight, double the ten-year average of
four.
The use of a company police force to investigate, and the
self-regulation of the industry by the companies without public
oversight, has resulted in tragedies like the Lac Megantic disaster in
2013 and many other preventable incidents. Railway companies and the
federal government must be forced to account for and take
responsibility for the
safety of railway workers and everyone who lives in the communities
through which the trains pass.
(To access articles individually click on the black headline.)
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