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Fredericton, NB - The New Brunswick Council of Hospital Unions (NBCHU), Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 1252, has launched a campaign on behalf of the members and retirees to protect their pension.

“Our pension plan is currently underfunded,” said Norma Robinson, president of Local 1252 representing over 10,000 hospital employees. There are 8,000 families impacted by any change in this pension plan. Currently, there are 5,000 employees paying contributions into the plan and 3,000 retirees receiving benefits.

We have been talking to the province for two years on this without any results. Now is the time for action. Our members will be approaching the candidates running for office in the upcoming election campaign. We will be finding out where the parties and their candidates stand on proper funding of our pension plan.

“The employees have been prepared for a long time now to contribute more money into the pension plan, but the Shawn Graham government refuses to accept its responsibility. We find this difficult to swallow when the same government has put an additional 890 million dollars into the teachers’ pension plan and 700 million dollars into the Civil Service Pension Plan,” said Robinson.

During the same period the province paid 62 million dollars less than the amount contributed by the employees into the hospital employee’s pension plan. This is extremely unfair.

“It is clear they look after their own,” said Robinson. None of our members sit as MLAs or work in upper levels of government. We have written letters and had meetings to discuss the matter, but to no avail. This issue is an easy fix for government. The employees have agreed to pay extra contributions; we just need the province to match this amount. This would be a solid investment for the province. This money stays in New Brunswick. It will give thousands of workers a more dignified retirement.

The time has come for action.


For more information, please contact:

Norma Robinson
President, CUPE 1252
Tel: (506) 273-7727

Gordon Black
Provincial Coordinator, CUPE
Tel: (506) 261-2126