Please note that this page is from our archives. There may be more up-to-date content about this topic on our website. Use our search engine to find out.
Millions of Canadians are facing an
uncertain future in retirement
All of us should have the right to a secure
income in our retirement years. But:
-
11 million Canadian workers have no
workplace pension plan; - Only one-in-five employed in the private
sector belong to a workplace pension plan; - Most Canadians aren’t able to save enough
to cover basic retirement expenses; - Existing pension plans are under added
stress because of the global economic
meltdown, while employers are shirking
their responsibility to ensure workers
have decent retirement incomes.
RSPs are not enough
The RSP retirement savings model is
struggling because too few Canadians –
about 25 per cent of tax filers – are able to
afford contributions. And the global meltdown
has exposed individual RSP investors to
extreme risk and significant financial loss.
Better pensions, a more secure future: What CUPE is doing
Together with the Canadian Labour Congress, CUPE has a long-range campaign to encourage
our activists to take up the fight to win important changes.
- Sign the petition for better pensions;
- Fill out a postcard to Prime Minister Harper available at a pension event;
- Urge your CUPE local to formally endorse the pension campaign;
- Talk to friends, family and leaders in your community about the need for change.
We can fix Canada’s pension crisis
We can start to fix the crisis through a
balanced approach that combines strong
workplace pensions with public pension
plans that cover all working people.
We can strengthen the Canada Pension Plan
(CPP) with a phased-in doubling of benefits
to a maximum of about $23,000 a year. This
would offer secure and enhanced pension
benefits for the 93 per cent of Canadians
who make CPP contributions.
The CPP is extremely efficient – management
and administrative fees are a fraction of those
charged by mutual fund companies. Expanding
benefits can be achieved with a very small
contribution increase for workers and employers.
And we must raise the guaranteed income
supplement (GIS) to lift hundreds of thousands
of poor pensioners out of poverty.
Tougher laws to protect pension plans needed
We need better regulations to protect existing
workplace pension plans from bankruptcy,
high-risk investments and employer underfunding.
Workers – like those at Nortel –
should never again have to pay for employer
bankruptcies with their pensions.
Our pensions under attack
Unions have a proud tradition advocating for
decent pensions for members and all Canadians.
But those who oppose decent retirement
incomes go to great lengths to misrepresent
public sector workers’ pension plans. Public
sector workers make significant contributions
to pay for future pension benefits. An average
pension for a 30-year employee would be
a modest $17,900 a year.
Most CUPE members don’t have 30 years of
service—and 30 per cent of CUPE members
aren’t even part of a pension plan.
As part of our pension campaign, CUPE is
strengthening our bargaining strategy to protect
pensions for members that have good
pension arrangements and boost our efforts to
win decent retirement incomes for those
members who don’t.
Download
