Teamsters Canada Rail Conference

Federal Budget

This year, Teamsters Canada was once again invited to the Shareholders Pre-Budget Lockup. The mood in the room was surprisingly optimistic despite a $54B deficit announced for the year and the anticipation of an increase in debt of about $100 billion within 5 years.

Over the next five years, the tax cuts for businesses will cost Canadian taxpayers more than $60 billion. Never in our history have so many Canadians gone into debt to the benefit of so few. Already, some companies are boasting a greater profit margin for next year through these tax cuts.

"This increase in profits should not result in job losses and declining conditions of workers,” warns Teamsters Canada President Robert Bouvier. “The unions can not tolerate the impoverishment of Canadians for the benefit of a handful of powerful leaders."

Teamsters Canada calls for full accountability in the form of a "performance report card" for taxpayers. Tax cuts should lead to job creation and rising incomes; they should not result in higher profits and an increase in salaries of officials, as we have seen too often in recent years.

The middle-class in survival mode

Canada’s middle-class struggles to maintain its gains and purchasing power. The economic crisis that has shaken the banking institutions has had a dramatic impact on workers.

We know that this crisis is the direct result of mismanagement of funds and the greed of some leaders in the financial world. However, Teamsters Canada announced as early as 2005 a crisis would hit the western world and that it would behove portfolio managers and captains of industries to put aside very short-term economic profitability and replace it with a responsible long-term plan. In short: less profit, but increased financial stability.

It is very evident that this warning has not been heeded and that the admonishments of many workers’ rights organizations and even those of some fund managers, have not been heard.

"Tens of thousands of workers are still suffering the aftershocks of the crisis,” said Robert Bouvier. “I want to believe the federal government when it says an upswing is looming on the horizon, but it should also ensure that this recent scenario does not reoccur."

Pension Plans in Peril

The middle class has not only borne the full brunt of the economic crisis, but it may continue to suffer in the future, the result of the mishandling of pensions and the casual attitude of some Canadian companies in this regard.

The demonstration organized jointly by the Teamsters Union and several other unions in Ottawa reminded Canadians that the retirement benefits from private plans are in danger. This event helped hundreds of employees of Nortel and Flextronics (the workers of the latter were represented by the Teamsters Union until its closure) to voice their concerns in the media and has forced politicians to take a position on this matter.

For the third time within a year, Teamsters Canada was asked to weigh in on the issue of pension plans at a hearing before the Standing Committee on Finance that is undertaking an initiative whose result will be the announcement by the government of a review of these plans later this year. A consensus seems to have developed around the position of Teamsters Canada that retirement benefits are income withheld from workers and must be protected as they should.

Teamsters Canada supports reforms that would require promoters of pension plans to invest prudently in bonds to avoid financial uncertainty as much as possible. It goes without saying that we support any bills aiming at granting pension funds the status of prior encumbrancer in the event of bankruptcy.

We must give priority to salaries and benefits for workers in the event of bankruptcy of their employer. We are therefore waiting for the forthcoming conferences and will support the reforms necessary to fully protect the pensions of workers.

In fact, one of our objectives on the Hill is to ensure that politicians keep in mind that viable pension plans are a safe way to avoid the impoverishment of seniors. Healthy private pension plans will also take a lot of considerable pressure off public pension plans.

"The question on everyone's mind in Ottawa right now is ‘how to protect workers’ pension plans?’” concluded the President of Teamsters Canada. “We will continue to give voice to the views of our members, and workers in general, and to ensure that they are not forgotten by the politicians.”
 

The Teamsters Union represents 45,000 members in Quebec in all trades. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, with which Teamsters Canada is affiliated, has 1.4 million members in North America.