Autoworkers want Ontario to protect their pensions
Thousands of retired autoworkers descended on the Ontario legislature on Thursday to demand pension protection.
But the province says the pensioners have little to fear unless General Motors is forced to sell off all of its assets under bankruptcy.
Organizers said they were planning to bring dozens of buses to Toronto from the Ontario communities of Oshawa and Windsor, and by midday there were thousands of retired autoworkers carrying flags and banners on the front lawn of Queen's Park.
Retired GM worker Dan Garvey, 62, of Oshawa, said the government appears to be siding with the companies and squeezing the pensioners, adding if the government doesn't listen it will "get it" at the ballot box.
Loretta Woodcock, a Canadian Auto Workers union member who works for Air Canada, said she worries her pension will be on the chopping bloc next.
Economic Development Minister Michael Bryant said the safety of autoworkers' pensions would only become an issue in the "extreme circumstance" of liquidation.
Bryant said he's confident things won't get that bad, and added the companies, government and union are all working to ensure GM and Chrysler stay afloat.
But some analysts say pension problems are more widespread — that it's not just autoworkers who are fearful.
"What you're seeing today [Thursday] is just the beginning of protests that labour will be mounting around the issue of pensions," auto industry analyst Charlotte Yates said on CBC Newsworld.
Incomes could be reduced
The GM rally is the latest of a series started after Premier Dalton McGuinty said there wasn't enough money in the province's safety net to cover GM pensions if the company goes under.
Even in the event of a bankruptcy filing, no Canadian judge has ever required pensioners to abandon their pensions, Bryant said.
But he wouldn't say whether retirement incomes would remain at current levels or might be reduced.
Bryant said he can't predict what portion of their pensions retired autoworkers will get if GM goes bankrupt, because it's up to management and labour to figure that out.
Ontario's Pension Benefits Guarantee Fund provides pensioners with as much as $1,000 a month in the event a pension plan fails to provide its full benefit, or any at all. It is funded by corporate contributions, and the government has no legal obligation to top it up.
It currently holds about $100 million, while pension experts estimate GM's pension shortfall could top $6 billion.