Aug 23
Canadian Government sides with Goliath again!
CWB has been asked to get a serious message and request for help out to our members and supporters. Please review the following petition requesting that the Government make emergency amendments to the Bankruptcy and Insonvency Act (BIA) to give preferred status to the claims of pensioners, the disabled and severed employees, putting workers in front of the line of creditors.
Given our current laws that favor large multinational companies, thousands of Canadians risk losing their pensions and benefits. Please take the time to read the following:
Mail in deadline August 27.
Melanie Johannink of the Fix BIA Now team has worked with her local MP (Tilson) and had them agree to take forward our petition to Parliament to fix the CCAA, BIA and Investment Canada Acts. Unfortunately the existing petition and the fact that it is electronic will not permit it to be legal in the House. Melanie has sinced prepared a new formal petition that will be collated over the coming weeks in preparation to submit to MP David Tilson at the end of August.
To sign the petition, please go to the files area and download the PDF Petition to House of Commons - fixBIA. . Once downloaded you can read the petition request on the first pages, but only print the second page and sign there. The first page will be on the master copy and will be the cover page for all the other signatures. The third page of the document is also instructions on how to submit the petition with the mailing address, etc.
It is important to sign this one even if you have signed the online petition - this one will be more official and go to the House. Please also circulate to everyone you know. We have had excellent interest so far on the online petition - we have over 2500 signatures to date.
Thanks to everyone for getting involved.
Sincerely,
Paul A. Hanrieder & the Fix BIA Now team.
You can read about this initiative in other media:
Pressure rises to protect our pensions
Underfunded Pension Plans and Reduced Retirement Security
August 23rd, 2009 at 9:27 pm
The pension I am worried about is from GM where I was a salaried employee for 27 years.
August 24th, 2009 at 8:57 am
Well, here is a good way to protect your pension in the future. Sign the petition, force the Canadian Govt to play fair with hard working Canadians. If Nortel and Abitibi pensioners can get screwed so can you.
August 24th, 2009 at 11:40 pm
I am probably going to open up a can of worms but… If im not in a union and my rrsp goes belly up do i expect the govt. to bail me out? NO!!! These union members decided (there choice) to rely on GM or Chrysler to be there pension managers, Well sometimes investments go bad. Maybe they should have had the teachers union investing for them. Maybe the dumbass union bosses should have inquired into how the pension fund was being managed? TOOO BAD! Yes you worked hard, just like most working canadians/americans but unions feel a sense of entitlement… SOCIALISM! Union members placed their trust in their leaders and got burned, now they want the rest of canada to bail them out. NO THANK YOU! The union wages were always higher than average which was part of the problem with GM, Ford and Chrysler. Don’t come crying to the average canadian when your leaders didnt want to be real! the unions made there bed now they should have to sleep in it.
PS. I feel for all the union workers (not the butthead leaders) but this is capitalism. If you want socialism where everyone is equal the plane ticket to Cuba is only $400.
August 25th, 2009 at 1:12 am
Drew, You hit the nail on the head. I could not agree with you more!
August 25th, 2009 at 10:20 am
I guess you folks were against the Obama ( Harper) car bailouts and Medicare. That is fine, but we are not sure that you understood the issue with the bancruptcy insolvency act. BIA.
Bondholders, shareholders and suppliers should not have precident over employees and former employees when dividing up the spoils of a mismanged company.
The U.S. has pension protection of up to $25,000 per U.S. employee.
Ontario is the only province in Canada that has protection. It offers up to $1000.00 per month.
Many Canadians that worked for Nortel have had their serverance payments or disability payments halted. Should laws not exist that protect these funds. Why are they considered part of the corporate assets. Maybe they should be put away in trust once initiated.
Canadian Laws in this area need an overhall.
Just as we require tougher new laws to prevent the Earl Jones and Hershey Rose incidents. We also need new BIA and pension reform laws to protect both Union and non-union citizens.
And what about all your rich boys hiding funds offshore in Switzerland to avoid paying taxes. UBS is now giving up names to the U.S. Government. We heard recently that the Canadian Government got off its ass and is now demanding the same info.
Surely there has to be some system in a grey area between pure Capitalism and Socialism were fairness prevails.