By Chris Kincaid
Briarpatch Magazine
September/October 2006
PENSION: I’m not dead!
UNION: He says he’s not dead!
COMPANY: Yes, he is.
PENSION: I’m not!
UNION: He isn’t.
COMPANY: Well, he will be soon; he’s very ill.
PENSION: I’m getting better!
COMPANY: No, you’re not—you’ll be stone dead in a moment.
(With apologies to Monty Python)
What can people do to ensure a decent retirement? A good workplace pension is a smart place to start. But the common line employers are giving these days is that what’s good for the company is good for the workforce—even if that includes cutting employees’ pensions. But workers shouldn’t take these arguments lying down.
When the Canadian media bothers to talk about pensions, plans are described as “deteriorating,” “underfunded,” “in the red,” “failing,” and other terrible things. We are told that pensions are on their deathbeds. A recent article in the Edmonton Journal, for example, stated that underfunding of pensions is “creating a crisis today that threatens the existence of defined-benefit plans.”
