Presented by Ken Georgetti on Thursday, 26 August 2010

(Check against delivery)

Sisters and brothers, I am pleased to bring you greetings of solidarity from the Canadian Labour Congress and its 3.2 million members.

It’s always good to speak to your union because as a trained plumber and pipefitter, when I was on the job I always - always - looked up to electrical workers.

Now, the only reason I looked up to them was because they were always working 20 feet in the air on a power pole...

But I still respected the electrical workers – because if they screwed up, they got seriously zapped – but if I screwed up – my hands smelled bad for a few days...

I want to thank Phil Flemming, the IBEW’s Vice President for Canada for inviting me to speak to you.

Brother Flemming is a strong voice for the IBEW on our Executive Committee, bringing forward the issues that are most important to your membership.

And Phil is committed to working with the CLC and our affiliated unions on the broader campaigns we undertake to help all workers.

On a personal note, I was saddened earlier this year to hear that Rick Dowling – the Local 213 Business Manager and a member of your International Executive Council – passed away suddenly in May.

Rick gave four decades of service to the IBEW and to our labour movement – he will be deeply missed.

I am particularly pleased to speak with you today because the IBEW has been one of the building trade unions most committed to the Canadian Labour Congress and its work.

Regrettably, some building trade unions left the CLC some years ago – a move that lessened our collective strength and ability to influence public policy.

But I’m very happy to tell you that those building trade unions are returning to the House of Labour.

I recently spoke to the Labourers International convention – the first time a CLC President has done so since 1996 – to welcome them back.

But what I want to tell the IBEW is that your constant support throughout those years for the CLC has been extremely important to the organization and has helped make possible this rejuvenation of our labour movement in Canada.

The IBEW has also been critical in its work on the Structural Review of the CLC and central labour bodies that has now been completed.

That Structural Review ensures that the services the CLC provides to the IBEW gives you and your union the best value for your per capita dollars.

In this rapidly changing world, the CLC must continually look at how we operate to make sure the focus is always on the concerns of our members.

Thanks to the Structural Review – and your involvement through Brother Flemming’s key role in that work – the CLC is better able to respond to affiliates’ needs.

Well, I am also very excited by the theme of your All Canada Progress Meeting - Younger Workers - Our Next Generation.

So let’s talk about...retirement!

Does that sound strange?

Well, it should – because young workers just don’t think much about retiring when they’ve only started their careers.

And that’s only natural – they have decades of working life ahead of them before retirement.

But there is a retirement crisis right now in Canada – and those who will potentially either suffer the most – or hopefully benefit the most – are younger workers – our next generation.

Their future will depend on whether – and how we solve the retirement crisis.

It will also depend on who the government listens to.

Will it be the banks and big business – who have made a mess of both our economy and our ability to retire?

Or will government listen to the working people who actually build this country?

That’s why the Canadian Labour Congress is putting enormous efforts into what we believe is the most important public social policy issue facing Canadians in decades – the need for retirement security and pension reform.

And let me tell you – younger workers are relying on all of us in the labour movement today to fight for their right to retire with dignity, security and respect in the future.

Here’s why we have a retirement crisis – a crisis that big business and the banks don’t want to hear about.

Right now, in this amazingly rich country, 1.6 million seniors are living in poverty – that means they earn less than $15,000 per year.

It is simply unacceptable.

That’s reason enough for dramatic change to retirement security.

But there are still many more reasons.

Registered Retirement Savings Plans were supposed to safeguard retirement – but only one Canadian taxpayer in four made any RRSP contribution in 2008.

And only 1 in 3 Canadians bought RRSPs in 2009.

One-third of Canadian workers between the ages of 24 and 64 have absolutely no personal retirement savings. None.

Even if they do have an RRSP, the average value for an older worker nearing retirement would pay them less than $300 per month.

It gets worse – only 38.5% of employers offer pensions – mostly in union workplaces.

And even workers with pensions face cuts.

Employers are forcing workers to give up their superior defined benefit pension plans and accept inferior defined contribution pension plans, where income is dependent on the high risk market.

Both RRSPs and defined contribution pension plans put an intolerable degree of risk into retirement plans, when the goal should obviously be to offer security.

So let me sum up this gloomy problem – and explain the sensible solution the CLC is offering.

If we as a country agree that seniors living in poverty is unacceptable;

If Canadians understand that RRSPs aren’t working;

And if we see that defined benefit pension plans are on the decline – where do we go?

The Canadian Labour Congress believes our plan for retirement security is very simple, very effective and most important – very affordable and achievable.

The CLC wants to double the benefits of the Canada Pension Plan.

It may seem dramatic – but the doubling of Canada Pension Plan benefits over 7 to 10 years can easily be achieved – and should be a government priority.

What’s more – the majority of provincial Finance Ministers are supporting expansion of the CPP – this is a huge accomplishment already.

They don’t yet support as dramatic an improvement as the CLC believes necessary – but at least it is a very positive start.

We also have the strong backing of Canadian mayors and councillors, who passed a resolution calling for pension reform nearly identical to the CLC plan at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities convention in May.

And no wonder we are winning support across the country – just think about the Canada Pension Plan.

The CPP already covers 93% of all Canadians, union or non-union.

The CPP is portable – no matter where you work, or how many times you change jobs, CPP benefits follow you.

And it’s universal – all workers pay into it – whether employed or self-employed.

So improving the CPP is the simplest and most effective way to dramatically improve the retirement security of all Canadians.

I want to emphasize for IBEW members the portability and universality of the CLC proposal – it is literally meant for workers who will likely have many employers in many locations during their career.

The result – modest contribution increases would double the average CPP pension benefits to a maximum of $1,635 per month in 2009 dollars.

The CLC plan would mean a fundamentally better pension system for younger workers, who would gain the full advantages by the time they are considering retirement.

But even if you are not a young worker, this plan will help you too.

A 58-year-old worker who retired at 65 – that’s just seven years of CPP contributions under our plan – would increase their retirement benefits by about $29,000.

Is it costly? No.

For a worker who earns $47,200 or more a year, doubling future CPP benefits works out to an increased CPP premium of about 9 cents an hour, or $3.60 a week.

Isn’t retirement security worth the price of a fancy coffee or a beer once a week?

In addition to making the CPP the main choice for retirement security, the Canadian Labour Congress believes two more changes are urgently needed to improve retirement security.

We need an immediate 15% increase in the Guaranteed Income Supplement benefits to lift those 1.6 million seniors I told you about out of poverty.

And we need pension plan insurance to protect every worker’s pension income, so they can retire with dignity and security.

We insure our lives, our homes, our vehicles, our jobs – but not our pensions!

That doesn’t make any sense – it must change.

Sisters and brothers – we have already made great progress towards dramatically improving the Canada Pension Plan – and with your support I know we can achieve the kind of retirement security every Canadian worker deserves.

Lastly, I can’t resist leaving with a quote about how others view your jobs as electrical workers.

As writer Dave Barry says:

“We believe that electricity exists, because the electric company keeps sending us bills for it, but we cannot figure out how it travels inside wires.”

As a plumber, I can only agree!

Thank you.