The following article was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the
Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, August 20th, 2003.
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Canada : Don't use our pension money against us
Unions tell OMERS, Borealis
Any attempt to use pension funds for a public-private partnership (P3)
redevelopment at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health's Queen
Street West facility would be a slap in the face to public sector
workers, says the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).
CUPE Ontario President Sid Ryan called on Borealis Funds Management Inc,
which is partly owned by the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement
System (OMERS), to stay out of public-private partnerships in the health
care sector. CUPE members make up almost half the active membership of
the pension plan.
"OMERS has handed its investment managers C$100 million of our members'
own money, given to OMERS in trust, to use against us", Ryan said.
"These P3 schemes are a scam designed to cut public sector jobs and
destroy collective agreements."
Public-private partnerships get capital costs off government books by
having private companies build facilities and lease them back to the
government. The private companies usually manage the buildings,
including maintenance and custodial services.
OMERS' official policy is not to invest in areas that could harm
services; however, it also agreed to set aside C$100 million for
investment in hospitals.
Leah Casselman, President of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union
(OPSEU) said that a P3 proposal for the Centre for Addiction and Mental
Health is a dismal failure, measured against the federal government's
criteria from the Industry Canada website, scoring at most 1.5 out of
11. She was horrified that workers' pension funds could be part of it.
"If you want to understand perversion, think about this idea: A pension
plan takes your money, invests it in a P3, which boots you out of your
unionised job, then hires you back at 75 per cent of your previous pay,
no benefits and no pension plan. And they say they are doing this in
your best interest! Now that is perverse."
"One thing we don't want to see is the contracting out of hospital
support services", said Barb Wahl, President of the Ontario Nurses'
Association (ONA). "Nurses do not want to see patients put at risk
because of competition for contracts. I shudder to think what might have
happened if the SARS-affected hospitals had been privatised. What masks
and supplies would have been available, and when?"
Despite the OMERS policy against investing in areas that would harm
services, Borealis is a preferred bidder for Brampton's William Osler
Health Centre redevelopment - a P3 that involves services, Sid Ryan said.
Joint trusteeship of the OMERS plan would be one way to ensure that
workers' pension monies are not used against them, said Rhonda
Kimberley-Young.
"We know how important joint trusteeship is from our fight to get some
control of the Teachers' Pension Plan", she said. "It's time to take
OMERS out of the control of the provincial government and let the
members have a say."
"Joint trusteeship will mean bringing union values to OMERS investing",
Ryan agreed. The other way to protect pension monies and jobs is to
defeat the Tories in the next provincial election, he added.
"Ontario needs a government that recognises its responsibility to
provide quality public services in a way that provides value to
taxpayers and protects jobs", he said.
Canadian Union of Public Employees
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