CAW pensions

In this past week we witnessed a protest on behalf of the Canadian Autoworkers Union at Queen's Park in Toronto. There beef? The McGuinty government of Ontario was making noise about not honouring it's commitments to the protection of their lucrative pensions. While at first glance this may seem like an easy cause to get behind, it's not that simple. Most Canadians (and indeed most average people in general) can only dream of retiring in the comfort that until now has been the norm for CAW retiree's. For this reason it's hard for most of us to be sympathetic to their cause. The reality is the unrealistic bubble that autoworkers have lived in for the past forty or fifty years has now burst! GM, Ford and Chrysler simply couldn't sustain the gravy train and remain competitive. We are now faced with the very real possibility of one or more of these companies going bankrupt. So the CAW will have to face reality and realize that things are never going back to the way they were - there is a new reality. They need to accept the fact that the average Canadian is not willing to pay for their pension. I know many will argue that a deals a deal and the government should honour it's commitments, but the economy has changed drastically in the last few months and this kind of thinking simply isn't practical. Having said that I'm sure if I was a CAW retiree I would be fighting tooth and nail to protect my pension - it's only natural.