In this summer of union discontent, we are seeing another chapter in the great class struggle around which socialism defined itself. Yet paradoxically, the class that is ?struggling? is indeed the one with least to worry about.
Unionism draws from socialism, and that invariably draws from Marx?s class warfare. However, in today?s Canada, the ?upper class? for most of us is not the robber barons or aristocrats. They aren?t on our radar, and we hardly know them. For us, the upper class is in fact the upper middle class, those with good paying, union, Crown corporation or government jobs (often one and the same); people who have these things called magic numbers.
A magic number is typically laid out in a contract where your years of credited service plus your age equals the day you can retire. It your magic number is 90, for instance, and you started work at 20, you can retire at 55, after 35 years of service.
The problem is, people these days don?t live to 65, or 75. They?re living to 85 and beyond. Someone has to pay for those pension plans, for decades. It turns out not enough money has gone into them, or more importantly, economic conditions and a period of low interest rates has depleted them. Unfunded pension liabilities are becoming a millstone around the necks of governments and large corporations alike.
So we see Canada Post workers on strike, and Air Canada is soon to follow. Teachers have also had labour discord, although the issues differ somewhat.
They all seem to be blind to what happened over the last few years with the Detroit Three automakers, at least General Motors and Chrysler. Overly-generous pensions that never end nearly sunk them, and just about took the Canadian and American economies with them.
It?s really hard, as someone in the private sector without a pension plan, to feel sorry for these people. I started putting money away for my retirement when I was 21. It was by no stretch the 18 per cent recommended each year, not even half of that. Yet through a house purchase and a few times of financial difficulty, much of those savings were eaten up. I had a union pension when I did pipeline work, but that work was so spotty, I had to give it up. I am vested for a defined benefit amount, but after inflation, I might be able to buy lunch with that monthly pension when I am 65, maybe a sandwich for my wife, too, but no coffee.
Essentially, I can retire when I am dead. Thank God I have a wife who will have a public pension. I hope she keeps me.
Governments in Europe are coming to the realization that they can?t support pensioners for so long. The Netherlands is raising its retirement age from 65 to 67. France had the ridiculously low retirement age of 60. Much of last year, the nation was up in arms because the government raised it to 62 for early retirement, and 67 from 65 for full benefits.
In the case of Canada Post, the world is shifting around it, just like it did for General Motors. It has yesterday?s product in today?s age. I know my Purolator delivery person by name, but not my letter carrier, who drops off the mail by van to a mailbox down the block. Purolator, ironically, is owned by Canada Post. It is in some ways one of its biggest competitors, and likely future salvation.
To me, the upper class is not so much the men puffing cigars in ivory towers. I never see them. But I do see the folks on my street spending their days golfing during an early retirement, and I know I will never be one of them. I will admit there is distinct jealousy there. Indeed, I am jealous of the fact my wife will be able to retire around 54. I just hope I am still employable at 66.
So while unions have done well by their members in establishing such generous pension benefits, they can no longer claim to be the oppressed proletariat. They are soon going to find themselves more like the rest of us - without such wonderful benefits. Perhaps some of those people protesting should realize they are lucky to be getting anything at all, because the rest of us are not.
? Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at [email protected].
