Current and Future Status of Pensions
Pension plans are a relatively new concept in financial dealings, born in the early 50's and 60's most pension plans have not seen a full retirement scenario and market turmoil as they have in the last few years.
Pension plans generally were designed to provide lifelong income to retired workers to help remove the burden of support from governments and families, and provide a standard of living for older workers. The amounts needed to fund such plans were thought to be adequate at the time, but the longevity of members and increased income levels, were not given the level of priority that, in hindsight they should have.
On April 9th the CAW held an emergency meeting in response to Premier Dalton McGuinty’s warning that the Ontario Pension Guarantee Fund is insufficient to provide pensions to autoworkers in the event of a bankruptcy of GM.
Rick Laporte, president of local 444 stated: "Our retirees are very scared; there is no question about it. We don’t know from one day to the next whether or not the company is going to survive".
Get the facts on your GM Pension
There is no doubt that the biggest news story of 2009 is and will be the GM pension problems not only here in Canada but in the USA too.
The only reason you are here to review this material is that you too are concerned that GM Canada does not have the means to pay you the pension offered, that you and the CAW accepted and GM promised to pay when you first started working there.
Why be concerned?
As I'm sure you know the funding shortfall of the GM pension in Canada is reported to be almost $7 billion, yes $7,000,000,000! That’s almost $250,000 for each current GM worker and retiree in Canada.
Where can or will this money come from?
Is a worst case of GM a GM failure possible and could pension benefits be lost. It is a rare event but it has happened, and has happened in the south western Ontario region. Do you remember Kelsey Hayes, or Dominion Forge or Allied Chemical? Pension promises were made to all these workers too and what was the end result for these people?
Here's another very good site offering insight to GM current and future retirees.
Of those workers who have received an offer from GM to retire before the scheduled plant closure in the summer of 2010, many have been given up to 16 choices as to what they may do for retirement options, a staggering number of choices indeed.
Regardless of the number of choices given each member must evaluate each choice to ensure they have complete unbiased understanding of the results of each choice available.
Each choice is different and although some may seem silly, each has special consideration and must be reviewed...that's why they are there.
Basically though, regardless of the total number of options, it boils down to four choices, and they are big and important. Learn about them here.