A Collective Win at OMERS

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The following correspondence was received this week from CUPE Ontario: 

The OMERS Governance Review was made public this week and its recommendations came as very good news to CUPE members in the plan. Our worst fears about the review didn’t materialize and its recommendations signal, for the most part, what we were looking.

But this favourable outcome didn’t happen by accident. All the successes – and the expected changes that will guarantee OMERS works for workers – are down to you and your efforts as members of the OMERS plan; and to the skill and expertise that we’ve built among CUPE Ontario leaders, our dedicated staff and CUPE national staff.

Together we undertook a campaign to ensure our voices were heard. CUPE Ontario was the only member of the Sponsors’ Corporation (SC) to make its written contribution to the review public. Robert Poirier, the OMERS governance review’s advisor, even recognized the comprehensiveness and expertise in our submission.

But CUPE Ontario went even further: our submission was accompanied by more than 60,000 names of CUPE members who supported our demands for change and accountability at OMERS. We printed out a list of names out and sent it along with our submission. Those thousands of names sent a clear message and were, on their own, an impressive achievement. Getting the names was the work of an entire team of activists, with special recognition going to Krista Laing, OMW chair, who led this initiative that made such a difference.

Among the changes we won:

  • the Sponsors Corporation will be replaced by a Sponsors Council, which ends corporate confidentiality requirements and marks a return of powers to the unions and employers
  • a restored co-chair model and the establishment of the council a real bargaining board
  • current corporate bylaws will be replaced by a charter
  • an end to honoraria for sponsors’ representatives
  • the addition of non-voting observer seats to the council
  • OMERS Administration Council will continue to fund actuarial and legal advice that the Sponsors Council needs

OMERS has been given until June 2027 as the timeline to complete all the changes called for in the review. Some will require changes to the OMERS Act, others will be carried out by ministerial order and changes to regulations. George Cooke, the board chair of OMERS Administration Corporation, will stay on to oversee the transition and review advisor Robert Poirier will stay on to shepherd the process.

The next steps will require our vigilance. One example: this Globe and Mail story about the OMERS review claim, in the last paragraphs, that no employee sponsors had complaints about OMERS’ returns or performance. That is patently untrue and we will correct the record.

As with every change, the devil will be in the details. The Ford government is ultimately responsible for creating the path to transition. We will be watching them closely – and they know it – to make sure that no unintended consequences will hurt our ability to control and influence the plan that manages the retirement future of tens of thousands of CUPE members.

Congratulations to everyone who worked to make this win possible.

In solidarity,
CUPE Ontario

Ontario is Burning

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Wildfires are ravaging our forests, forcing communities to evacuate, and smoke is choking our cities. And yet the Ford government cut 67% of funding to wildfire management programs and refuses to pay forest fire workers a fair wage.

It’s time for Premier Ford to stop gambling with our safety and support Ontario’s forest fire workers.

Send a message to your MPP, the Premier and the Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry. If thousands of us take action, we can put pressure on the provincial government to hire more crews, pay fair wages and treat workers with respect.

Please click the link below to sign to petition.

https://opseu.org/ontario-is-burning/

OMERS Cuts

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Youtube Video

For the last 18 months, OMERS has been conducting a review. They call it a “risk assessment,” but, based on OMERS’ past practice, we know it means OMERS decision-makers are considering more cuts to OMERS pension benefits.

Beginning in 2007, there were annual proposals that would have cut your OMERS pension benefits. Workers defeated them by pushing back together.

By 2017-2018, there were major campaign efforts to cut your OMERS benefits. These were unsuccessful because workers stood strong and fought them off.

Then, in 2019, the OMERS Sponsors Corporation board of directors rammed through governance changes. That paved the way for them, in 2020, to take advantage of the chaos we saw during the early days of COVID-19 pandemic and remove the guarantee of indexing for all new pensionable service after January 1 of this year.

For the portions of your pension earned prior to 2023, you were guaranteed to get an increase in your pension payments every year based on the cost of living rising – up to a maximum of six percent per year.

Now, whether the pension you are earning will keep up with inflation is at the whim of the secretive OMERS Sponsors Corporation board. For any pensionable service accrued going forward, the annual cost-of-living increase could be 100%, it could be 0%, or it could be somewhere in between. This could make workers poorer in retirement and there’s no good reason for it.

Does this sound like a done deal?

Well, it’s not.

CUPE Ontario has been providing pension activist training to frontline workers as the way to stop further OMERS cuts. So far, nearly one hundred CUPE members have participated and more are signed up to do the training in April. These activists are now ready to get their locals and employers involved in the campaign.

“While the big bosses at OMERS took home a combined $15.5 million in 2022, the average OMERS NRA65 pensioner got only $21,400 – hardly enough to live on these days,” explains Mike Galipeau, a custodian from Algoma District School Board and an OSBCU member organizer.

“Everyone deserves a sufficient and secure income when they are ready to retire, including you” Mike says. “It’s clear that workers mobilizing can stop pension cuts. So, I’m asking all my coworkers to get involved in this fight to cancel the cuts now.”
If all the unions and the retirees’ group that are represented on the OMERS Sponsors Corporation board stand united, we can defeat any proposals to cut our OMERS pensions. A two-thirds majority vote of the OMERS Sponsors Corporation board is needed to make changes to our benefits and/or contribution rates.

That’s why as part of current campaign, it’s important for all workers in OMERS – school board workers, municipal workers, Children’s Aid Societies’ workers, paramedics, firefighters and police – to join the fight to cancel the cuts.

Cancel the Cuts is just the start of reforming OMERS so that it’s focus is fulfilling the pension promise to workers.

“History is the proof,” observes Mike. “We can stop the latest OMERS cuts and protect retirement security for you, your coworkers and your community.”

“I’m not here just for myself because I could be retired already,” Mike admits. “This is about fairness for young workers too.”
Want to do your part to help stop OMERS pension cuts? Get in touch with the campaign organizers by e-mailing omers@cupe.on.ca.