Dipac

We continue with our effort to encourage all pensioner beneficiaries of our plan to Register and become Active Members of DIPAC. The Dec 2008 Communique material recently sent by email or regular mail, to all pensioners where we have contact information, included the following "letter" to those who are not currently full participants in DIPAC.

Membership in DIPAC

Our records indicate you are not currently a ‘registered' Active Member and a financial supporter of DIPAC, despite having received our Communiqués, which have included an invitation to participate. Perhaps you overlooked the annual renewal for 2008. Also possible is that the Registration form simply became misplaced, or worked its way to the bottom of your "to do" list.

On that basis, this latest issue of the DIPAC's Communiqué provides you with another registration opportunity. If you have no interest in being a member of DIPAC, simply let us know by return mail and we will de-activate your name in our contact records, and bother you no further. If you have not made up your mind, read on.

A substantial number of our pensioners believe quite strongly in the benefits of DIPAC. Similarly, DIPAC's contact with other pensioner organizations has confirmed the view that ‘all is not healthy' on the pension legislation front in general. Perhaps the Ontario provincial government is starting to awaken to this situation. The study recently
completed, and the report expected shortly from the Ontario Expert Commission on Pensions, will hopefully reflect submissions by DIPAC, and other pensioner associations.

While many pensioners may be confident they can ‘roll with' almost any adverse turn of events, that confidence may not be warranted. Most of us have placed our trust in applicable provincial and federal legislation. However the sad reality is that legislation provides significantly less protection than most imagine. If an employer/sponsor of a pension plan goes bankrupt at a point where the pension plan is seriously under-funded (and current legislation readily permits under-funding), the pension plan deficit has little competitive standing opposite other creditors...and the consequence is reduced pension payout. Many pensioners from other organizations have suffered this fate. Furthermore, legislation intended to ‘guarantee' pensions is limited to maintaining only the first $1000/mo. of pension benefit. Thus your pension in excess of this amount could be reduced under bankruptcy circumstances.

Pensioners also generally have little status in applicable legislation with respect to accessing pension plan financial information, and a receptive ear with the Financial Services Commission of Ontario. Of equal concern is the continuing security of ‘other' benefits. For example, promptly after Stelco worked

its way out of ‘bankruptcy protection', it unilaterally modified ‘other benefits' with several ‘take away' changes which significantly impacted a number of folks in a serious way. These are but a few of the points DIPAC attempted to impress upon the "Expert Commission" in November, 2007.

Hopefully DuPont/INVISTA pensioners will never face these possibilities. We wish INVISTA every possible success.

But at the same time we believe we would be mistakenly naïve to not organize ourselves and become informed as to the ‘hazards' that abound, and to be pro active in this respect. This is DIPAC's purpose, and the more pensioners we can claim to represent, the greater the influence we may have. DIPAC provides assurance that factors important to your interests are being monitored, that you will be kept informed of developments, and will that your interests will be represented if warranted. You provide support through registration and modest annual dues.

Please give this invitation your serious consideration and prompt attention.

Thank You

The DuPont/INVISTA Pensioners Association-Canada