The Tale Unfolds

The Nortel pensioner group are dealing with tough situations. The company’s bankruptcy/insolvency action in combination with the applicable Federal and Ontario legislation is playing havoc with their retirement expectations.

Not only are pension benefits reduced by approximately 35% or more, but also impacted are the discontinuance of Long Term Disability benefits as well as more ‘routine’ other benefits such as Medical, Dental and Life Insurance coverage.

About the only ‘good’ development that has taken place is the Ontario decision to permit the pension fund balance to be placed under professional management, so that with successful investment results some restoration of the 35% deficit might take place. Without that Ontario agreement, the fund was destined to be converted to annuity type holdings which in today’s investment world is an unattractive event.

To assist each other work through these difficulties Nortel Pensioners have created these two ‘information exchange/communication’. Here is a link to their web site:

Nortel Web Site

The other is a Q&A ‘self help’ communication arrangement that can be found at:

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Nortel_Pension/

This ‘yahoo group’ is a pensioner forum where individuals can raise questions and other individuals, who are knowledgeable, provide answers and/or share their experience. You can join this group and as a result receive copies of the emails exchanged between pensioners. This is virtually a live tracking of the problems and issues being faced by these pensioners.

‘The Tale Unfolds’ is an interesting and depressing recap of the fate these folks are experiencing. Unfortunately this fate does not tweak the priorities of our elected representatives in Ottawa who have seen to it that bill C-501 has gone/is going the way of the Dodo Bird…into extinction. The lack of political support opposite this issue demonstrates the importance and need for concerned individuals (you & I & others) to contact their MP or MPP and express the need for top priority political action. The reality is that our pensions are only as secure as the legislation that applies to pension governance, and this legislation currently has many deficiencies.

For the past few years DIPAC has been fighting for effective Federal and Provincial pension-related regulations. Unfortunately the Nortel experience is not unique; there is a long list of pensioner groups who have suffered similar fate. As it currently stands this scene can and will be repeated.

The needed changes will only come by pressuring the politicians to amend legislation and there is opposition to the needed change. To date this effort has received some support from individual DIPAC members, but the participation has been modest when you consider that requests to Contact Your MP/MPP have gone out to over 1500 individuals. We need all of you to act when the DIPAC leadership group asks….write, email and/or meet with the ‘target’ group. And if you did it when asked the last time, do it again! It is discouraging that some apparently either feel this is below them or not worth the effort. Experience indicates that the effort pays off. Politicians will listen if their constituents speak up.