Good morning. Thank you for agreeing to meet with us to talk about the difficulties we are experiencing.
With me this morning is Germain Auclair, who will perhaps speak more to the problems specific to Smurfit-Stone, which was granted protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, and the direct consequences of that protection on workers who are about to retire and those who have already retired.
I am the Vice-President of the Quebec section of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada. We represent 50,000 workers in the forestry sector, 22,000 of whom work in Quebec. Since 2006, more than 5,000 people have permanently lost their jobs. The forestry sector is going through an unprecedented crisis. I will not dwell on the fact that, to date, the forestry sector has received little assistance, compared with the automobile sector.
What must be understood is that, once companies are protected under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, be it AbitibiBowater or Smurfit-Stone, nearly 10,000 pensioners are threatened because there is no system that will protect their benefits. This is happening in all regions throughout Quebec, so there is an extremely significant impact on the regional economy.
There is another difficulty: for the last three years, we have been negotiating all sorts of cost cutbacks that would allow workers to retire. Today, under attrition programs, people are still waiting, and we are waiting for the money needed to allow them to leave, while keeping the youngest workers in their jobs. Unfortunately, it was announced yesterday that AbitibiBowater will not finance the solvency deficits. If there were to be a bankruptcy, the consequences would be dire. Some people would not be able to retire, young workers would be laid off, and there would be a labour shortage in the short term.
What is even more disappointing is that, just as Smurfit-Stone was granted protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, it was able to secure $47 million to use as executive bonus retention incentives. Meanwhile, in Montreal, 200 employees at two paper factories had their pension plan cut by $8 million.
So, it is obvious that current measures applicable to private pension plans do not provide financial security to workers when they retire.
One of the first recommendations would be to create a pension insurance program that would prevent total insecurity for these people. We need a federal pension insurance system, and we believe that this system should be built in collaboration with the provincial governments.
I will hand the floor over to Germain so that he can talk to you about the direct consequences, in his capacity as a retired member and a member of the Retirement Committee.