The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) is the latest organization to speak out against the Canadian Federation of Independent Business’s (CFIB) recent campaign against public sector pensions.
PIPSC has released a video indicating plans to launch an awareness campaign targeted specifically at disproving the CFIB’s claims. In the video, PIPSC vice-president David Gray says the CFIB’s campaign is an attack against the public service, set on “demoniz[ing] the reputation of millions of Canadian public sector workers.” He says PIPSC’s counter-campaign will refute the CFIB’s claims that public servants receive “gold-plated pensions” and that there is a deficit in the public sector pension plan.
The CFIB’s campaign, called Canada’s Pension Tension, says that public sector pensions are unfair and underfunded. It suggests that better balance could be achieved by putting new public servants in DC plans, ensuring that public sector workers contribute at least 50% of their pension costs and requiring employees in both the public and private sectors to put in the same number of working years.
The organization says it has received several thousand signed petitions from small business owners and hundreds of followers on a Facebook page dedicated to the campaign.
“We knew that shining a light on public sector pensions would draw strong reaction from public sector union bosses,” said CFIB president Catherine Swift. However, she said she was surprised at how quickly these unions have stepped in to defend what she calls “unsustainable public sector pension arrangements.”
The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) has also been battling the pension dispute as part of its fight against proposed government cuts to public services. Patty Ducharme, PSAC’s executive vice-president, calls the CFIB’s message a “cynical campaign, designed for no other reason than to divide Canadians.”
But Swift says there are public sector workers on her side, who disagree with their unions’ stances. “We know there are many hard-working, responsible public sector workers who share our concerns about the fairness and sustainability of their pension arrangements,” she said. “Many have witnessed what is happening in other countries and have approached us on the subject. However, their unions are spending their mandatory union contributions on campaigns in an attempt to silence the very alarm bell the CFIB is ringing.”
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