NS UTES eter SRE” - ; er JARY-FEBRUARY, 1972 The preceding is merely an example. The table could be based on 125 hours providing 50 cents retirement benefits. We would recommend, however, that the minimum be set at 250 hours for eligibility purposes. Full vesting for future benefits may be provided should a member become eligible by com- pleting 5 ‘Plan Years’ i.e. 1500 hours per year for 5 years. Vesting here applies only to the purchase of pension benefits. Plan should show normal retirement at age 65. Early retirement may be provided within certain limits, certainly no earlier than age 55. Benefits to Plan Members: The plan should provide: (a) Minimum pension of $25.00 monthly for members of the union of 5 years standing, with at least 1000 credited hours prior to the first anniversary of the plan. (b) Normal pension as follows — $25.00 per month providing eligibility in (a) is met or the sum of benefits provided in the table under item 5, whichever is the greater. (c) A disability pension could be paid to plan members age 55 or over providing 5 full ‘Plan Years’ has been achieved and subject in- dividually to the discretion of the Plan Trustees. Pension for disability may be followed on a basis of pension earned at retirement or reduced on an actuarial basis. (d) Early retirement should be permitted at age 55. The formula for such retirement should be based on the actuarial equivalent of age 65 and pension earned to date. To qualify a member must have completed 5 ‘Plan Years.’ (e) Retirement income to be paid for the life of the plan member. Should the member die before receiving 60 monthly payments, the beneficiary or estate will receive the balance of the 60 payments. JOE HILL MOVIE SPARKS NEW INTEREST THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER PENSION COMMITTEE'S REPORT” how long out of the industry within the first 5 years should however be canvassed. Alternate Benefits Should Be: 1. Guaranteed life income only (enhanced pension). 2. Life income guaranteed 10 years. (A reduced amount). 3. A joint and last survivorship annuity 10 years certain. (A reduced pension.) 4. Ajoint and 273 1st survivorship annuity. (Areduced pension.) . 5. Any form of annuity acceptable to the trustees. (f) Death benefit after member has completed two ‘Plan Years’, should be a return of con- tributions plus prevailing interest rate as set by the Trustees at the end of each fiscal year. (g) Pension could be allowed for a member over 65 who is working part time, say 500 hours or less. Pension should not be available to a member over 65 working full time. 9. We recommend that late retirement be allowed to age 70, and the Pension actuarily improved for advanced age of plan member. This will include benefits earned between age 65 and 70. Note that we recommend that voluntary contributors provide pension on a money purchase basis only and that appropriate administration charges be made to that fund. We do not feel that voluntary contributions as such should be used to purchase block benefits as the hourly purchase plan provides. Once the: plan is under way, every member should receive a pensions kit and yearly reports of the contributions made on his behalf, with estimates of the pension benefits to which he or she is entitled. The plan should be fully portable within the Region. This would mean that if a plan member left one firm and joined another, he would not lose any of the future benefits in the plan. Rules such as WHY WE NEED MORE MONEY After two years of operation and experience, and from then on, it may very well be that the plan could be modified to provide more generous benefits. We recommend that to ensure success that modest benefits be provided at the outset with a view to liberalizing in the future. We recommend that any important additions or changes to the plan be approved by the Regional Conventions. The Pension Committee could prepare resolutions outlining the various options that the current surplus warrants. The most difficult kind of change would be an increase of the base hourly contributions. We recommend the following procedure: (a) That the “base” hourly contribution be that first negotiated in the Coast Master Agreement. (b) Other bargaining units will have to meet that ‘contribution to join the plan. (c) There will bea separate (money-purchase) fund for voluntary contributions. (d) If members from any bargaining unit want to increase the base hourly contribution, and if they succeed in negotiating that with their employer, the excess shall go first into the auxiliary (money-purchase) fund until a motion has been passed at a Regional Convention to increase the base. This procedure guards against one group being able to alter the plan by itself, and also against one group being able to “hold the plan back.” Each year the trust account must be properly audited by a properly qualified firm of chartered accountants. Each year there should be an actuarial review of the plan. Every three years there must be an actuarial evaluation of the plan. Respectfully submitted, DENNIS COCKE, M.L.A., EBP Consultants Ltd. The consumers price index advanced five percent between December 1970 and December 1971 in urban areas of Canada, according to figures released by Statistics Canada. This represents the third highest increase in the past decade. Between 1965 and 1971, the index has shown an annual average increase of 3.3 to 4.5 percent. Release of a new movie, Joe Hill, has sparked new interest in the martyred organizer of the old Industrial Workers of the World, known as the Wobblies. The movie was directed by Swedish filmmaker Bo Widerberg. It’s playing in Canadian cities. Little is known about the real Joe Hill. Joel Hagglund, or Joe Hillstrom (historians can’t agree) came to the United States in 1901. The movie charts the Swedish im- migrant’s first years in New York city slums to his death before a firing squad in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1915. He organized in western U.S. mining towns and wrote popular songs for the I.W.W. that still are sung in union gatherings. The first I.W.W. local in Canada was organized in 1906 in Canada. The Wobblies’ principal contribution to the union movement, some say, was their emphasis on one big union for all workers, a change from the craft unions of the time. The radical Wobblies were broken in 1917 to 1921 by the U.S. government, which harassed the first industrial union with Federal Bureau of Investigation raids. Labor historians feel Hill may have been framed for his union activities when brought to trial, charged with killing a man. The court records disappeared. Thefilm Joe Hill is a rarity since so few major movies have been made about labor unions or any aspect of working-class life, for that matter. One of the best is a little-known film, Adalen ‘31, by the same director. It tells of a prolonged mill-town strike, based on real events, that led to the massacre of peaceful demonstrators. se eee eee] LIGHTER SIDE Fred, the flunkey, once played on a girl’s basketball team. When he wasn’t drib- bling he was drooling. ‘ouce Coupe Pete told us t when his wife’s divorce me through it made her feel Kamloops Katie believes that a man is really getting old when he can’t take ‘‘Yes’”’ for an answer. Sawmill Sue thinks she has a million-dollar figure but her friends say the top half of her is counterfeit. Between November and December 1971, the index went up 7/10ths of one percent, the second highest for a similar period in 10 years. In the previous year, December 1969 to December 1970, the index went up only 1.5 percent due in part to the price war in super- markets. On a month by month basis, the price index increase in 1971 was up only 2.9 percent over the 1970 average. PROGRAMS DON’T WORK Federal incentive programs have failed to wipe out eco- nomic disparities among Canadian regions, according to Professor Kari - Levitt, economist, McGill University Professor Levitt said that the programs have actually ex- tended the depressed areas to include half of the country. Addressing a conference sponsored by Manitoba’s Eco- nomic Development Advisory Board, she stated that Man- itoba’s development projects, especially the multi-million dollar Churchill Forest Indus- tries complex at The Pas, are “‘a monumental series of blun- ders on a worldwide scale.”’ HANEY HANEY BUSINESS GUIDE ESQUIRE MEN’S WEAR (Graham Mowatt) Complete Stock of Work and Dress Clothing “THE STORE WITH THE POPULAR BRANDS” The problem with forced growth with governmental. assistance, she argued, is that projects become bogged down in secrecy, apathy and huge technocratic bureaucracies. “In the development field, we have become involved in a bureaucratic jungle where civil servants spend millions of dollars without accountability . . . Lo find out what has hap- pened to all the DREE (Department of Regional Eco- nomic Expansion) money would keep a graduate re- search student busy for 10 years. BRITISH COLUMBIA START YOUR OWN BUSINESS ON CREDIT Be your own Boss. 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