PIPSC Video Transcript
The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) launched a major campaign targeted at CFIB members to defend its pension arrangements. A video launching their campaign was posted online but following CFIB's release, PIPSC hid its anti-CFIB video from the public. This is the transcript of that video.
A Message to our Members about the CFIB
Hello, I'm David Gray, Vice-President of the Professional Institute.
For some time, we've heard the leadership of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, an organization that claims to represent the interests of over 100,000 small business owners across the country, attack the public service and demonize the reputation of millions of Canadian public sector workers, including the professionals represented by the Institute.
The CFIB, and in particular its President Catherine Swift, consistently depict the public sector as a waste of taxpayers' money. Public service employees are portrayed as overpaid and lazy, and interested only in collecting what she calls "gold-plated" pensions.
Not surprisingly, Ms. Swift has found a ready audience in some circles, where anti-union rhetoric is always welcome in the name of business profits. Unfortunately, many federal and provincial politicians have climbed aboard the CFIB bandwagon, some because they honestly agree with its positions, others because they realized that they could easily pick up a few extra votes at election time by standing on a soapbox and pointing fingers at public service employees.
Well it's time to set the record straight once and for all. I'm here today to tell you about a new PIPSC awareness campaign, and how you, as a member of Canada's professional public service, can help turn the tide in this war against the Public Good.
Let's start with the facts.
First, despite what has been widely reported in the media, public service workers do not receive a gold plated pension plan. The average public sector worker's pension is currently in the $35,000 range - that is hardly a scandalous figure. We also contribute, on average, considerably more to our pensions than our counterparts in the private sector. Meanwhile, they enjoy variable pay, lump-sum bonuses, stock options and generally higher salaries that are simply not available to our members. Our pensions are part of our compensation. We gave up wage increases for a good pension.
Second, there is no deficit in the Public Service Pension Plan that will drive Canada into the proverbial hole if something isn't done. The CFIB's constant statements to the contrary are just plain wrong. To get at the figures that it claims prove its point, the CFIB uses a widely-discredited accounting method. If we look at a reliable analysis by no less than the Chief Actuary of Canada, the Plan is in good health, and it will remain so. Third, Ms. Swift's demands that our defined benefit pension plan be scrapped in favour of a risky defined contribution plan are nothing less than fear mongering on her part. The real objective behind it is to bring pensions down to the lowest common denominator in order for the business community to rid itself of the "burden" of providing decent retirement plans and pensions for its employees. Of course, the CFIB's friends in the financial services industry would love to sell millions of their "iffy" retirement plans to Canadians. These plans produce big profits for the financial sector but little return for pensioners. Not surprisingly, Catherine Swift doesn't like talking about that.
Instead of portraying us as a group of privileged underachievers living off the toil of Canadian taxpayers, Ms. Swift should focus on the obvious, which is that millions of public sector workers represent a huge customer base. Our spending power pumps billions of dollars each year into the economy and into her members' cash registers. But talking to CFIB leaders is like talking to a wall. And now that the Conservatives have won a majority of the seats in the House of Commons, we can expect that the CFIB's anti-union agenda will find a very sympathetic audience here in Ottawa. We have seen this in the rapid back-to-work legislation for Air Canada and the Post Office. Well we've had enough and it's time to take the bull by the horns and to fight fire with fire.
The Institute is rolling out an awareness-raising campaign aimed directly at CFIB members. We have tried to talk to the CFIB leadership and to give them a balanced perspective about public servants, but they are not listening. So we're going to take our message straight to the country's small business operators. We will remind them of the critical importance we play in the economy as an whole, and to small businesses in particular. We want to find out why the people who claim to represent them are acting as if our money is not welcome in their stores.
I want to make it clear, though, that our campaign is not in any way aimed at specific business owners, retailers or industries. We in the public sector have always supported Canada's small businesses. After all, they are owned and operated by our friends, our families and our neighbours. We are not interested in driving anybody out of business.
What are interested in, however, is getting our message to the people that Ms. Swift claims to represent, even though she is obviously acting against their best interests. We'll let grassroots CFIB members decide if our money should be spent at their businesses.
As you can see behind me, we have developed a slogan - "Prosperity: It's Mutually Beneficial, Public Sector Employees in Support of Independent Business" and a visual identity for this campaign. We are asking you, our members, to get involved in your respective communities. So we have also created materials and provided additional information that you can download from a secure PIPSC web site and print for your own use. Remember that your local steward is ready to help you "get the word out" in your area. As an organization, PIPSC will also be partnering with other groups who are concerned by the CFIB's "less is best" message and its unhealthy power over the Canadian government. But I'd like to emphasize how critical it is for each and every PIPSC member to get involved in this campaign. We all have to do our part to remind local business owners that, no matter what they have been told by the CFIB leadership, we are not their enemy ! We are actually their customers, family and friends.
I look forward to your feedback on the campaign, and to your comments and suggestions.
Thank You.
