Important Message About Upcoming Vote at OMERS
Dear CUPE Ontario Retirees Network,
The OMERS Sponsor Corporation Board of Directors will be voting on a proposal to eliminate guaranteed indexing for service earned after December 31, 2022.
While this proposal would not affect those of us who are currently retired, it is still important for us to voice our concerns as OMERS members.
OMERS members have had guaranteed indexing since 1992. Guaranteed indexing is an important part of our defined benefit pension that we live on in retirement. Guaranteed indexing is an annual increase to our pensions to protect against inflation. It ensures the value of our pension isn’t eaten away by increases in the cost-of-living and maintains our purchasing power in retirement.
The proposal being voted on would end the guarantee of indexing for workers who earn service after December 31, 2022. Instead, their indexing would be “conditional”, and could be reduced or suspended altogether. Today’s workers are tomorrow’s retirees, and this proposal would be detrimental to future members of our Retiree Network.
We have an important say in this upcoming vote. Retirees have one seat on the OMERS Sponsor Corporation Board of Directors.
The Municipal Retirees Organization Ontario (MROO) shares this seat with the Police Pensioners Association of Ontario (PPAO), the Association of Retired Fire Fighters of Ontario (ARFFO); together known as “The Retiree Group”.
MROO represents retired workers and the spouses of retired workers of a municipality, public utility, board of education, library board, and other boards/commissions that participate in OMERS. CUPE Ontario has had an important alliance with MROO since 1979. We’ve supported MROO’s establishment and growth. Former CUPE member Bill Hartford recently served as MROO President for 9 years. Many of us are members of MROO.
I urge members of the CUPE Ontario Retirees Network to communicate to MROO our opposition of the proposal to eliminate future retirees’ guaranteed indexing and encourage the Retirees Representative to vote NO.
Here’s how you can take action:
It’s important for us stand united with today’s workers and express intergenerational solidarity.
In Solidarity,
CUPE Ontario
