Final Nortel Canada Pension Cheque

I received my final Canadian pension pay stub from Nortel last week with a note basically saying " Adios Amigo". As of Sept 30th Nortel will wash it's hands, figuratively speaking, of our defined pension forever.

Something tells me that this was always their plan, from the start of the bankruptcy filing. The pensions in Canada, the USA, and the UK were draining huge amounts of money each month from their revenue, so they obviously were targets. Never mind about the people, nor the stress, that terminating the plans would bring. Nortel never had any intention of restructuring in any way that included continuing pension plans.

It just indicates to me that the people running the company in the last decade were not raised in the old Northern Electric mode, and had no concept of the core values that they espoused. Remember "People are our Strength"? Horses' patooties! The last cadre of management couldn't care a hoot for the people, they just wanted to take their golden parachutes and run all the way to the bank.

Well now we are set free, and haven't any real idea what it will mean to our pensions except that they will be reduced by at least 35% and maybe a lot more than we have been led to believe by the Mercer estimates. Adding insult to injury, we don't seem to be able to have any say in how our pension trust fund will be managed. The Ontario government apparently knows best and will make all the decisions for us, whether we want them to or not.

This new, emerging, view of Canada and Ontario is very unsettling. Where did the Canada I thought existed go to? It seems the new Canada just wants seniors to disappear, and not to bother them with their concerns, and "old" ideas. It's almost as if they are holding us hostage and exacting vengeance because of the poor management decisions by the unscrupulous executives who drove Nortel from the premier, world renowned company that it was, to the dirty cur hiding in the gutter that it has become.

Perhaps one day a history of the demise of Nortel will spell out the rotten, dishonourable treatment of it's retirees, and disabled employees, and heap shame on those in the government who turned their backs on citizens who once helped enhance Canada's status in the world.