Should city workers be paid a pension for the rest of their life for 30 years of five man crews for fill in potholes?
The bottom line is that society can no longer afford to fund these pension plans and the public has little sympathy for these hot dog eaters. The Quebec government has to show that they are tough and have said several times that they will not back down on this. There may be a compromise in the end, but the bottom line is that the pensioners will get less and have to pay more.
It is not at all clear that the workers are to blame.
Without exaggeration, our roads would embarrass a third world country, but is it their fault or that of their managers (poor allocation of manpower and supervision, substandard specs - e.g. thinner asphalt than in Ontario) or due to corruption? I was told by a city worker that he was forced to work painfully slowly and punished when he failed to comply.
At one point, their pension fund had a surplus, but the city grabbed it and didn't pay their share into the fund for years.
A pension is deferred wages; it is not a freebee or a gift, as some people (who haven't had the foresight to work for one) imagine. In normal cirmumstances, the union agrees with the employer that part of the money paid to the worker is transfered to a pension fund, and the employer usually matches that amount. It is a deal negociated in collective agreements, or labour contracts. A pension fund is never the property of the employer since the empolyee contributes to it directly, and is subject to government regulation.