Retiree Chairperson’s Report – January 2019
Well, Happy New Year everyone. I hope 2019 will be a good year for us retirees, for our union and for workers in general. The OAS maximum increased to $601.45 starting January 29, 2019. The CPP increase for January 29, 2019 will also be 2.3% on your monthly benefit. The new cooler for our bar was installed on December 27, 2018. I would like to thank those people who helped work on changing the cooler. It was a job well done.It will be real nice to have more refrigeration for Labour Day and for any big events we have in the future.
Our Recreation Committee is working on new events for the coming year. I would like to thank the Recreation Committee for all of the work they did in 2018.
Our bus made it to Windsor on January 11th. I really want to thank the retirees who made the (8) hour round trip on the bus. The protest in Windsor was about the planned closure of the GM plant in Oshawa. It was held while the GM shareholders were meeting across the river in Detroit at the GM headquarters. The protesters sent a clear message telling the shareholders to keep that plant open and keep the workers employed that are already there if they want to sell GM products here in Canada. Much more will need to be done to force GM to alter their plans including reaching out to GM workers in the U.S. who are under the gun.
In closing, I hope winter will not be hard on us and that you will be able to make it out to our meetings. So far so good!
Fred Dougan
Chairperson, Retiree Chapter, Unifor Local 199