Paramedics
Paramedics Pension Campaign
The CAW, along with other unions, is taking part in a campaign to allow Ontario paramedics to retire at 60 years of age with a full pension.
Paramedics belong to the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) pension plan, which currently does not allow them to retire with a full pension at age 60. Instead they must reach age 65.
The OMERS plan gives fire and police the right to retire at age 60 with a full pension, even though paramedics, police and fire are designated as public safety occupations by the federal government. The CAW, CUPE Ontario, OPSEU and SEIU are involved in a campaign for paramedics to win that same right.
The CAW represents 260 paramedics in Thunder Bay (Local 229), Sault Ste. Marie (Local 1120) and London, Ontario (Local 302).
Free trade with the European Union is a bad idea for Canada
The Harper government's relentless push to sign a new Canada-EU free trade deal would undermine the rights of federal, provincial and municipal governments to manage public spending over goods and services; it would privatize public services like drinking water, prevent us from adopting strong measures to combat climate change and wipe out up to 150,000 Canadian jobs, among a long list of additional concerns. CAW President Ken Lewenza says:
So far, all signs point to a free trade deal that is lopsided, unfair and would do more harm than good to Canadians. 
