2007 AGM

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 19:05:48 GMT

Annual General Meeting Minutes

The first Annual General Meeting of the Retirement Committee was held on May 2 2007 and began promptly at 1:00 pm. Ten members were present, plus two guest speakers, Marion Pollack and Dan Cunningham from the regional office.

Marion began the meeting with an update on the latest contract. Signed on May 4, it was endorsed by all the major centres, and 65% of all postal workers, the highest turnout of voters ever. As retirees, we retained the same benefits as before, but with improvements in coverage for paramedical, speech therapy, massage, and therapy. Cliff Cheung said that retirees want more input into the National Executive’s agenda to get better benefits. He stated that, in promoting benefits for us, they’d be doing a service to themselves and to all workers in future. Marion said the best approach was to establish contact with Evert Hoogers in Ottawa to act as spokesperson for us as there is no present provision for retirees to submit demands. We can, however, still give our ideas to the local and also to the area council which meets in September. Dan thought that perhaps we could make a presentation at the regional conference. He then stated that, as of, 2001 there was 12 billion dollars in our pension plan. 340 million is added to it each year, while only 120 is paid out. When asked why retirees couldn’t see more benefits from this money right now, the answer was that the average age of postal workers is 51 and so many more will be retiring shortly.

It was suggested that someone on the National Executive be assigned the task of overseeing retiree concerns as no one presently does. Marion suggested that, as a means of getting our concerns known, we ask Pat Bertrand to inform all locals by mail of our demands. They then can be dealt with when the region meets in September. Our demands, if agreed to, would be forwarded on to the National Executive. It was agreed we would do this.

1 Reading of the minutes of the previous meeting

Al Marcoux asked about the video Memory and Muscle. George Little said that he’d contacted Ottawa about making copies. If denied, he’d send to Ottawa for copies. (As of May 24, Evert Hoogers promised to send us 5 copies).

Dave Knight then made a motion to accept the minutes of the previous meeting. Donna-Marie McIntyre seconded and the motion passed unanimously.

2 Business Arising

Two questions arose. 1) Does the CUPW website give us, retired members, updates? It was generally thought that they did. 2) Is the main plant on Georgia Street up for sale? There was some discussion, but no conclusive answers. It’s believed that eventually the post office will move out to Richmond.

3 New Business

There was no new business.

4 Financial Report

George announced that our treasurer David Yeung resigned in December. He said that, at present, we had no money at all, but that the dance event we had held in January had broke even. The local budgeted us $750 last year.

5 Executive Committee motions

There were no Executive Committee motions.

6 Unfinished Business

There was no unfinished business.

7 Correspondence

George said that he’d written letters to the National Executive to announce our existence and to the Royal City Local, thanking them for their participation in our dance.

8 Executive And Committee Reports

It was noted that our pension cheques had increased by $20 due to less taxes being deducted. Micki McCune has said that our pensions rise faster than workers’ salaries and also as inflation increases.

There was talk about a Social Committee and events it could plan for retired members. Whale watching and a tour of a winery were mentioned.

Donna-Marie McIntyre suggested a tour of the Seattle Post office and George remarked that International Solidarity Day for the Pacific Region occurs sometime this summer. We can meet our American sisters and brothers, and share ideas. George will write the Regional Office to see if a tour of the Seattle plant is possible. We wondered if they had a committee for retired workers.

9 Good And Welfare

There were no issues raised.

10 Election Of Officers.

President. Dave Knight nominated George Little. Cliff Cheung seconded.

George won the position unchallenged.

Vice-president. Cliff nominated Dave Knight. Kishen Lal seconded. Dave won the position by acclaim.

Recording Secretary. Chris was nominated by Cliff. Kishen seconded. Chris won by acclamation.

Treasurer. Donna-Marie nominated Al Marcoux, who accepted and won. Donna-Marie was voted in as Tyler.

11 Adjournment

Our business being done, Cliff made a motion for us to adjourn. This was seconded by Dave Knight and the meeting broke up. It was 2:40pm.

With best regards,

Chris Towers,

Recording Secretary for The Retired Members Committee

Retired Postie: Minutes

2007 AGM