Nortel Employees Rally Today

By Mark Evans | Published: October 21, 2009

Nortel retirees and former employees will converage on Parliament Hill in Ottawa today to encourage the federal and provincial governments to to amend the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, which they argue works against people who have pensions and benefits with companies that file for bankruptcy protection.

Gilles Duceppe, Leader of the Bloc Quebecois, Jack Layton, NDP Leader, and Michael Ignatieff, Leader of the Opposition and Liberal Party leader, are also expected to speak at the event.

This afternoon at 4:15 p.m., the Nortel Retirees and former employees Protection Canada will hold a press conference, featuring: Don Sproule, NRPC President, Sue Kennedy, Court Representative Long Term Disabled, Bernard Neuschwander, NRPC Chair – Montreal, Paula Klein, NRPC Terminated Employees and Diane Urquhart, an independent analyst.

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  • linho

    Come and join us for a good cause.

  • ex_nortel_engineer

    Excellent Rally today folks….over 4000 people strong. May speakers including the 3 leaders of the opposition,. We have a good chance to change this unfair law…let's keep up the pressure. Thanks again for all those that participated.

  • zeroman

    be mean people. how come there is no lawsuit against the Ontario government for backing out from supporting the pension plan.

  • pickaxe2

    Well Done on the Canadian front lines I hope it brings an outcome & hope it may sway recoveries. Now we just need the UK mob to do the same!!

  • hsandler

    I have some photos from the rally here:

    http://www.pbase.com/hsandler/rally

  • http://nortelinsider.wordpress.com/ Desk Jockey

    Let's hope this protest gets more coverage than the one in Toronto, Ontario last week. People need to know what a disgrace Nortel has been in treating the very workers that helped build the company. There is something very wrong with paying out over 20 million in bonuses to senior and executive management AFTER Ch.11 (8 million of which was contained to the top 7-8 “leaders”) while at the same time denying severance, reducing pensions and putting LTD at risk.

    Plain and simple, laws need to change or else bankruptcy judges will continue to let companies get away with legalized theft of this nature.

  • http://nortelinsider.wordpress.com/ Desk Jockey

    Great pictures, thanks for the coverage. So very tragic to see the sad faces of loyal former employees as they see their future put at risk by careless mismanagement and toothless laws that do nothing to protect those that worked the hardest.

  • protosphere

    Where were / are the shareholder's demonstrations?!

    fraud laws
    regulatory laws
    bankruptcy laws
    …all need undivided attention!

    too many hurt, too few listening…

  • less

    What did US Steel do with Nortel to warrant being told to get the eff out of Canada?

  • Nortel_Employee_2009

    Thanks Hsandler for posting the pics…

    Such a sad spectacle. All you see are people with grey hair in their retirement years. Instead of enjoying the fruits of their labor they have been forced out in the street.

    I hope someone takes notice of this.

  • random123

    It is unfortunate for the Nortel workers and pensioners that they are so divided.

    When the UK workers were hit with layoffs, they protested, but noone in North America, France, or anywhere else joined that protest to give it real impact.

    When the French protested they weren't joined by US or UK colleagues. So their impact was also very low for Nortel.

    When the Canadians protest, as they are now, no-one in the UK or French protest groups, workers or pensioners, offers any real support.

    Each group is only protesting for themselves, their own interests. If they had banded together and done something really noticeable, like a cross-Nortel trans-atlantic arrangement, that woudl have got decent media attention. As it is it looks like each group cares not at all for their cousins in other countries.

    IN fact instead of banding together to be strong they split further, arguing that it shouldn't be their regiono that took layoffs, but some other region. Nortel did very well at enbsuring their workforce didn't cause one big problem for them all at the same time.

  • Normie

    “Well Done on the Canadian front lines I hope it brings an outcome & hope it may sway recoveries. Now we just need the UK mob to do the same!!”

    Why do we need to so the same? 90% of our pension pot is protected under the Government backed PPF scheme.

  • How_long

    You are clearly not a UK employee or pensioner or you would know that this is not correct. You are probably part of the Nortel establishment. That's the sort of misconception that they are likely to peddle.

  • Normie

    I was a UK employee (10 years). I've got a letter from the PPF detailing that the Nortel Networks UK Pension found is now undergoing assessment. From the PPF website – “Those under normal pension age at that date will receive 90% of their pension entitlement, subject to a compensation cap.”

    I will come in well under the pension cap, so don't really see much of an issue for me. Most of the people who I worked with will also come in under the cap. I guess that for senior managers or lifers they may be effected, but I reckon that most people will come in under the cap. The cap is about £30K right?

    I'd very much like to be put right if I've misunderstood this.

  • less

    Neither the Chinese nor Indians out there living in the global village joined in, either.

  • zeroman

    An old saying – Divide and conquer.

  • less

    Recalling both Nortel's “Come Together” ad and yer “Downfall” clips I can't help but have this image in my head of a smiling Mike Z ensconced on an imported Greek divan in a spacious marbled den, watching this stuff on TV humming “Nowhere Man” without a hint of irony.


    Come Together (2009 version)

    Here come old flatline cancer cruisin up slowly
    Z got Lean Six Sigma, Joel shoot middle finger
    Z say “Leverage all them synergies”
    One thing Z can tell you is you no retire-ee
    Fall together right now under Z

    Z sack production Z bag mofo bonus
    ..
    Sniff seat of Z armchair you can smell Zs disease
    Fall together right now under Z

    He got feet down below his knee
    Hold you in his armchair you can feel his disease
    Come together right now over me

  • gregbrown123

    Mike Zafirovski's house 1291 N Green Bay Rd , Lake Forest IL

    In case you want to send a Christmas card…

  • GoProto

    Less- Forget fixin' old cell phones.. I think you've found your real calling.
    And no, I am not joking… Do you play any instruments? It would be cool to record that as the sound track to one of Desk Jockey's vignettes and post on You Tube.

  • S_O_S_This_is_HMS_Nortel

    “Lesson for all big companies: go multinational, then you'll never have one big workforce problem on your hands.”

    Let's see how many nationals does Nortel have for Design or Support Centers or as they call it “Center of Excellence” – France, China, Turkey, Mexico, India, Romania, US, Australia, Canada, England..and a few others…..and where is Nortel now – in Chapter 11.

  • less

    Ah, there was a time I played music… I can probably still sing okay.

  • Nortel_Employee_2009

    How about making a citizen's arrest

  • less

    What I need is work, in Nashville

  • How_long

    It sounds like you are in a similar situation I am. The problem is that you only get the 90% of your entitlement in year 1. If you read further you will find that you get no cost of living rises for service before 1997, and after 1997 service it is limited at 2.5%. I know several people who left in the 1997-2004 time and they will get no or only very tiny increases whatever inflation does.
    If you take a person who retured before 1997 then they will move from a pension that has up to 5% inflation protection to one with none.
    That is not “90% of their pension entitelment”. Misleading wording in my opinion. Spin, you might call it.
    If you look at how much it costs to provide a pension with 5% inflation protection vs one with none it is something like getting on for double. So the person in my example has effectively halved theit overall pesnion entitlement going forward.
    Those retiring in 2009 will get lower losses depending on how much of theri service is before 2007, but it is still significantly worse than 10% reduction in “their pot”.

  • How_long

    It sounds like you are in a similar situation I am. The problem is that you only get the 90% of your entitlement in year 1. If you read further you will find that you get no cost of living rises for service before 1997, and after 1997 service it is limited at 2.5%. I know several people who left in the 1997-2004 time and they will get no or only very tiny increases whatever inflation does.
    If you take a person who retured before 1997 then they will move from a pension that has up to 5% inflation protection to one with none.
    That is not “90% of their pension entitelment”. Misleading wording in my opinion. Spin, you might call it.
    If you look at how much it costs to provide a pension with 5% inflation protection vs one with none it is something like getting on for double. So the person in my example has effectively halved theit overall pesnion entitlement going forward.
    Those retiring in 2009 will get lower losses depending on how much of theri service is before 2007, but it is still significantly worse than 10% reduction in “their pot”.

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