AGM 2013-05-28 Minutes
TELEPHONE RETIREES ASSOCIATION OF MANITOBA INC.
BOX 23063 WINNIPEG, MB R3T 5S3
Minutes of the 14th Annual General Meeting of the Telephone Retirees Association of Manitoba Inc. (TRAM) held on Tuesday, May 28th, 2013 at the Heritage Victoria Community Club, 950 Sturgeon Rd. Winnipeg, MB.
1. The meeting was called to order at 1:00 p.m. by President Susan Bilyk
2. Mr. Tony Leonard was asked and agreed to lead in the Singing of O Canada
3. President Susan Bilyk asked for “A Moment of Silence”, to observe the lives of 65 members/beneficiaries who passed away in 2012.
4, Report of Chief Scrutineer-Susan Bilyk reported the following attendance numbers:
members attending 107
proxies sent in 286
Total 393
Based on the total number of members named Susan Bilyk declared the meeting Legally Constituted.
5. MTS Pension Plan.
In deference to our lawyer’s time, Susan Bilyk introduced Mr. Brian Meronek from the firm of D’Arcy & Deacon, to present a report on the progress of our lawsuit and a synopsis of the presentation before the Supreme Court of Canada held on May 16th, 2013.
A brief synopsis is that he conveyed a guarded optimism on the outcome of the case, and that he hoped the SCC would hand down a ruling by the fall of this year.
It was noted that the appeal can be viewed on the TRAM website “www.traminfo.com” under the heading “news”
Larry Trach gave a presentation on the Pension Plan fund, and as the TRAM Pension Plan Representative to the committee he had attended the SCC proceedings and gave a synopsis of these as well.
Larry reported that he felt our lawyers did a good job in presenting our case to the seven (7) Justices and again stated a guarded optimism of the outcome.
Larry reported that MTS has filed a motion for summary judgment on the Pension Formula Statement of Claim. It was felt that to fight this motion in court at this time prior to the SCC ruling made little sense due to the costs and timing. It was therefore put on hold till after the SCC ruling in our appeal of the MB Court of Appeals’ ruling.
Larry did report that MTS had presented some minor changes to the pension plan to the unions and the retirees, which after an investigation by the reps was felt to be agreeable to all.
A question was asked as to how the “letters of credit” were used. Larry gave a detailed explanation of how they are used in relation to the pension plan.
A question was asked as to where Larry felt the money ($405 M) from the sale of Allstream would be put. Larry referred back to the public announcement that out of the $405M MTS would be used toward the company’s pension plan (presumably the DB plan as it seems that MTS has the most financial exposure here) and $70M to repay the debt incurred in February to meet its’ pension obligations.
Larry reported that he felt that there is a set / defined limit to the individual amounts put into the new DC plan. The percentage of earning would be between 3-5%
Pension Plan representatives for 2013-2014
Rod Pennycook (Chair) - Retired (formerly with The Great-West Life Assurance Company)
Paul Beauregard - Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary
Bob Linsdell - TEAM Representative
Debbie Marantz - CEP Representative
Brenda McInnes - Vice-President & Treasurer
Don Rooney - Director Labour Relations
Don Senkow - IBEW Representative
Laurie Stewart - Director Operations – Consumer
Larry Trach Retiree Representative
Note: The Pension Committee reports to the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors. The Pension Committee meets twice a year (Last meeting was Dec. 7th, 2012).
The next Pension Committee meeting is set for June 17th, 2013.
Moved by Jo-Anne Pelzer, seconded by Gladys McDonald to receive the Pension Plan report as presented.
CARRIED
6. Minutes of May 20th, 2012
Moved by Glen McCoubrey, seconded by, Lawrence Yaciuk, to approve the minutes of the May 20th, 2012 Annual General Meeting. CARRIED
7. Financial Reports
Moved by Bill Hales, seconded by Jack Hawthorne, that the audited Financial Report as of December 31st. 2012 be approved. (Original attached) CARRIED
Bill Hales identified and thanked Roberta Davis and Judy Wynnobel for the work and effort put into the audit. He also thanked them for agreeing to do the audit for 2013
8. Election of Officers
Ted Scoles made a presentation to thank Mr. Nick Zajic for all his work on the TRAM executive in the past years.
As per Robert's Rules of Order, Ted Scoles asked the floor the required 3 times if there were any nominations to the executive board. Hearing non he asked for a motion to close nominations
Motion.
Moved by Tony Leonard, seconded by Doug Klippel, to close nominations CARRIED
Susan Bilyk, confirmed that the slate of officers as presented to the membership was duly elected.
Susan then introduced the slate of officers for 2013-2014 to the membership.
President: Dave Gnutel,
1st Vice President: Larry Trach,
2nd Vice President: Bob Hayden,
3rd Vice President: James Burr,
Secretary: Glen McCoubrey,
Treasurer: Bill Hales, and
Past President : Susan Bilyk,
Membership Report.
Dave Gnutel gave a verbal report on the state of the membership numbers. He replied to a question concerning whether or not TEAM and IBEW paid for a retires first year to TRAM. This was confirmed by Susan
It was mentioned from the floor that there is a possibility that some members (recent retirees) were not getting mail outs. Dave asked for a list of names and he will investigate.
Larry then gave a synopsis of the plan to have the 3 unions give TRAM a list of names of their people who were going to retire as MTS has refused to do so.
NOTE: James Burr gave out the TRAM homepage address to the membership for information.
Presidents report.
Susan thanked the membership for their attendance and the executive for their support
New Business
A “straw poll” was taken of the membership to determine if they wished to change the time of the meeting the suggestion was unanimously turned down in favour of keeping the present time.
A question was asked as to who was on the PP committee. Larry addressed this as part of his report (see pension plan report)
A question was asked as to how a payout would be handled if the unions were to win the lawsuit. Larry, Tony, and James gave detailed explanations as to the possible scenarios available to TRAM retirees, and the other unions if such a situation were to occur. In short there is no detailed plan by any one union as to how any surplus will be distributed as this will depend on the SCC ruling.
Motion to adjourn.
Moved by, Bonnie Higgins, seconded by, Julie Sullivan to adjourn at 2:20 pm. CARRIED.
THE NEXT AGM OF TRAM TO BE HELD ON THE LAST TUESDAY OF MAY 2014 AT THE CALL OF THE CHAIR.
__________________________ __________________________
Susan Bilyk, President Glen McCoubrey, Secretary
