Wabush Mines retirees get pension payments restored
After years of legal battles, Wabush Mines retirees will finally get more of what they're owed.
Earlier this month the court overseeing the company's insolvency approved a deal that will see Cliffs Natural Resources put $36 million back into the pension fund.
"It was a very good surprise," said Rita Pynn, a retiree who has been working with the local pension committee for the past four years.
Cliffs shuttered the mine in 2014, and went into creditor protection shortly after.
But the company left the pension plan underfunded by more than $45 million, and former workers lost up to 25 per cent of their payments.
They were just one of many creditors on the list of people Cliff's owed money to, and former employees have been fighting for years to get the money back.
The pension plan is considered an unsecured creditor, and not a priority on the list of the company's debtors.
"At times it was discouraging," said Pynn. "We felt like we were probably running into brick walls, but at the end result right now we do have something, and it's better than what we had before."
We would have liked to have our 100 per cent which we worked for over our lifetime. - Rita Pynn
The money will bring their monthly payments up to around 93 per cent, which Pynn says will make a big difference to retirees.
"It will give them a much better lifestyle," she said. "They will be able to live within their means now. Like, some people were really reduced in terms of pension — especially our widows who were receiving a reduced pension because their husbands, of course, had passed away."
On top of that, they'll also receive a lump-sum payment for the time since the pension was wound up in December 2015.
Their new payments will start May 1, and Pynn says while it is something, it's not everything they worked for.
"It's disappointing," she said. "It's disappointing for everyone, but when we started out we didn't really know if we would get anything, so I guess to be getting this 92, 93 per cent instead of the 75 and 79 is a plus, even though we would have liked to have our 100 per cent which we worked for over our lifetime."
Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador
