On Wednesday, November 1 and Friday, November 17, UTFA's negotiating team met with its administration counterpart to begin discussions of a new pension plan and improved arrangements under the present plan. We have the professional assistance of our actuary David Short, outside legal counsel and pension law expert Murray Gold, our acting General Counsel Marion Perrin and Counsel Shaheen Hirani.
Negotiations are essentially confidential and without prejudice.
Instead, I will take this opportunity and in subsequent newsletter to address some of the many complex issues surrounding pensions and surpluses. I will in particular try to answer some fundamental questions that have been raised. Among the latter number, there are roughly 2,500 active members and about 1,500 retired members. The remaining 700 are members who have terminated their participation in the plan yet still have assets in the plan or otherwise have an irregular status. The term 'actuarial surplus' refers to the amount of money in the plan left over after the current obligations of the plan to both active and retired members is reckoned.