Dave Coles was in Grand Falls-Windsor Saturday night to tell more than 200 retired AbitibiBowater employees they could see a major drop in their incomes.

The national president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union (CEP) has been travelling to communities hit hard by AbitibiBowater's money problems.

The company was placed in bankruptcy protection earlier this year.

He told the retirees they could see as much as 30 per cent of their income drop if the company is declared insolvent.

"There is approximately 25 to 30 per cent (of their pension) underfunded," said Mr. Coles. "If a fix isn't found that would mean the pensioners would have their pensions reduced by somewhere in that neighbourhood.

"We're going to fight like hell to insure that doesn't happen."

He said the main problem is AbitibiBowater's pension plan, which he said would be $1.3 billion short of being able to meet its obligations if the company went under.

What he wants is for governments to step in and set up a federally backed trust fund to guarantee pension payments.

"The only hope here is for us to get the governments involved and develop a solution that would partially negate, if not completely negative, the loss these retired folks could face," he said.

Bonavista-Gander-Grand Falls-Windsor MP Scott Simms said Ottawa should step into the AbitibiBowater affair.

It isn't setting a precedent, according to the MP, as Ottawa has already supported the auto industry with bailouts.

"The Harper government can make changes to back-stop or support changes in regulations and the liabilities of the pension funds," he said. "The cost to the Conservative government would be tolerable and given the assistance they have given to both the auto sector and the banking industry, the demands here are modest."

A large part of the local economy depends on the security of its seniors, he added.

"We must acknowledge that any loss of security in these pension funds would hurt us all."

He said hundreds of families across the province would be devastated if their pensions took a big cut.

AbitibiBowater plans to be back in court in February as it continues to seek relief under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act. Mr. Coles said if the federal government doesn't help by then, the pension payouts could drop afterwards.