Pensions Campaign

I went to a meeting in Birmingham & then listened to Mark Serwotka update us on the pensions campaign.


After the nonsense had died down it turns out that most unions had not signed up to the government's derisory offer.

We are currently negotiating the next steps with those unions & will get back to all members to discuss the campaign.

Watch this space.

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Reject and Fight - The pension campaign goes on

A rank and file conference at the weekend that had been called to discuss the pensions dispute was attended by about 450; a magnificent turnout given that the organisers expected about 200. There were activists from all the major unions who took action on N30.

The conference was held against the background of a number of unions, not just PCS, having rejected what was on offer and the conference heard speakers from PCS (including Mark Serwotka), NUT (including Kevin Courtney who spoke in Leicester on N30), Unite and UCU. There were also speakers from unions, such as Unison, who have not yet endorsed the decision of their leadership to accept the government's proposals and call off their involvement in the dispute. These Unison members believed that as the major concerns of the dispute had not been met (i.e. having to work longer, pay more and receive less,), the proposal should be rejected. Unison executive's meet on 10 January to endorse or reject the decision of their leadership. The TUC General Council meet on 12 January to review the overall situation.

The conference agreed:

- The government's proposals should be rejected

- PCS would propose at the General Council the next date(s) for co-ordinated action

- If the TUC were not able to sustain co-ordinated action because some unions had formally accepted the proposals, PCS would seek meetings with the other unions who had rejected to plan a joint programme of further action.

It is important that you regularly refer to this blog and our Facebook group @ PCS DWP Leicestershire General Branch (but not from an official PC)to keep yourself up to date with developments.

Excellent News!

Unite unanimously rejects NHS pensions offer
5 January 2012

The government’s latest proposals on NHS pension ‘reform’ - the ‘Heads of Agreement’ document - were unanimously rejected by Unite, the largest union in the country, today (Thursday 5 January).

Unite’s health sector national industrial committee (HSNIC) rejected the ‘Heads of Agreement’ as a basis for a satisfactory outcome.

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said: ”Our NHS executive unanimously rejects the government’s pernicious attempts to make hard working and dedicated NHS staff pay more, work longer and get less when they retire.

”The government’s attacks on public sector pensions are politically motivated, as part of an overall design to privatise the NHS, cut public services, break-up the national pay agreements, and disrupt legitimate trade union activities and organisation.

”Unite believes it is important to continue a campaign to maintain a fair and equitable system of public sector pensions and calls on ministers to enter into real, genuine and meaningful negotiations on the future of NHS pensions and public sector pensions.”

Unite’s concerns centre on three areas:

A high proportion of NHS staff will see their pension contributions jump from the current 6.5 per cent to 9.3 per cent by 2014/15, and other staff will see their contributions leap by nearly 50 per cent, with some paying 14.5 per cent of their salary into their pensions.
The linking of the NHS retirement age to the ever-increasing age that people will receive their state pensions. The state retirement age is set to rise to 66 in 2020 and 67 by 2026, with the prospect of working even longer in future decades. Unite is concerned that, for example, paramedics and nurses could be doing heavy lifting into their late 60s.
The proposed accrual rate for NHS staff is worse than the planned rates for other public sector schemes. Because this will be based on career average earnings, it will hit women who had taken career breaks to raise their children hardest.

The Unite HSNIC is due to meet again on 11 January to formulate future strategy. Unite has 100,000 members in the health service.

ENDS

More untruths from a government who seem to want to deliberately mislead

Contrary to what the Intranet would have you believe, the government have not concluded headline agreements with all the trade unions on pension reform. In fact, in the Civil Service only GMB (a relatively small industrial player) has indicated acceptance. PCS have, for reasons already explained earlier on this blog, rejected the proposals out of hand.

You might like me be wondering why the government is attempting to mislead. It certainly isn't a sign of confidence that they have things in the bag as they have claimed.

This weekend a rank and file conference is being held to discuss the next stages in the campaign. It will include activists from unions whose leaders have signed up to the headline agreement. These activists are no happier than PCS about the terms or what their leaders have done. I am going to the conference and will give members a report next week.