Skip to content or view screen version

Reports from the TUC Pensions Day of Action - a day which hit the right note!

Kate | 19.02.2005 19:47 | Social Struggles | London

Undeterred by cold winds and an endlessly predicatable, last-minute, anti-union mainstream press campaign (yawn), public-sector workers around the country attended rallies and lobbies on Friday to protest at government plans to downgrade public-sector pensions schemes.

Friday 18 February was called by the TUC as a nationwide day of protest on pensions. Government plans for public sector pensions schemes include raising the retirement age from 60 to 65 and the early retirement age from 50 to 55. UNISON, the T&G, NUT, UCATT and Natfhe have begun balloting members for strike action as a result.

People have started sending in reports from their Friday 18 TUC Day of Action events - you can read the ones that have been sent in already below. You're also welcome to send in reports about the activities held at your branch to post on this website, too - the more, the better!

Cambridge Health Unison

The Cambridge TUC organised a lively demo in the town centre. Meanwhile, workers at Addenbrooke's Hospital, the largest hospital in East Anglia, decided to hold workplace meetings about the NHS Pensions Review and highlight people's opposition to key elements of the pensions proposals - namely, the compulsory increase in the retirement age and the prospect of replacing the final salary scheme with a career-average scheme, which will see most people losing out.

About 80 people attend the meetings, and we got a good list of contacts of Addenbrooke's workers who want to join future campaigns on the issue. The day was well worth doing. It's is vital that we keep taking the pensions fight deep into workplaces.

Camden
Union convenors and branch officers boarded an open-topped double decker at 9am outside Camden Town Hall as part of the Day of Action! A handful of Camden UNISON members gave the bus a good send-off.

Festooned in red balloons, the bus featured four branch banners (two from UNISON, one from Amicus at Great Ormond Street Hospital and one from the PCS at the Food Standards Agency).

A specially-made banner proclaimed STRIKE NOW TO SAVE OUR PENSIONS and a yard-long sheet on the front window declared Fund Pensions, Not War. Loudhailer announcements roused the ire of the Assistant Chief Executive who contacted Council security to complain.

The bus circled around the Town Hall and another large council workplace with calls over the megaphone to members and the general public to join the 2:30pm rally at University College London, as well urging local government trade unionists to vote Yes in the ballot.

The response was overwhelmingly positive from lorry and bus drivers, and the odd pedestrian. The bus proceeded to University College London Hospital, where a few more UNISON activists boarded. Then we went on to a PCS-organised workplace near Holborn where one steward joined the crew.

We were deprived at the last-minute of the company of UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis, who apparently opted for a photo opportunity on the green across from the Houses of Parliament. Hang on - I clearly left the bus too soon since it eventually went to Parliament Square and through Whitehall, with Dave Prentis and an ITN camera crew jumping on board. The latter interviewed two United Left supporters and NEC candidates in the form of Mandy Berger and Phoebe Watkins, who are also Camden shop stewards.

The vehicle even encountered the bus carrying the IOC delegation which was examining London's 2012 Olympic bid and would have been visible to Blair, who was meeting and greeting at the time.

Almost everyone who took part in the exercise was upbeat about the experience, despite the temperatures upstairs.

Croydon
With Pensioners Alliance groups, Croydon UNISON, PCS and BWTUC held a lealeting and petition-signing event outside Whitgift Shopping Centre, Croydon's major shopping precinct.

Activists talked with members of public to drive home union's concerns with the goverments proposals for pensions. This was followed by a rally at the Croydon Unison social club with speakers from PCS, TGWU and NUT, and our own London Regional Convenor.

This was a well-attend event covered by the local press. We rounded off the day's action with a joint union delegation visit to local Pensions Minister RH Malcolm Wicks, where we raised our concerns again over goverment proposals.

Lambeth
A joint lunchtime protest between Lambeth Trades Council and the Lambeth Pensioners Action Group (LAMPAG) at included songs as well as speeches as trade unionists and pensioners gathered to protest against government plans for pensions.

LAMPAG leader Gordon McLennan led a rousing chorus of We Shall Overcome, and there was a a series of rousing speeches by pensioner, UNISON and NUT representatives.

A special leaflet designed for the Trades Council was distributed widely to passersby, and the many UNISON shop stewards present went back to their workplaces committed to gaining the largest possible YES vote in the official strike ballot.

York
Over 100 people turned out for the pensions rally in St Helens Square that was called as part of the TUC Day of Action.

A whole range of public service workers were represented, including council, health service and emergency services workers from UNISON and the GMB, job centre and other civil service office staff from PCS, university workers from the AUT and Amicus, post and telecoms workers from CWU, and rail and bus workers from RMT.

Speakers included UNISON Regional Officer Linda Muir, GMB official John Kirk and PCS Branch Chair Tanya Walker. They all emphasised the need for unity in action between all unions and groups of workers to beat the cuts.

Also welcomed was a delegation from the Yorkshire & Humberside region of the National Pensioners Convention, which acknowledged the support trade unionists have given to their campaign to raise the state pension, and offered their support in defending public sector pensions.

The rally closed with a call for unity and for all present to build for big Yes votes for strike action to stop the cuts.

Hammersmith and Fulham
At Hammersmith and Fulham, UNISON, NUT and PCS reps and members gathered outside Hammersmith and Fulham Town Hall from 12pm-2pm to hear from retired members, branch secretary Noreen Morris and the newly-elected NUT Deputy General-Secretary, Christine Blower. All called for an end to the government's attacks on public services and public sector pensions schemes.

Hundreds of leaflets and branch magazines were handed out to passersby, who took a real interest in the event and stopped to talk about the fight for pensions and public-sector services. The local press came along too.

Islington
The Islington local government UNISON branch held a lobby of Islington Town Hall at lunchtime to launch the official strike ballot. Members of the GMB and TGWU were also present.

The lobby went very well, with about 100 trade unionists and the local press turning up to hear a rally at which Jane Doolan, Islington UNISON Branch Secretary, spoke. The local NATFHE and GMB/APEX branch secretaries also spoke. Local press from the Islington Tribune and Highbury and Islington Express came along as well.

Newham
Two lunchtime marches and rallies were held in Newham, one in Stratford and one in East Ham. Around 150 people —mainly council workers, including TGWU and GMB manual workers—took part in one of the events, and there was great support from people in the streets. We can’t wait to strike...

Manchester
A very good demo was held in St Peters Square, Manchester, by all reports. At least 200 people took part. Hats off to Geoff Brown, the Secretary of the Manchester Trades Council who'd organised things and made sure of a very good range of unions and speakers.

And the sun shone!

There was plenty of criticism of the Labour government, particularly from the NASUWT speaker and from Gerald Kaufmann, MP. General points made by several speakers including accusations that the government is stealing our pensions and saying that they can't afford to pay us what's ours by right, yet they have money for war and occupation in Iraq, and tax credits on pensions for the very rich, etc, etc.

Another good demo was held outside the gates of the Manchester Royal Infirmary between 12pm and 2pm on the busy Wilmslow Road. There were healthworkers, mostly from the Central Manchester Hospitals UNSION Branch, and also people from Manchester Community and Mental Health Branch, who have a few wards on site.

There was good support, especially from staff who came in from rotation from the wards. We were also joined by members of the FBU, who were very welcome!

There was also great support from the passing members of the public and people driving past. The press and TV reporters were there early on as well.

There were also demos in north Manchester on Rochdale Road near Harpurhey Health Centre and in Chorlton in South Manchester where civil service, local authority, and mental health and community helath staff were all demonstrating close together.

The important thing now is to get even more organised. All of us who will be balloted need to take the pensions argument into workplaces, talk to colleagues and get everyone to vote. UNISON's health members need to push for the implementation of national policy on holding a ballot for strike action, and we need to keep working on the general co-operation and co-ordination between all the unions affected.

Bolton
There was a fantastic turnout in Bolton. More than 200 people came to the rally and there were lots of good speakers. We're now working hard for a Yes vote in the official ballot.

Kate
- e-mail: info@uul.org.uk
- Homepage: http://www.uul.org.uk

Comments

Hide the following 15 comments

If you think that

20.02.2005 19:41

the 80% of us who work in the private sector are going to pay higher and higher taxes so that public sector workers can retire earlier than us and on better pensions, you are living in cloud cuckoo land. Public sector workers are lucky to have gone so long without cuts to their pensions. In the private sector, pension schemes have been cutting benefits, raising contribution rates and raising retirement ages for five or six years now. Let's face it, if a Labour government is cutting public sector pensions, your campaign has no hope at all. Welcome to the real world.

steve


libraries are gone 2008

20.02.2005 20:09

i can tell you that Libraries as we know them will be gone by 2008.

each library will be replaced by Learn Direct, COUNCIL direct (the dss rebranded) and other pathetic services.

the Framework for the Future has stated that libraries will be politised and be a direct frontline service for Government policy.

the money that Brown has stated is short equals 20billion pounds.. please refer to the post that shows that National Rail will be underwritten for present debts and predicted debts totalling 20 billion pounds... oooo how does this economy work.

national rail is a private company

i wish the unions woul dget their heads up and understand this.. maybe even highlight it

joe bloggs


wake up yourself, steve

20.02.2005 22:07

steve mate,

You hit the nail right on the head, even as you were trying to take us out with the hammer. You are buying into the prevailing rhetoric, which is that the only way to cope with an aging population is to starve it out by cutting pensions schemes for everyone. That is exactly the kind of defeatist shite we've come to expect from private-sector workers who hate their lives, but can't quite get motivated to change them. There is plenty of money in the kitty for pensions - it just so happens that in this sad and misdirected era, there is little will to prioritise in favour of any sort of social security planning.

The money that this government has poured, for instance, down the u-bend that leads to Jarvis could have been spent on establishing decent pensions future for quite a few people. If you knew about the amounts of money the council I work for has already pissed away on meaningless projects with its strategic partner, you'd see my point. That's your council tax going down those plugholes. Why not take a few moments from surfing indy sites for meaningful stories from people like me, and ring your local MP to ask about that the public-private shambles that Mr Blair is still trying to pass off as a cost-effective way forward?

You seem to be implying that those of us in the public sector should give up all hope of a decent society, because you all in the private sector have. You don't have to give up, as it happens - you could unionise yourselves and start turning up at Downing Street, or - perhaps more importantly at this point in your history - at shareholder meetings, and demand that the people who manage you and make more money than a bull can shite take a little social responsibility and start preparing for the future in a decent way. You seem to have given up all hope of a reasonable society, and you seem to dislike us intensely for holding out for one.

I'd tell you to get bent, but feel that the fact you arrived on this site at all indicates a certain potential which should be encouraged, if not acknowledged at this early stage.

I used to work in the private sector, too. What a circus.

kate
mail e-mail: info@uul.org.uk
- Homepage: http://www.uul.org.uk


Hello Kate

21.02.2005 00:40

You say 'You seem to be implying that those of us in the public sector should give up all hope of a decent society, because you all in the private sector have.'

Contrary to the beliefs of many, people in the private sector are not all fat cats. Go to any shop, factory, office or call centre and you'll find plenty of ordinary workers on very ordinary wages with the kind of job security and pensions (if there is a pension scheme at all) most public sector staff would be appalled to accept. These are the people you want to pay for good, solid public sector pensions. They are not going to do it. Blair knows that. The pension sh*t has hit the fan, and the public sector will have to suffer along with the other four fifths of the working population. As for a hope of a decent society, by and large we've already got one. There are a lot of people in this world who haven't and they are learning fast how to grab what should be theirs. If you wanted a cushy life in the UK, sponging of poor people in other parts of the world, sorry, but you've been born too late. If you want to pay top dollar for a new gadget, get it made in the West. I bet like the rest of us you buy it cheap from someone who is going to appropriate your job soon, or your child's job, and your pension too.

steve


Steve, u prat!

21.02.2005 11:41

Square Steve's circle if ya can:

1. "Go to any shop, factory, office or call centre and you'll find plenty of ordinary workers on very ordinary wages with the kind of job security and pensions (if there is a pension scheme at all) most public sector staff would be appalled to accept."

2. "As for a hope of a decent society, by and large we've already got one."

Apparently a decent society has people on appalling wages! Uh?

I'd have thought most people want decent wages for private and public sector workers... or better still, an abolition of the fat cats (f.y.i. Steve 'the fat cats' are the bosses) and their wage system.

squatticus


Only themselves to blame.

21.02.2005 22:32

Most public sector staff vote Labour. Who is going to cut public sector pensions? Where are they going to put that big fat cross in the next election?

simon


Not really

21.02.2005 23:21

Most public sector staff vote for nobody. We're like everybody else in that way.

Kate
mail e-mail: info@uul.org.uk
- Homepage: http://www.uul.org.uk


we (the tax payer) are paying for private companies

22.02.2005 06:44

the money that Brown has stated is short equals 20billion pounds.. please refer to the post that shows that National Rail will be underwritten for present debts and predicted debts totalling 20 billion pounds... oooo how does this economy work?

national rail is a private company

i wish the unions would get their heads up and understand this.. maybe even highlight it

this is the same with the NHS... patients are given the 'choice' to go private with NHS money.. handing money to private companies.

this issue is not isolated to pensions, 70,000 + staff being sacked etc etc see the bigger picture please.

we the tax payer have underwritten the payments for arms sales through the Aid for Trade Provisions, billions of pounds.

the diatribe i hear at the moment in the council is that 'there are not enough people paying into the pension scheme' well sacking 70,000+ staff aint gonna help matters is it.


joe bloggs


hello kate

22.02.2005 19:35

Most people do vote. At the last general election, the turnout was 59%. Your union gives your money to the Labour party. The Labour party cuts your pension. Let me give you a couple of tips.

1. Don't let your union give your money to the Labour Party. Put the cash in a bank for your old age, or spend it on booze or anything else that takes your fancy. Giving it to Labour isn't doing much good is it?

2. Just in case you are ever tempted to vote, don't vote Labour, Conservative or Liberal. The chances of any of those 3 parties preserving you current pension rights are nil. We haven't heard much of an outcry from the opposition about Labour's plans for your pension, have we? Your cause is well and truly lost.



steve


Paying for Labour

22.02.2005 20:49

Steve,

The issues around the Labour Link are indeed of great issue. Everyone I know wants to disffiliate from the Labour party. The only ones that don't are the ones who fancy themselves as Labour MPs. Sadly, they've had something of a stranglehold on proceedings, but that is beginning to loosen. I ran a poll on our website last year asking if people wanted to disaffiliate and we got about 300 Yes response, and 2 Againsts, and one of those was a mistake. The Greater London Region in Unison just voted to only give money to MPs that supported Unison policy, which was a step in the right direction, (right now, Unison just hands Labour a blank cheque, which is generally used to support MPs in marginal constituencies, regardless of their policies) but all-out disaffiliation is clearly the only answer. We're working on it. There are just a few wankers we have to get out of the way first.

Kate
mail e-mail: info@uul.org.uk
- Homepage: http://www.uul.org.uk


Steve - you're talking tripe

23.02.2005 10:22

Steve; your comment displays a profound ignorance of the public sector. I get paid around £7000pa less than a private sector worker in the same profession as me; I accept this because I get a good pension and pretty good conditions. Take away our pensions and benefits and there seems little point in working for these institutions any more. You're also wide of the mark on your criticism of the other parties.

The Liberal Democrats have proposed a one year postponement of the changes to allow more time for genuine consultation. This would also bring the timing of changes to the LGPS in line with changes to pensions for teachers, fire fighters and NHS employees.

The Lib Dems would include two specific points for consultation:
a) Phasing in the change to the minimum retirement age from 50 to 55 over five years, so that employees aged 49 in April would not have to work five years longer than colleagues just months or weeks older than them;
b) Options for improved pension benefits where employees were willing to increase their pension contributions. Public service unions have argued their members would consider paying more, and various options should be modelled and offered as part of the consultation.

Lib Dem policy is that it is inevitable that standard retirement ages for most employees will eventually need to be aligned at 65, and that ageist rules which have prevented older workers from continuing in employment, even when they wanted to do so, should be removed.

Finally; any changes should be secured through agreement between employees and employers, rather than by Government imposition. Proper consultation, before implementation in April 2006, is the best way to do this.

Steve_C


I like tripe, with onions, parsley sauce and boiled potatoes.

23.02.2005 16:35

You are OK then Steve_C, aren't you? You can go to the private sector and earn £7000 more to compenste for your imminent loss of pension benefits. The government knows that millions of public sector workers have no such option. The government knows that most of its employees are getting better pay and conditions than they'd get elsewhere. If things were so great in the private sector, the government wouldn't have found it so easy to recruit 600,000 new workers since 1997. Most public sector workers seem to have a dread of working for the private sector, and with good reason - longer hours, less holidays, stricter sick pay rules, much less job security, tougher disciplinary regimes. We all know just how worried public sector staff get when the government mentions privatising their jobs. Steve_C, I'd stay where you are if I were you. Even whan your pension benefits are reduced, they'll still be better than those of millions in the private sector. When I go back to work after my voluntary career break, I won't be going back to the private sector, I'll be dusting off my old teacher's certificate and joining you in the public sector. Anyway, good luck with your pensions camapign. I've got no axe to grind - like most people, I've never been anything but a wage slave. If you can swing it your way, well done. It's just that I think it's a hopeless case. Time will tell.

steve


divide and rule

24.02.2005 11:22

Steve, don't you think you're falling for the old divide-and-rule trick? Surely the point is not for public sector workers' pensions to be cut until they're as bad as private sector.. After all, face facts, private sector bosses would use that as an excuse for a further round of cuts in their schemes, and round and round it'd go with us all getting poorer and poorer.

Surely instead public sector schems should be defended and private sector brought up to the same standard?

The alternative is we all accept living in poverty in old age as inevitable. Stuff that!

worker


It'll never happen

24.02.2005 17:36

I just can't imagine that Mr and Mrs Average private sector worker, with their mortgage, kids, pension worries and all the other bills to worry about, will read their hugely increased council tax bill and say something like 'Well it is expensive, but it's important that those council staff have excellent pensions so that our boss will be shamed into giving us our old pension scheme back.'

Can you really expect the private sector employees of tomorrow to cheerily wave their younger neighbours Mr and Mrs Early-retired council worker off on a nice Saga cruise while they set off to work at the office?

steve