Thursday, 22 September 2011
Friday, 5 August 2011
Lobby of the TUC
Three quarters of a million went on strike on June 30th in a massive
show of strength against a concerted attempt by the Tory and Liberal
Democrat partners of this millionaire government to make workers pay
for the bankers? greed. Powerful demonstrations up and down the
country brought thousands, including many young workers onto the
streets in big cities and small towns, many for the
first time, determined to defend pensions, and to stop the immediate
huge pay cuts that the pension changes would mean.
show of strength against a concerted attempt by the Tory and Liberal
Democrat partners of this millionaire government to make workers pay
for the bankers? greed. Powerful demonstrations up and down the
country brought thousands, including many young workers onto the
streets in big cities and small towns, many for the
first time, determined to defend pensions, and to stop the immediate
huge pay cuts that the pension changes would mean.
We believe that 30th June was the opening salvo. To win we need to
turn this threequarters of a million into 4-5 million in the next
round of industrial action in the autumn, involving all public sector
unions, and thereby scuppering the machinations of the government to
drive a wedge into the trade union movement between the NUT, UCU, ATL
and PCS and the other three big unions Unison, Unite and GMB. Defence
of pensions has proved a unifying factor so far, and one of our best
opportunities to all come together, and collectively force Cameron and
Clegg into a massive U-turn.
To this end the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) is organising a
lobby of the TUC Conference in London on September 11th 2011.
We will be handing in a petition calling on the TUC General Council to
call for and coordinate a one-day
strike of all public sector unions as the next step in this struggle.
The assembly point will be at Friends Meeting House, Euston Road,
London NW1 2BJ at 1:30pm for an
indoor rally which will be addressed by union leaders, including PCS
General Secretary Mark Serwotka,
alongside shop stewards and workplace reps involved in the pension struggle.
The NSSN is encouraging all trade unionists to attend the rally and
the lobby as well as signing the
petition at www.shopstewards.net/sign. Why not use the text of the
petition as the basis of a branch
resolution which you could forward to the TUC general council to help
keep the pressure up?
We would be grateful if you could circulate information about this
event around your trade union
branch, attend yourself and encourage others to do so. We would also
encourage unions to book
transport to the event. If your branch / trades council would like to
contribute to the cost of a
coach, please make a cheque payable to ?National Shop Stewards
Network? and post to NSSN, PO
Box 54498, London, E10 9DE.
Campaign to defend the N H S
Meeting of the campaign to defend the National Health Service initiated by Crawley Trades Council.
7.30 pm
Thursday 11 August
St John's Church Hall (near Crawley Station)
(Google it if you are not sure!)
Thursday, 7 July 2011
Coalition to defend the NHS
to defend the NHS at a meeting on 06 July 2011.
Oliver Coxhead was elected as Chair
Derek Isaacs was elected as secretary.
Derek Isaacs was one of the first people to have his life saved by the new NHS in 1948. He had a playground accident
climbing the fence and was later taken to the hospital with an abcess which was growing inwards and would have
threatened his life.
However his mother didn't have to beg to a group of hard-nosed charity commissioners. The treatment was free for
the first time, so he was among the first of hundreds of thousands who owe their lives to the NHS.
People of sixty were old in 1948. The NHS has given us a new lease of life and that is why it is worthwhile for all of us
to defend it.
The government talks glibly about "reforms" of the NHS. In fact they propose to cut public provision and privatise
health care. The contents of your wallet will determine your treatment, not your medical need. You might as well say the German Air Force "reformed" Coventry.
The Coalition to defend the NHS will be meeting at St Johns Church Hall in central Crawley and the meetings will be advertised on this blog.
To join the coalition contact crawleyagainstthecuts@yahoo.com
It could be the fight of your life.
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
Hutton's nice Labour cuts
If anyone pretends to believe the Labour Party would cut less than the Tories, they have only to look at the Labour Peer (and lickspittle to Cameron) Lord Hutton.
Martin Powell-Davies (NUT Executive member) writes:
Lord Hutton's second report into public sector pensions has confirmed the attacks that we have been expecting.
He has recommended:
a) An end to final salary pension schemes - to be replaced by 'career average' schemes in order to cut the value of pensions.
b) Retiring older - the 'normal pension age' would rise first to 65 for all but increase further to 68 in future to track the rising state pension age.
This comes on top of the attacks we already know about, particularly:
c) Paying more - with the government wanting to increase pension contributions by 50%. This will rob £100 a month or so from teachers just as we are about to be clobbered by a pay freeze and rising inflation.
Lord Hutton's interview on Radio 4 this morning contained a series of distortions designed to confuse and divide opposition - we must not be fooled.
First, he claims that 'there is no alternative', that we're all living longer and so we have to work longer to pay for it. The financial statistics don't back this up.
As the NUT press release has stated: "The National Audit Office has confirmed that public sector pension costs are falling as expected due to the reforms already in place.
"Teachers are already paying more, the normal pension age has been raised to 65 for new entrants and employer contributions have been capped ... Their plans are based on politics, not economics.
"Pensions have already been cut by changing their link from RPI to CPI inflation. As a result of this, next month's pension increase will be 1.5% less than it should have been".
Second, Hutton claims that public-sector workers can't expect to carry on with final-salary pensions when most private-sector workers aren't getting them.
But why should we allow ourselves to be ripped off in the same way that many private companies are ripping off their employees? The best way to defend all workers - in both the public and private sectors - is for someone to put up a fight, and we are going to!
Lastly, as well as trying to divide public sector workers from private sector colleagues, Hutton wants to divide classroom teachers from promoted colleagues by claiming that 'career-average' schemes will be 'fairer' to those lower down the scale. But what he intends will be unfair to all of us.
He hasn't made any recommendations on the technical details of the 'accrual rates' in any career-average scheme - and thereby hides the truth. In principle, a career-average scheme can be constructed in a way that maintains pension levels - but Hutton's aim is to cut pensions.
These schemes will be constructed to give us less pension even though we'll be paying in more. There's nothing 'fair' about Hutton's proposals - they are just another part of this government's agenda of cuts and privatisation.
Hutton did have to admit that there would have to be consultation and changes to legislation to bring in these changes. That means we have a window - although it might be a short one - to organise the united action needed to stop these attacks.
Hutton's report must be met with a quick response - coordinated ballots across the public sector for strike action to defeat this pensions robbery.
Martin Powell-Davies (NUT Executive member) writes:
Lord Hutton's second report into public sector pensions has confirmed the attacks that we have been expecting.
He has recommended:
a) An end to final salary pension schemes - to be replaced by 'career average' schemes in order to cut the value of pensions.
b) Retiring older - the 'normal pension age' would rise first to 65 for all but increase further to 68 in future to track the rising state pension age.
This comes on top of the attacks we already know about, particularly:
c) Paying more - with the government wanting to increase pension contributions by 50%. This will rob £100 a month or so from teachers just as we are about to be clobbered by a pay freeze and rising inflation.
Lord Hutton's interview on Radio 4 this morning contained a series of distortions designed to confuse and divide opposition - we must not be fooled.
First, he claims that 'there is no alternative', that we're all living longer and so we have to work longer to pay for it. The financial statistics don't back this up.
As the NUT press release has stated: "The National Audit Office has confirmed that public sector pension costs are falling as expected due to the reforms already in place.
"Teachers are already paying more, the normal pension age has been raised to 65 for new entrants and employer contributions have been capped ... Their plans are based on politics, not economics.
"Pensions have already been cut by changing their link from RPI to CPI inflation. As a result of this, next month's pension increase will be 1.5% less than it should have been".
Second, Hutton claims that public-sector workers can't expect to carry on with final-salary pensions when most private-sector workers aren't getting them.
But why should we allow ourselves to be ripped off in the same way that many private companies are ripping off their employees? The best way to defend all workers - in both the public and private sectors - is for someone to put up a fight, and we are going to!
Lastly, as well as trying to divide public sector workers from private sector colleagues, Hutton wants to divide classroom teachers from promoted colleagues by claiming that 'career-average' schemes will be 'fairer' to those lower down the scale. But what he intends will be unfair to all of us.
He hasn't made any recommendations on the technical details of the 'accrual rates' in any career-average scheme - and thereby hides the truth. In principle, a career-average scheme can be constructed in a way that maintains pension levels - but Hutton's aim is to cut pensions.
These schemes will be constructed to give us less pension even though we'll be paying in more. There's nothing 'fair' about Hutton's proposals - they are just another part of this government's agenda of cuts and privatisation.
Hutton did have to admit that there would have to be consultation and changes to legislation to bring in these changes. That means we have a window - although it might be a short one - to organise the united action needed to stop these attacks.
Hutton's report must be met with a quick response - coordinated ballots across the public sector for strike action to defeat this pensions robbery.
Friday, 11 February 2011
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