Forums Forums Local News Closure of Kingsway and Queensway Tunnels

As most of you striking people are paid for out of MY council taxes I will be deducting a full day from MY payments this month as you are in breach of contract and are failing to provide the services that I HAVE to pay for by LAW!

I hope everyone joins me on this one and deducts a whole day from your council taxes.

Unions and union people disgust me! I paid for years into unions when I was an apprentice and after I was time served but never once were they willing to listen to any complaints by the LITTLE man.
When Vauxhalls were out on strike years ago all the Union Bigwigs got their pay whilst the strikers got nothing, and a couple of well known union bigwigs live in luxury country houses with swimming pools etc.
As far as I am concerned Unions suck and are outdated and also dont bear any power anymore.

Just my opinions as we are all allowed them!!!!

PS

worked it out to £3.26

lol

The average public sector pension is £7,800 per year, and in 2010 cost the tax payer 1.8% of GDP, (just over £40bn for the same time period). A Unite sourced projection for 2060, is that figure will fall to 1.4% - even if the pensions are left as they currently stand.

The average NHS wage is slightly higher than the average outside of London private sector wage: £25,800 and £25,000 respectively. Across the whole of the public sector, the average wage is higher at approx £28,000, but currently includes all those publicly owned banks.

The NHS pension has been in surplus for the last four years. Yet that money isn't ring fenced to cover any future shortfall, instead it goes back into the Treasury.

Back in July 2010 the Government announced they where changing the index link for benefits, state pension and public sector pensions from RPI to CPI from April 2011. In terms of public sector pension this means an effective reduction of around 15%. Currently Unison and Unite are seeking a judicial review, but I don't think they'll get anywhere.

The proposed increases in pension contributions would be phased over 3 years, and not effect the lowest paid members (less than £15,000 a year). However, the plan is also to reduce the benefits of those pensions, i.e. raising of normal retirement age from 60 to 65, move to a career average pension, the need to pay more years in for the same pension (double whammy when you consider the increased contributions).

To be honest, with 12 million people with some sort of public sector pension (either paying, claiming or frozen), I can see why the Government are trying to get the whole public sector under the same pension scheme.

Personally, I don't trust this Government and I'm looking to start a SIPP to supplement my NHS pension come my projected retirement somewhere between 2041 and 2046.

Well said snodvan,/insanekitty, These unions will run you over the cliff but will still pull in wages of 200k a year after you have gone, listen to the older group we have been there, Listen there's no more money, we have been printing money to cover ourselves but this has to be paid back if we don't the pound will be worth 50p. do you really believe that my (all our)council tax should be increased at least 5% per year to pay into your pension excuse me if I say no. after working an average of 12 hours a day to pay for my reduced pension due to browns private pension raid did not hear much moaning then.

Well said!

Dongle, Insanekitty and Elizabeth. You really do come across as quislings. What have you done to improve you're own conditions and pensions. By the sounds of it, very little. The Tories and the rich must love you. You all support an economic system were the rich keep on taking and try to dry everyone else to the very bottom.

What you say about Unions, Insanekitty, has an element of truth. Some Union reps are crap to say the least. Also, many Union leaders are well overpaid. But what about the CEO, Bankers and other business leaders paid many thousand the average wage? There pensions are actually increasing. This whole debate is a smokescreen is to divide the working-classes against each other.

Touchstone, You really are a blast from the past, "keep the red flag flying high", if its strikes strikes strikes that you think will get you what you want get on with it, but what about the millions who don't have that luxury, but the argument is I should not be paying for your pension and if you can afford to go on striking you can afford to pay for your own pension it seems to me, or perhaps you could donate a days pay into my reducing non inflation proof private pension.

Well, I'm unsure why you think I have done very little to improve my conditions and pensions when basically all I have said on this thread is "what are they striking for" and "well said" in response to Insanekitty's posting. But seeing as you ask what I have done, I pay approx 12% of my pay each week into a pension plan that has been set up by my employer. My employer contributes approx 1% of my weekly wage, (per week) into that pension too. Now because I didn't start this pension until a couple of years ago there's very little in the pot at the moment, and being 49 years old there won't be a huge amount there anyway by the time I retire. Any NI contributions I made while working in UK were so little it's unlikely I'll be able to draw an old age pension. I ( and my husband)also save a portion of our pay in a regular saving account for when we're old. My husband did have what he believed to be a good pension from when he worked for a UK company back in the 80's but has recently been told that the sum he had been guaranteed to get when he retires is now only going to be 50% of that amount at best ( he can't go on strike to dispute this)
So, really in a nutshell we've saved for ourselves and hopefully we will have sufficient to live on if we get to be old ( assuming we won't want an extravagant lifestyle)
What bothers me is that too many folk think that they're entitled to money from the government.
Are they saying that you'll get nothing back that you've paid in, or are they saying you'll get less than originally stated? Please explain what it is the government are trying to take from your pension?
Also as a last question, did you too save any of your wages for yourself?

The changes to the pensions that the government have put on the table means that the (already earned) pensions of people greater than 3 years away from retirement are going to be reduced, as a double whammy, the employees are going to have to pay more contributions for a lesser amount.

imho pension funds should be ring-fenced, employers should not be allowed to dip into their employees funds to finance their profits.

Low-Contributions (whatever the amount) are always factored into pay negotiations, I had a non-contributory pension scheme, but my salary was always adjusted by 8% (or so) whenever pay negotiations took place, so although there were no apparent deductions, in practice there was - and, because it was done like that, it wasn't tax deductible and also couldn't be taken into account for other benefits.

So, as I mentioned in my post, the same has happened with my husband's (already earned) private sector pension. This was never 'put on the table' there was no discussion, just a letter through the mail. Nothing he can do, that's it.

It's significant that, despite all these attempts to unilaterally reduce working conditions (more pay to pensions is a pay reduction), work longer for people who joined up to an entirely different pension regime, and receive less pension, Members of Parliament retain all their pension rights, which are far more generous than anyone elses. They do this whilst reduces everyone elses State pension over coming years. We are not all in it together.
I support the strikes.

I don't see a problem in you supporting the strikes, but remember ,the people who have to get to work on that day, lots on lower pay than the strikers will ever be on , they're paying in taxes to pay the strikers wages, remember how many strikes we had last year with the delightful suprise that Brown doubled lower pay taxes from 10% to 20%, nil, zero, I think you should understand the words "live now pay later", because all your doing is putting the day off to another day in the future.

That is due to various factors rather than a 'voluntary' reduction in the terms of the pension. For example, your husbands pension will have been affected by Gordon Brown's 'private pension raid' in 1997. It's also likely also to have been a victim of pension "holidays" in the 90s and compounded by the stock market crash in the early 2000s.

For what it's worth, from 1st October 2012 onwards, employees will be automatically enroled onto one of several pension schemes. Private companies will also be compelled to contribute 3% to defined contribution pensions: http://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/future-pension-reforms/auto-enrolment

As for the public service wanting to carry on as before, there is only so much that we can pay for. It isn't a mystical "they" who pay the piper. "They" have to pay our pensions. "They" have to do xyor z.
People need to realize that there isn't a "They". It's us! As somebody once said; "There is no such thing as society". It's a buch of individuals. Society doesn't pay for anything, we all do. If we want to keep creating fake public service positions, or maintain those already created, then we need to pay more. Question is, do we want to?

Being in the private sector and having not had any pay increase in 4 years, I'm inclined to say NO!
My pension has been hit by the markets. My employer pays 3% of my salary into my pension, I've heard that the government ( us ) pay 14% for the teachers, who are already on a whole more than I am.

Yes, times is bad. But we all need to take a hit. Just being in a union doens't exempt you from that.

I'll second that post Vanman!