Another strike on the 30th Nov over pensions

4 Dec 2011

Quote by Bluefish2009
Public sector workers use pensions strike to go Christmas shopping
I would not have been so hard on people if I had known it was all for a jolly
Shopping centres up and down the country were “absolutely heaving”, with up to seven per cent more visitors than usual. At the same time there were paltry turnouts at many picket lines, despite two million teachers, health workers, civil servants and other public sector employees taking part in the biggest mass strike since 1979.
Far from bringing the country to a halt, the protest over pension arrangements had little or no impact on travel across most of the country, and almost four in 10 state schools remained open in England.
While tens of thousands of striking workers took part in marches, at least as many seemed to have made a beeline for the shops. They included Tracey Hammond, 50, a teaching assistant from Essex, who used the opportunity to visit the Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, east London. She said she had voted against the strike, but decided that when her school in Hornchurch, Essex was shut by the walkout she “might as well make use of it”. She added: “I got the last Christmas pudding in Waitrose so it is worth having the day off.”

i thought it was funny that there was all the outrage by Mr Cameron, about all the disruption and inconveniece, major problems, air ports a nightmare. All done to build up the anti Striker propoganda. When it was not like that at all, it was a "damp squib" according to Mr C, methinks Mr Cameron wants it both ways.
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

All very basic info
People strike they dont have to pickett
Of the schools open how many had class's shut? Ours was open my kid was in but it was one of the few class's open.
There was a huge march in Bristol, police advised avoiding the city centre.
Strikers were not the only ones at the shops. We were out and saw plenty of the hard done by had to take a day off work and loose money so must spend more money today club out with their kids .... shopping.
All rather pointless. You strike to withdraw from work thats it.
A club most would rather not have joined

4 Dec 2011

Quote by Onthebeach_1
i thought it was funny that there was all the outrage by Mr Cameron, about all the disruption and inconveniece, major problems, air ports a nightmare. All done to build up the anti Striker propoganda. When it was not like that at all, it was a "damp squib" according to Mr C, methinks Mr Cameron wants it both ways.

So what was the Labour MP whose constituency includes Heathrow airport doing by demanding that Heathrow be closed during the strike on "Health and Safety" grounds? Was he not adding to the outrage or was that just propaganda? dunno

4 Dec 2011

Meanwhile, ministers themselves face a £4,000 rise in their pension contributions in a move aimed at showing they share the financial burden felt elsewhere in the public sector.
Prime Minister David Cameron has written to colleagues, the Mail on Sunday reported, to say they cannot expect low-paid workers like nurses and dinner ladies to "take on a burden we are not prepared to assume for ourselves".
Rises planned over the next three years would see Cabinet ministers contributing 17.9% of their £69,000 salaries to get the same benefits - equivalent to an extra £4,000.

5 Dec 2011

Quote by Bluefish2009
Meanwhile, ministers themselves face a £4,000 rise in their pension contributions in a move aimed at showing they share the financial burden felt elsewhere in the public sector.
Prime Minister David Cameron has written to colleagues, the Mail on Sunday reported, to say they cannot expect low-paid workers like nurses and dinner ladies to "take on a burden we are not prepared to assume for ourselves".
Rises planned over the next three years would see Cabinet ministers contributing 17.9% of their £69,000 salaries to get the same benefits - equivalent to an extra £4,000.

Funny, that will be fine as long as they dont get to vote on it. When Blair tried to stop MP's taking a pay rise they just voted to have one anyway lol

5 Dec 2011

dont know why your complainin bout it wwont it give you and the tories an excuse to blame the strikers for the state of our economy as they have europe in the last 3 months...some things never change...

5 Dec 2011

Quote by tweeky
Meanwhile, ministers themselves face a £4,000 rise in their pension contributions in a move aimed at showing they share the financial burden felt elsewhere in the public sector.
Prime Minister David Cameron has written to colleagues, the Mail on Sunday reported, to say they cannot expect low-paid workers like nurses and dinner ladies to "take on a burden we are not prepared to assume for ourselves".
Rises planned over the next three years would see Cabinet ministers contributing 17.9% of their £69,000 salaries to get the same benefits - equivalent to an extra £4,000.

Funny, that will be fine as long as they dont get to vote on it. When Blair tried to stop MP's taking a pay rise they just voted to have one anyway lol

Only time will tell

8 Dec 2011

Government makes 'improved' NHS pensions offer

Looks very good to me!

8 Dec 2011

Quote by Bluefish2009
Government makes 'improved' NHS pensions offer

Looks very good to me!

well must admit if I was a nurse or doctor I would be well pee'ed off with the so called offer. there is no actual change..they are still being asked to pay more ...for longer.. and get less at the end !!!
Basically they said they will hold back the increase for a year...and then implement it !!! Do you really think this will do the trick ??????

8 Dec 2011

Quote by deancannock
Government makes 'improved' NHS pensions offer

Looks very good to me!

well must admit if I was a nurse or doctor I would be well pee'ed off with the so called offer. there is no actual change..they are still being asked to pay more ...for longer.. and get less at the end !!!
Basically they said they will hold back the increase for a year...and then implement it !!! Do you really think this will do the trick ??????
I did until I read your response

9 Dec 2011

Quote by deancannock
Government makes 'improved' NHS pensions offer

Looks very good to me!

well must admit if I was a nurse or doctor I would be well pee'ed off with the so called offer. there is no actual change..they are still being asked to pay more ...for longer.. and get less at the end !!!
Basically they said they will hold back the increase for a year...and then implement it !!! Do you really think this will do the trick ??????
Agreed. We were asked to pay more but for the same amount of time and get the same at the end. I considered the extra amount pretty insignificant so went along with it. That seemed a fair deal the above does not.

10 Dec 2011

Quote by deancannock
Government makes 'improved' NHS pensions offer

Looks very good to me!

well must admit if I was a nurse or doctor I would be well pee'ed off with the so called offer. there is no actual change..they are still being asked to pay more ...for longer.. and get less at the end !!!
Basically they said they will hold back the increase for a year...and then implement it !!! Do you really think this will do the trick ??????
Is that not like every service we get though, I pay more for my fuel now and get less for my money, I therefore have to work more hours to buy it.
I pay more for my electric, more for my gas and more for my council tax..... If I could afford a pension I suspect I would have to put more in that also.

10 Dec 2011

Quote by Bluefish2009
Government makes 'improved' NHS pensions offer

Looks very good to me!

well must admit if I was a nurse or doctor I would be well pee'ed off with the so called offer. there is no actual change..they are still being asked to pay more ...for longer.. and get less at the end !!!
Basically they said they will hold back the increase for a year...and then implement it !!! Do you really think this will do the trick ??????
Is that not like every service we get though, I pay more for my fuel now and get less for my money, I therefore have to work more hours to buy it.
I pay more for my electric, more for my gas and more for my council tax..... If I could afford a pension I suspect I would have to put more in that also.
i think it should also be made clear that the increase quoted are based on an annualised salary, so if you only worked part time and earned £15,000 the govt would assume a full time salary 0f £30,000 so you would still have to pay the increases.

10 Dec 2011

Quote by Onthebeach_1
Government makes 'improved' NHS pensions offer

Looks very good to me!

well must admit if I was a nurse or doctor I would be well pee'ed off with the so called offer. there is no actual change..they are still being asked to pay more ...for longer.. and get less at the end !!!
Basically they said they will hold back the increase for a year...and then implement it !!! Do you really think this will do the trick ??????
Is that not like every service we get though, I pay more for my fuel now and get less for my money, I therefore have to work more hours to buy it.
I pay more for my electric, more for my gas and more for my council tax..... If I could afford a pension I suspect I would have to put more in that also.
i think it should also be made clear that the increase quoted are based on an annualised salary, so if you only worked part time and earned £15,000 the govt would assume a full time salary 0f £30,000 so you would still have to pay the increases.
of course your assumption assumes that the person in the example works 2 and a half days per week or 130 days per year! I think it's correct that the annualised salary should be used. If the unions used annualised gross salaries when quoting the supposed average salary of their members, the figures bandied about would be quite different.

10 Dec 2011

Well keep reading the private sector was doing ....take a look..seems like they are:

10 Dec 2011

Quote by deancannock
Well keep reading the private sector was doing ....take a look..seems like they are:

yep, know all about that Dean. And?

10 Dec 2011

and MAX...I keep reading its only the public sector workers that are going on strike over their pensions....seems others to from private sector feel the same...and they not even being asked to pay more or for longer !!

10 Dec 2011

Quote by deancannock
and MAX...I keep reading its only the public sector workers that are going on strike over their pensions....seems others to from private sector feel the same...and they not even being asked to pay more or for longer !!

I think this is exactly the point! Every one is suffering
Surely if they are not being asked to pay more and longer, the end result will be less pension at the end of it

10 Dec 2011

Quote by deancannock
and MAX...I keep reading its only the public sector workers that are going on strike over their pensions....seems others to from private sector feel the same...and they not even being asked to pay more or for longer !!

You've probably read that it was only public sector workers striking because until the Unilever strike it was. Simples!
I'm sure that the Unions involved, Unite, GMB and Usdaw have acted on the back of the public workers strike. They are striking over Unilever's proposal to close it's final salary scheme, something that the majority of private companies have already done.

11 Dec 2011

Thats true max....what I am just trying to point out is that workers from all sections dont like such pension changes. And not knowing the dispute I would not say they are right or wrong to strike at Unilever....however they have undoubtably had a ballot and it was in favour of the action, and so they have every right to show their dislike.
Also it is true that most companies have now withdrawn, the final salary pension. But and this is where the big BUT comes in... NOT retrospecativley. Those that signed up for that pension will still be allowed to get it. Those people were paying more in contributions over the years than others. Thios type of pension was normally an option. What most employers have said is any new workers joining will not be allowed to join that scheme, and also any workers not already signed up to that scheme will not be allowed to do so from now on. To me that is a sensible way forward.

11 Dec 2011

Quote by deancannock
Thats true max....what I am just trying to point out is that workers from all sections dont like such pension changes. And not knowing the dispute I would not say they are right or wrong to strike at Unilever....however they have undoubtably had a ballot and it was in favour of the action, and so they have every right to show their dislike.
Also it is true that most companies have now withdrawn, the final salary pension. But and this is where the big BUT comes in... NOT retrospecativley. Those that signed up for that pension will still be allowed to get it. Those people were paying more in contributions over the years than others. Thios type of pension was normally an option. What most employers have said is any new workers joining will not be allowed to join that scheme, and also any workers not already signed up to that scheme will not be allowed to do so from now on. To me that is a sensible way forward.

Sorry Dean but I think you're not quite right in the claims of your final paragraph. A lot of schemes have closed their pensions to both new and existing members. As for final salary schemes being an option, I think the option was either to join the scheme or not.

5 Jan 2012

Public sector pensions offer rejected by Unite
The Unite union has rejected the government's latest offer on public sector pensions for NHS workers.