Strike Action

[PepeLePew]

those who caused this global financial mess, the superwealthy rich 1% have been ringfenced and made exempt from any responsibility or cost. No government have the balls to do the right thing. This form of feral, greedy and toxic brand of capitalism needs to be saved and mainly at the huge and devastating cost to the sick and the poor and the vunerable. Sick world we live in

hear hear, although I think it is probably less than 0.1%

before I start, I also concur with the people in private sectors opinions and I'm in the public sector. I feel sorry for private sector because you can never show balls to what's imposed; or else you're out of the door. Whereas being in a super huge body of state employees I'm glad we have more of a chance to negotiate a settlement. I didn't agree with the strike though.
There is definitely need for reform of the pensions; just it has been so poorly communicated that public sector cynically think it is the easy way of punishing us for the failure of the few; and whilst there may be an element of truth in that; it is far from the majority reason.

On to another soap box
It is far easier for a government to make the majority have pain than tackle the root cause; and if that is by means of divide and conquer; then it helps take the heat off them tackling the goliaths.

But I would also include super intelligent traders with the 0.1% who are able to make any market flutter using their advanced maths based option buying/selling strategies (which I admire in a maths vs the world kinda way). But when the normal greed is coupled with pressure from the super wealthy for traders to deliver results; means any moral kind of responsibility (or acknowledgement of the consequences) generally gets left outside of the trading room floor. And to my mind makes them far more powerful and destructive to the world than any national/religious/terrorist threat.

When the EU suggested a financial transactions tax, to help save the Euro. George Osborne rightly defended the city of London as it would hit us harder than anyone other nation; and given we're not in the Eurozone it would be a double bumming. But what he categorically should have done was embrace the idea and try to get complete global support sign up to the tax in each country; and have no havens in whatever little island nations... but that would seemingly take too much effort. Even a financial transactions tax is only going to be a sticking plaster to most nations problems.

For many years I believed a global currency would get rid of one set of toxic trading problems. But I've never been convinced it would be simple or truly the right way forwards.

I do think that the murky complex world of hedging techniques needs to be tackled on a global scale; and until then the world is unlikely to fully emerge from borderline recession.

Part of me does think we in the West are bloated old empires in death throes; and our fate like most old empires is sealed to disintegrate. But rather than dying at the hands of invading armies; we will be done in by the super nerds

 

[Jiglo]

Gotta admire the French in these type of circumstances. They don't do things half hearted. The underclasses rebelled against the might of the privileged few and brought out the guillotines.

These days they cut off the transport supply chain and wreak chaos.

 

[Northern Star]

Who gets a bonus from their employer?

Being part of the public sector we get fek all....no christmas bonus and no summer bonus.....i got a measly performas bonus of £130.00 subject to tax for the whole 12 months and after almost 20 yrs of working in the public sector i still earn less than £19 grand a year...pretty crap....i may well end up in the private sector yet if i am made redundant due to the cuts and looking at the jobs ive seen i could apply for id probs be on a starting salary of around 16 grand a year which is low yes...but id say after 20 yrs with the same employer it should have increased more than mine has in the public sector. Its swings and roundabouts isnt it.....some get better pay some get better perks like pensions.....so when we fight for one of our perks (pension) cus weve had low pay for years then i think its only right we should be able to express our views.

 

[martin]

Gotta admire the French in these type of circumstances. They don't do things half hearted. The underclasses rebelled against the might of the privileged few and brought out the guillotines.

These days they cut off the transport supply chain and wreak chaos.

there isn't much to like about the French but i agree, they get stuck right in about the totalitarian leaders with gusto

am not sure about who is right and wrong in the current strike but the only voice the working class have left is strike action, our rights have been stripped to the bone and wages are ridicules, a good example of this is my nephew, works in a factory thru an agency, he's 19 so is on the mim wage, he works night shift but receives no shift allowance as he is an agency worker and the present government want to remove the min wage for 18-24 year olds, is he expected to work nightshift for £3 an hour with no shift allowance ? how is he to support a family on those wages ? my father had severe Epilepsy and was not fit to work but my mum had a full time job, my father took care of us and we could survive, nowadays both parents need to work and pay someone else to bring up our kids, how many times has anyone heard Ian Duncan Smith mention the "LIVING WAGE!" that was his mantra before the Con/Libs where elected ? this strike represents more than just pensions IMO, it is a reflection of the general public's contempt for the Tory ideology, i agree that we need reforms, but start with those who brought us to this point, Banks, investors, over paid employees and dont forget our Politicians who never have to turn of the heating, forget making it easy for employers to sack employees and give us a wage that we can live on.....


This link sums up the situation we are in, 1 law for the few and contempt for the many...

Shamed peer Baroness Uddin allowed back into House of Lords | Mail Online

 

[Jiglo]

I hope that's after tax Debs, mate :|

I don't think anyone would object to someone expressing their views either, especially when you see why. An utter scumbag that refuses to work and who we can't deport would probably be doing better than many honest working people these days

I'm merely a self employed person with no real idea what's going on in the public or private sectors and their pensions.

The bonuses talk reminds me of the scene in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. If only real life was as simple to remedy.

 

[Northern Star]

I hope that's after tax Debs, mate :|

I don't think anyone would object to someone expressing their views either, especially when you see why. An utter scumbag that refuses to work and who we can't deport would probably be doing better than many honest working people these days

I'm merely a self employed person with no real idea what's going on in the public or private sectors and their pensions.

The bonuses talk reminds me of the scene in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. If only real life was as simple to remedy.

No Jim im taxed on the £130 pounds im blessed with not even a months petrol to get to work these days m8 :|

 

[Mr Radish]

I have sympathy with anyone who is seeing their pension cut be it Private or Public sector workers.

However, there are just some in-escapable facts that we all have to accept.

The population is aging due to people living longer, but compounded by a falling birth rate by past standards.

This means less people in work paying tax, paying for more people claiming a pension and for an extra 10 -15 years than expected! The sums do not add up and it has to change. We may not like it, but there you have it.


I work in the private sector and have had a pay freeze, seen the contribution from my salary for my pension rise by 3% and will now have to work an extra 4 years to get what I would have done before. I don't like it, but I accept that without the changes, the pension scheme would fail everyone. Our final salary scheme closed to new employees 9 years ago.

There are millions of people who don't have a pension at all.

World economics are also in turmoil right now and this combined with population demograhics means that pensions must adapt to a new future.

Nobody likes it, but that's just how it is. Any government would have to make changes.

 

[seandelier]

Most public sector pension Schemes were reviewed in 2005/ 2006 and, in agreement with the trades unions, most have changed their normal retirement age to 65 for new entrants whilst those existing members retain their right to take their pension from age 60 should they wish to do so and subject to certain conditions. Many have also moved to career average earnings instead of final salary.

The average pay out for a public sector pension scheme is broadly comparable to a private sector scheme and there is no truth in the myth that public sector pensions are `gold plated`. Even Lord Hutton in his review of public sector pensions (on which the government is basing a lot of the proposed reforms) says the cost of public sector pensions is sustainable and will likely decrease in the medium to long term – this was before the chancellor decided to change the method of index linking from RPI to CPI (without any negotiations) thereby further reducing the overall cost – and wiping 20% of the value of a public sector pension at a stroke.

Just because a lot of the pensions in the private sector are screwed (a considerable amount of which is due to pensions fund mismanagement partly further due to pensions de-regulation by the government regarding the ability to take pension fund holidays and such) this is no justification for trying to further reduce the value of a public sector pension because it is better than what is on offer, generally, in the private sector. This should be a clear case for ensuring better pension provision for the private sector so that we are ALL not up shit`s financial creek when we do retire.

The only reason the government is now in `negotiations` is because of the strike action otherwise they would have just implemented the proposed changes to make all public sector workers pay more, work longer and get less (on top of a two year pay freeze).

NOT ONE SINGLE PENNY OF THE MONEY THE GOVERNMENT WILL SAVE WILL GO TOWARDS THE COST OF PENSION PROVISION BUT IS BEING USED TO PAY HELP PAY OFF THE FINANCIAL DEFICIT CAUSED BY GREEDY AND WILFUL BANKERS AND NOT THE FAULT OF PUBLIC SECTOR WORKERS WHO ARE BEING TREATED UNFAIRLY.

We are all being shafted except those that can most afford it or who are responsible for this dire mess we are in. Some it seems are being shafted far more than others despite the government`s pathetic claim (when it suits them, of course) that `we are all in this together`.

There comes a point when people have to take a stand and that, for around an estimated 2 million people, is tomorrow.

Excellent post mate. Unfortunately it seems it is wasted as some would rather believe the Daily Fail and the millionaire toffs in the Govt.

One of your most important points is the one about how fucked private pensions are. Just because they are screwed doesnt mean we have to even the odds by screwing the public sector. Why doesnt the govt try and fix the mess that is private sector pensions?

The public sector pensions issue is a drop in the ocean compared to the real financial issues facing this country. I am sure I read a report that said the average public sector pension is around £5500.