pensions
Articles about state and private pensions, pensioners and workers' struggles over retirement pensions.
UK workers vote for mass strike over pensions crisis
Tuesday 28th March could see strike action by one and a half million workers across more than nine different unions. The strike has been provoked by an attack on the local government pension scheme, with the labour government planning to increase the age workers can retire at.
With this attack workers will lose the right to retire at 60 – a right that had been established for those with more than 25 years service. Many of these are low paid workers who statistically die earlier.
No More Soft Soap on OAPs
No more soft soap about oaps
Guinea: Five day general strike begins
The capital of Guinea was brought to a standstill today on the first of a five-day general strike over wages and pensions.
The National Confederation of Guinean Workers (CNTG), and the Guinean Workers Trade Union (USTG), called the strike action after months of talks broke down. The two unions have around 80,000 members between them.
The government ordered all educational institutions closed on Sunday itself, most government workers, taxis, and minibuses stayed at home, whilst shops and businesses were closed.
Making their minds up? Unions ballot for pension strikes
For the third time in two years, the major unions have agreed to ballot for a general strike over public sector pensions.
The news follows the splitting of the public sector pensions agenda into ‘national’ and ‘local’, with national-level workers getting a guarantee of immunity from pension changes for existing workers last years.
Local government workers were told they would have to negotiate their own terms separately, leading to the secondary confrontation.
Fire strike extinguished?
The government has attempted to head off a strike by thousands of firefighters across the UK by proposing a modification to its pension reforms.
Ministers had intended to raise the retirement age from 50 to 60 for new starters, creating a two-tier workforce. The new offer allows those with 30 years' service to retire at 50 - i.e. only those who begin service at the age of 20 or younger.
However, despite disquiet amongst delegates to the emergency FBU conference in Southport, the leadership is expected to call off the strike.
US car workers gear up to fight wages and jobs onslaught
Workers for Delphi, a former subsidiary of General Motors, are facing 24,000 job cuts, the slashing of wages by 63%, and huge cuts in benefits such as pensions and health care.
Delphi is filing for bankruptcy, and the cuts are to go ahead despite recently awarding executives with nearly $40m in bonuses. The auto workers are beginning to fight back, defying the United Auto Workers union and attempting slowdowns in Delphi plants, including facilities in Flint, Michigan, and Kokomo, Indiana.
British Airways pilots prepare for strike
Pilots at British Airways are preparing for a long strike over their pension scheme.
The company will announce plans by the end of March to cut the cost of its main pension scheme which has a deficit of at least £900m.
Bosses' hypocrisy on public sector pensions
As 1.5 million workers gear up to strike over pensions, Iain MacKay reports on the hypocrisy of blaming public workers for company pension-gouging
Gordon Brown has questioned the deal agreed by the Government to allow public-sector workers to continue to retire at 60. While Downing Street and the Department of Work and Pensions insisted that the deal with the unions would not be unpicked, the unions, who called off a strike when the deal was struck, renewed their threat of industrial action.
1.5 million may strike over pensions
Workers in nine different unions are to be balloted for strike action over Whitehall plans to alter the local government pensions scheme.
Unison, AMICUS, the Transport and General Workers Union, GMB, FBU and the NUT are amongst the unions involved, in what has been described as potentially the largest walk-out since the general strike of 1926. Talks have been going on for a year around the issue.
NHS Pensions Agency staff vote for strike action
Members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) working for the NHS Pensions Agency (NHSPA) in Fleetwood have voted overwhelmingly for industrial action over the effects of plans to privatise the agency.
80% of those taking part in the ballot voted in favour of a one day strike on 20 January. The agency which looks after the pensions of approximately 1. 25 million NHS staff is set for privatisation this year without a tender process or any competition.
