pensions
Articles about state and private pensions, pensioners and workers' struggles over retirement pensions.
Fujitsu UK workers set to strike
Union members at Fujitsu Services have voted for strike action over pensions, pay and job cuts.
The action is not yet decided. Senior Unite union reps are meeting today to decide the next move after 74 per cent of members who voted called for a walk out. Some 92 per cent agreed to industrial action short of a strike.
Taxpayers spend double on bosses' pensions than public sector workers'
Taxpayers are paying £2.50 for subsidising the pensions of the richest one per cent of the population for every pound spent on paying pensions to retired public servants such as nurses, teachers and civil servants, according to new research published by the TUC.
The findings are revealed in a new campaign pamphlet Decent Pensions for all that says the real pension problem in the UK is not the affordable cost of public sector pensions, but the growth in the number of private sector employees with no pension.
Fools and their "gold-plated" pensions
Public sector workers have been fools. No more so than private sector workers, for sure, but it has been a breathtaking level of foolishness across the board which has led to the imminent extinction of the entire concept of final salary pensions*.
First they came for the staff of the weakest private sector companies
Then they came for the strong
Private sector pensions under threat in UK
About half the final-salary pension schemes in the private sector will have closed to existing employees within the next three years, a survey by actuarial firm Watson Wyatt suggests.
The firm surveyed more than 250 employers, many of them large, in July about their intentions. While about 75% of all final-salary schemes are shut to new recruits, only about 9% are closed to current staff. But this year has seen a flurry of employers closing their pension schemes to all further contributions.
Visteon asks to pay millions in executive bonuses
Visteon Corp., which moved last week to cut off retiree health-care benefits, has asked a bankruptcy judge to authorize up to $80 million in management and insider bonuses.
Visteon hit the headlines earlier this year when their 600 UK workers responded to being sacked by occupying their workplaces and winning their redundancy pay which they had been denied. Full coverage on libcom was provided here: http://libcom.org/tags/visteon-occupation
London postal workers strike set for Friday, other regions to be balloted
Royal Mail is braced for further industrial unrest, with unions expected to ballot more regions for strike action as early as this week. It follows the vote last week by postal workers in London to stage a 24-hour walkout this Friday.
With plans to privatise the state-owned group in disarray, Jonathan DeCarteret, from the consultancy Post-Switch, is predicting that the London vote will prove to be the "starting pistol in a long summer of industrial strike action".
Greek general strike to go ahead
The planned general strike for later today, 10 December is still scheduled to go ahead, but unions bowed to the government and called off protest marches amidst Greece's worst rioting in decades.
2.5 million workers in the GSEE and ADEDY general unions, comprising around half of Greece's total workforce are to strike today.
They are demanding an end to cuts in public spending and attacks on pay and pensions.
Greece's transport network in particular is set to grind to a halt, as many airlines have already cancelled all flights in and out of the country.
Bolivian miners strike against Morales pension reform
The Bolivian government has lost over $1.5 million due to a strike at the country's largest tin mine, Huanuni, where workers are demanding a deeper pension reform.
Roberto Montano said the state-owned mine has been losing about $500,000 a day since workers went on strike, halting production, on Thursday afternoon. The official said the mine always closed on Sundays.
"They (the workers) are staging an indefinite general strike [...] they're waiting for negotiations between the Bolivian Workers Central and the government," Montano said.
Panic at oil pensions strike
Workers at the Grangemouth Ineos plant will strike for two days from Sunday and will shut down the Forties pipeline, which provides a third of the UK's daily oil output.
The government is warning consumers not to panic, as panic-buying of petrol has begun.
The strike of Unite members is against attacks on pensions, including closing the scheme to new entrants.
More information from Unite here.
More strikes expected as Greece passes pension reform
Greek unions promise to continue protests against the government's pension reforms, passed on Thursday.
The pension reform raises the retirement age for women to 65 and workers in hazardous industries will have to work an extra two years. Many accuse the conservative government of going back on pre-election promises not to cut pension rights.
