As mentioned in an earlier article on this site, branch officers have serious concerns about the ‘deal’ that has been reached between trade union negotiators and the government on the future of public sector pension schemes. We will therefore be lobbying our national union to get them to continue the struggle for a better settlement in the pensions dispute.
Unison’s Service Group Executives (SGEs) will be meeting on 10th January 2012 to decide whether to ratify the deal. There will be a lobby outside the Unison HQ on Euston Road from 12 noon to 2pm on 10th January 2012 to ask the elected members of the SGEs to think again about the deal and to reject it.
Unite’s Health Executive have rejected the NHS pensions ‘deal’ that is being put forward – as most members of the scheme would have been asked to pay more, work longer and get less in retirement. There is therefore a chance that the joint union action which proved successful on 30th November can continue – if all public-sector sections of Unite, Unison and the GMB take a similar stand to the one the PCS and Unite’s Health Section have taken.
If all the public sector trade unions co-operate and agree to continue to press for a better deal on pensions, then we have a chance of being able to win more concessions from the employers. Unity is strength!