Are Any Of You Striking This Wednesday?

[Janidog]

At this moment in time i think you all should be grateful you have a job! So many people out there would love to work.

Also for the teachers that are striking - Does that mean parents can take their children out of education to go on holiday??? Its not fair if teachers can just strike when ever they feel like it, but if a parent takes a child out of school then they are told they are irresponsible and damaging their education

For the NHS workers - your patients who need routine operations and blood tests etc.... will now have to wait even longer whilst you all strike so a big congratulations to you all

Are you all taking your children to the marches and picket lines or doing your Christmas shopping??????? Let me guess Christmas shopping

 

[anna matronic]

At this moment in time i think you all should be grateful you have a job! So many people out there would love to work.

Also for the teachers that are striking - Does that mean parents can take their children out of education to go on holiday??? Its not fair if teachers can just strike when ever they feel like it, but if a parent takes a child out of school then they are told they are irresponsible and damaging their education

For the NHS workers - your patients who need routine operations and blood tests etc.... will now have to wait even longer whilst you all strike so a big congratulations to you all

Are you all taking your children to the marches and picket lines or doing your Christmas shopping??????? Let me guess Christmas shopping

I am grateful I have a job thank you very much. However, I am not grateful that I stand to lose an extra £80 a month (which I and most people cannot afford with the price of living already rising a huge amount and having a pay freeze) I also can't see myself as a 68 year old teacher bouncing around all day, hopefully I'll still be cool enough and fit enough to do that though, although no doubt I'll have to work til I'm past 70 at this rate. This strike isn't just about pensions anyway, although that is a big part of it it is NOT the only reason. There are many other proposed changes that are considered to be deeply unfair too.

As for your other comment, we will have work set on the VLE for students to complete at home. Of course we can't force them to do it, but work WILL be available. A holiday which is usually MORE than one day is not comparable to a days strike.This strike will actually have an impact on our students for when they get into the workplace too if they choose to work in the public sector. So in a way we are actually trying to help them out and their future too

 

[bathbabe]

At this moment in time i think you all should be grateful you have a job! So many people out there would love to work.

Also for the teachers that are striking - Does that mean parents can take their children out of education to go on holiday??? Its not fair if teachers can just strike when ever they feel like it, but if a parent takes a child out of school then they are told they are irresponsible and damaging their education

For the NHS workers - your patients who need routine operations and blood tests etc.... will now have to wait even longer whilst you all strike so a big congratulations to you all

Are you all taking your children to the marches and picket lines or doing your Christmas shopping??????? Let me guess Christmas shopping

I cant believe how rude your being tbh.

 

[indy and lara]

Rachel if you pm me your email I can send you the information I got through once I am home.

Janidog, an education system staffed by teachers in their late 60s will be of benefit to no-one. Teachers are not on bankers' salaries and most will really struggle to pay an extra £60-100 a month in pension. As someone else said, our pension is also self-supporting so where are our extra contributions going? If we are all to just accept the huge monthly salary increases then I do imagine that there will be working to rule. I dread to think what state our schools will be in then.

 

[Jchihuahua]

At this moment in time i think you all should be grateful you have a job! So many people out there would love to work.

Also for the teachers that are striking - Does that mean parents can take their children out of education to go on holiday??? Its not fair if teachers can just strike when ever they feel like it, but if a parent takes a child out of school then they are told they are irresponsible and damaging their education

For the NHS workers - your patients who need routine operations and blood tests etc.... will now have to wait even longer whilst you all strike so a big congratulations to you all

Are you all taking your children to the marches and picket lines or doing your Christmas shopping??????? Let me guess Christmas shopping

I find this post incredibly rude.

Oh, and I will be marching, thank you very much. I take my job and my pension very seriously .

 

[captainj1]

I work in the private sector and am an accountant. I think it is up to the individual, however virtually all private companies have gone through these pension changes in the last 5 years.

Basically there are two types of pension scheme - one that guarantees annual pension as a proportion of your salary on retirement (known as a final salary scheme or a defined benefit scheme), and one that basically takes your contributions and those of your employer, invests them for you, and whatever they are worth at the end is used to calculate your pension (known as a money purchase or defined contribution scheme).

In the private sector, what has happened in all the companies I work with is that final salary schemes have been closed and people transferred to a money purchase scheme. What this means is the employees no longer have guaranteed pensions. They now take the risk on how the money they have invested will grow between now and when they retire, whereas before it was the company's risk. Given what is happening in the Market, share values are dropping and interest rates are low, so in many cases people's cash invested has reduced in value not increased.

What is being proposed in the public sector is that you get to keep the guaranteed final salary arrangement, but that you have to contribute more in order to help the government to close the gap between the amounts they will have to pay out and the amounts you have invested (this gap having grown considerably bigger in recent years because of share prices plummeting etc).

In my opinion this is a far less risky proposal than what private sector workers have ended up with.

That's just my opinion though and obviously you're entitled to strike if you feel it is unfair. I just think people who strike should know what they are striking for and understand the context that I have explained.

 

[New2Bumps]

Just like Anna I am NUT and striking, loosing a day's pay and the nursery fees as I will be making the most of the opportunity and having my boy at home with me.

My feeling is that as I am a fully paid up member of a union I will support the actions they suggest. After all, I will reap any benefits their actions result in! But each to their own Lellow, you do what you feel is right xxx

Yep, exactly this. I am fully fully supporting the strike action this Weds and will also lose the day's pay and have budgeted accordingly.

 

[New2Bumps]

I work part time so I'm not at work on a Wednesday but if I were I would strike. The proposals are awful.

We may lose a days pay for striking but in April we will lose the equivalent of a days pay a month to the new pension scheme in order to work much longer and have a lot less pension. It's a scandal.

I agree!

 

[kargyle]

As a member of the Nut I will also be striking I also worry about my ability to teach into my late 60s working the hours i currently do. Also would I want my son being taught by someone who is worn out - lost enthuiasm - getting through the last years for pension.

I understand there needs to be pension reforms but we seem to be taking the blame and hit for bankers mistakes. How much are they really being hit?

As part of a union I will be joining my collegeues on a day of strike - standing shoulder to shoulder against these changes. I also fear that if we do not make a stand - further changes will follow.

 

[New2Bumps]

At this moment in time i think you all should be grateful you have a job! So many people out there would love to work.

Also for the teachers that are striking - Does that mean parents can take their children out of education to go on holiday??? Its not fair if teachers can just strike when ever they feel like it, but if a parent takes a child out of school then they are told they are irresponsible and damaging their education

For the NHS workers - your patients who need routine operations and blood tests etc.... will now have to wait even longer whilst you all strike so a big congratulations to you all

Are you all taking your children to the marches and picket lines or doing your Christmas shopping??????? Let me guess Christmas shopping

I'll second what everyone else has said in reply to this, particularly regarding the rudeness of it!

Also, I'll be taking my LO along to the march, thank you very much

 

[Janidog]

Im not being rude, I just don't respect those that are striking simple as that.

 

[Lu28]

I'm fairly mixed on this to be honest. My DH was a police officer for 10 years so I understand the challenges of being a public sector workers and the fact that the pay is far too low etc. That said, the type of pensions which public sector workers have are far far more favourable than most in the private sector. Yes, you're looking at working until a later age with far less to live on - so are the rest of us. It's not good but the world has changed over the last few years and we all need to make adjustments. Simply being a private sector worker does not mean that you get paid more than a public sector worker and many get paid the same or less with little to no pension provision and there's nothing we can do about it

On the other hand, I can understand that having to find an additional £100 or so a month to continue to pay for a pension is a big thing at the moment and will be very difficult.

So I guess I'm divided on this. I, like many other private sector workers (or would be private sector workers seeing as I'm unemployed) would love to have a job at all, and are grateful that they do, regardless of pension provisions. Private sector workers tend to look at their pensions as their own responsibility rather than their employer's. Most employers don't contribute, certainly not to the extent that the government do.

So I do sympathise but think there are many many people worse off at the moment. I've just asked my DH what his views are and he would actually be fairly strong on even the current pension proposals being much more generous than the private sector and if he was still a police officer and had the option to strike (which he wouldn't) then he wouldn't strike.

 

[Jchihuahua]

Im not being rude, I just don't respect those that are striking simple as that.

I respect your opinion to not agree with the strikes but saying we'd all be going christmas shopping on Wednesday was rude and patronising.

 

[Blah11]

i think people forget that witht he exception of a very select few, public sector workers don't get the 'perks' that a lot of private sector workers do. Whether that be a christmas bonus or a staff discount it's still a perk.

 

[Baby France]

People who don't work for the public sector have skewed views of our pensions based on what they hear on the news.

The NHS pension fund is self funding and massively over fed already - the massive surplus that already goes in pays off the national debt - no prizes for guessing why the proposals have come into rack it in even more. Dh is a teacher, teachers pensions are also self funding.

Physios haven't striked in something like their 170yr history - that goes to show how bad these proposals are and how strongly people feel about how bad they are - don't believe what you read in the papers. Unless you work in the public sector you won't really understand what's going on imo.

That is so very very true.

The media is very biased I think towards what they think is right.

I'm basically being told to pay more money towards my pension, get less out of it, work for more years. Not have any pay rises, do more work (as my friends get made redundant around me) and someone has to pick up the work....oh and of course sit back, not complain or say a single word about it.

Yeah...course I will. Pretty sure that if people really understood the changes then maybe they wouldn't be so rude and give us a little bit more respect.

 

[Baby France]

And I understand that we ALL have to feel the pinch of the ecomonic crisis we're in at the minute...but why are the public sector workers making the cuts again?

Its always us that gets a slap in the face and then we deal with the flack from it all.

 

[Baby France]

I run my own company but i cant expect the mums i employ to bring their kids in for the day because teachers want to strike, i think its irresponsible! If private sector workers did this they would be without a job

If a private sector worker was a member of a union and went on a legally organised strike they would have exactly the same rights as public sector workers. Anyone who lost their job as a result of a legal strike could sue for unfair dismissal so being public or private sector is irrelevant.

Private sector doesn't work like that

I've actually been quite annoyed at your responses. But ^^^ proves you don't know what you are talking about.

I think maybe you should do some research.

 

[captainj1]

The NHS pension fund is in huge deficit, not a surplus.

It is true to say that on an annual basis, at this moment in time, the nhs pension fund pays out less than it collects in. But that doesn't mean there isn't a problem. There is a huge pension deficit in the nhs, just like there is across the rest of the public sector and much of the private sector (from old schemes that are now closed to new entrants but still have a legacy problem).

The nhs workforce has grown significantly over the last ten years and that means that when the scheme is valued overall, ie to consider in the lifetime of all of the current members what will it collect in (under current rates of contribution) and what will it pay out (based on a series of assumptions such as how long people will live, the rate at which salaries will grow, the rate at which monies invested will grow), there is a massive shortfall. When the schemes were initially set up assumptions about how long people would live for and how much the cash invested in bonds, stocks and shares would grow by were used to determine how much cash should be contributed by the employee and the employer. However, all of those assumptions have gone against us - people are living much longer (new data was published earlier this year on this) hence drawing a pension for longer, and investments are performing terribly as we all know by listening to news about the stock market.

Ultimately, either the employer (ie the government in this case) has to pay more in to the fund, or the employee does, or both. What the government is saying is that it can't afford to be the only side that contributes. If the government therefore sits back and does nothing, or only does what it can afford, ultimately the people in the scheme will get older and retire and draw down their pensions and there simply won't be enough money to pay everyone's pensions. The deficit is so huge that the government could go bust. Then there would be nobody to pay the pension.

Pension funds have independent trustees who listen to their advisors and make proposals to members based on the latest status of the scheme. I don't know who the trustees of the public sector schemes are but they have obviously been made aware of all of the above and have recommended to members that they accept the proposals. The alternative is that everyone carries on and ultimately, there is no money to pay out the pensions...

As i said earlier, I don't have a view on whether you should strike or not or accept the proposals or not. I just think people need to understand the facts and make informed choices.

 

[MrsGlitz]

I agree with captainj1.

 

[Cattia]

What actually bothers me even more than the pension cuts (although they bother me a lot) is the continual cuts to public sector budgets. Schools and colleges are running on empty. When staff leave, there is no budget to replace them so admin work is given to fewer people or passed on to teaching staff who are already overloaded with it. Class sizes are getting bigger and courses are being cut. New resources can't be purchased and even basic repairs to grounds and buildings can't be done. Anyone who has children at school ought to be seriously concerned about this, and I imagine if the situation is the same in the NHS where not 'just' education but lives are at risk, it is even more scary.