Support the pension strikes
0 Comments Published by Tom Woodcock on Thursday, March 30, 2006 at 2:32 PM.
The issue of pensions is coming up regularly on the doorstep in Romsey. Many people at, or close to, retirement age face adverse prospects. The government – backed up by the Tories and the Lib Dems – are trying to divide working people in two ways on this issue. One is by ripping apart pension agreements with each section of the workforce separately. The other is by trying to divide public and private sector workers on the issue of the retirement age. Along with the CBI, the three main parties think we are all living longer and that the answer to this is bringing public sector workers in line with the recognised retirement age of 65 as opposed to 60.
I am adamant that we must protect the public sector schemes.
Firstly, private sector workers – particularly in low paid jobs and without proper pensions provision – regularly have to work beyond 65. The knock-on effect will be an across the board rise in expected retirement age for the lowest paid workers. We should fight for better pensions for all.
Secondly, life expectancies are only rising amongst certain parts of the population. The average mortality of a manual worker has risen very little since the 1970s.
Thirdly, pensions are deferred wages and schemes are paid into in good faith. To take them away is not only a pay cut but pure robbery.
It is becoming more and more clear that Gordan Brown's stewardship of the economy is a sham. He raided £5bn out of pension funds in his first year in government and this is the current shortfall. It is also less than the cost of the Iraq war. Brown has propped up the economy in a number of ways. He has encouraged the general public to increase personal borrowing. He is selling off public assets and increasing the tax burden disproportionately on the least well off. None of these methods are sustainable. To think that the Labour Party is relying on him as the next Prime Minister shows how anti-labour New Labour has become.
We spend less than half the percentage of GDP on pensions than our nearest Western European counterparts do, resulting in some of the poorest pensioners in Europe. For the ‘fourth richest’ economy in the world this is a disgrace.
RESPECT wholeheartedly supports union action to protect all our pensions and will continue to fight for a restoration of index linked pensions and the right for all of us to live out our old age in dignity.
I am adamant that we must protect the public sector schemes.
Firstly, private sector workers – particularly in low paid jobs and without proper pensions provision – regularly have to work beyond 65. The knock-on effect will be an across the board rise in expected retirement age for the lowest paid workers. We should fight for better pensions for all.
Secondly, life expectancies are only rising amongst certain parts of the population. The average mortality of a manual worker has risen very little since the 1970s.
Thirdly, pensions are deferred wages and schemes are paid into in good faith. To take them away is not only a pay cut but pure robbery.
It is becoming more and more clear that Gordan Brown's stewardship of the economy is a sham. He raided £5bn out of pension funds in his first year in government and this is the current shortfall. It is also less than the cost of the Iraq war. Brown has propped up the economy in a number of ways. He has encouraged the general public to increase personal borrowing. He is selling off public assets and increasing the tax burden disproportionately on the least well off. None of these methods are sustainable. To think that the Labour Party is relying on him as the next Prime Minister shows how anti-labour New Labour has become.
We spend less than half the percentage of GDP on pensions than our nearest Western European counterparts do, resulting in some of the poorest pensioners in Europe. For the ‘fourth richest’ economy in the world this is a disgrace.
RESPECT wholeheartedly supports union action to protect all our pensions and will continue to fight for a restoration of index linked pensions and the right for all of us to live out our old age in dignity.
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