What We Think

Pensions – force the government to retreat

IT LOOKS increasingly likely that up to one and a half million
public-sector workers will take strike action on 23 March, in the biggest
strike for over 20 years. This action will show the huge anger building up
against the government’s attempted pensions’ robbery and its attacks on the
welfare state.

New Labour is preparing the biggest ever assault on the public sector if
they are returned to government after the election. They aim to save hundreds
of billions, to end effective trade unionism in the public sector and further
privatise enfeebled public services.

The pensions issue could begin to dominate the headlines with a general
election rapidly approaching, despite the media ignoring it until now.

Balloting

All the local government unions, (excluding the GMB), began balloting their
members last week, due to end around 9 March, on strike action against
government proposals to raise the retirement age and reduce pension rights.

All the unions involved in strike action, and other unions, are "calling on
the government to withdraw regulations scheduled to take effect from 1 April
which, without consultation, raised the retirement age of all public-sector
workers to 65" (UNISON press release).

And the biggest civil servants’ union, PCS, has started a ballot of its
members this week after the government told the union that other changes to
the civil servants’ occupational pension scheme might be negotiated but the
retiring age increase was "not negotiable".

This clearly reveals where the government intends to make its savings of up
to 15%-20% on retirement age costs and where it expects public-sector workers
to make the most sacrifice.

Lecturers’ union Natfhe is also balloting about strike action on 14 April.
Other education unions, NASUWT and the NUT are consulting their members about
taking action on the same day (after the Easter break). The firefighters are
also consulting members over strike action.

Last week, facing the threat of such action, local government unions met
deputy prime minister John Prescott and the local government employers (LGA).
Union leaders hoped to find a negotiated settlement, acceptable to union
members, which would have meant the withdrawal of the proposed changes due
from 1 April, without strings.

At one stage Prescott told the unions he would agree to lift the new
regulations if the LGA agreed that they would not increase council taxes to
compensate for losing any savings resulting from the changes.

Since the last council elections in May 2004, the LGA is now
Tory-controlled and this could have been an attempt by Labour to shift the
blame onto the LGA and thereby the Tories, when any strike took place.

But the talks broke down, apparently because the employers demanded that
the extra costs of retaining the current pension arrangements would have to be
carried by workers suffering job losses or cuts in services.

Militant action

IT WAS the PCS strike action on 5 November last year against the
announcement of 100,000 job losses in the civil service that broke the log jam
of inactivity that was so pronounced amongst British union leaders.

British workers need to follow the militancy of the French workers in
recent years in their battle against their government’s attempts to cut the
welfare state and attempts to increase the working week, rather than the
right-wing union leaders’ appeals to reason with the bosses.

Although union members know that they have to defend their own members’
interests and may be prepared to fight alone if necessary, it is much better
to fight together.

In order for the government to drop their plans altogether, it will require
more than one-day strikes. Public-sector unions need to call a conference of
union national executives to hammer out a programme of action on pensions,
privatisation and job cuts.

Real plans must now be made for further action after 23 March. The council
workers’ "discontinuous" ballot means that they can take strike action again
after Easter, allowing for pressure to be applied to other unions, such as the
education unions and firefighters to come on board, if there is no movement
from the employers.

A preparedness to use militant industrial action and the collective
strength of union members, rather than press conferences or Parliamentary
lobbies, is what is needed to force this government and the employers to
retreat.