Random thoughts and photos of my journey through life…
Filed under This & That
The scandal of private sector pensions
The collapse of private sector pensions is one of the greatest outrages of our time. Just over a decade ago nearly half of all private sector workers were in a workplace pension scheme; today it is only a third. The cost of that decline will be borne by the taxpayer [...]
2 Comments CherryPie on Nov 28th 2011
Filed under This & That
Public sector pensions: affordable and sustainable
The pensions of public sector workers have come under intense scrutiny in recent months, with ministers and the media describing them as ‘gold-plated’ and ‘unaffordable’. Currently public sector workers are being told they must pay more and work longer for a lower pension – but is this necessary?
Last year [...]
4 Comments CherryPie on Nov 27th 2011
Filed under This & That
A booklet entitled ‘Fair Pensions for All‘ has been produced by PCS, the general union Unite, the National Union of Teachers (NUT), the University and College Union (UCU) and the National Pensioners’ Convention (NPC). It looks at both private and public sector pensions and reveals a different point of view than the one [...]
9 Comments CherryPie on Nov 26th 2011
Filed under This & That
Yesterday was extremely busy and involved me getting up at the crack of dawn, which is unheard of for me. The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union took joint industrial action with three teachers unions (National Union of Teachers (NUT), University and College Union (UCU) and Association of Teacher and Lecturers (ATL)). These unions are [...]
24 Comments CherryPie on Jul 2nd 2011
Filed under This & That
A letter published in the Financial Times on 25th February 2011 exposes the myth of the Public Sector stereotype:
Looking to hire? You’ll get a great recruit from the public sector
From Mr Ian Watmore,
Sir, I read Brian Groom’s report (February 21) on the perceived limited employability of public servants in the private sector with great dismay. [...]
8 Comments CherryPie on Mar 7th 2011
Filed under Anecdotes
I had another busy day in Birmingham yesterday. It started off with packed standing room only on the train because there were only two carriages rather than the usual four but at least it ran on time. Just after I got on a lady got up and insisted that I have her seat [...]
10 Comments CherryPie on Dec 15th 2010
Filed under Anecdotes
Yesterday the PCS regional office had arranged for me to visit so that we could discuss the content of the next regional newsletter. I am the person on the regional committee that is responsible for guiding content.
When I left the house for the station, I thought the weather had warmed up a bit but I [...]
2 Comments CherryPie on Dec 10th 2010
