Gene Amole

For more tangerine check out the Tangerine gallery.

The lack of proper negotiation led to the action that was taken by public sector workers today.

I found it quite infuriating to hear less than honest words spoken in the House today.

Below is an email sent from an MP to a PCS member last week.  Highlighted in red are some key points:

Thank you for your email about the strikes next week. I have to be in Westminster next Wednesday, however my position is clear and this is what I am saying to anyone who contacts me.

The government must bear much of the responsibility for what is happening now because it jumped the gun and has, in effect, imposed a 3% tax on public sector workers, before John Hutton published his final report on public sector pensions, and then refused to negotiate on this crucial issue. This surcharge has nothing to do with the sustainability of public sector pensions and will hit public sector workers on low incomes hard.

It increasingly seems that the government is happy to see a disruptive strike. According to the Daily Telegraph, David Cameron has privately said that he is ‘delighted’ that the unions have walked into his ‘trap’. This is no way to approach the long term needs of the country and workers who believed they had a deal on their pensions when they set out on a public service career.. The constant mantra about “gold plated” pensions is quite frankly insulting. The average pension paid to pensioner members is around £7,800 per year, while the median payment is around £5,600. Half of women public service pensioners get less than £4,000 a year.

If more people opt out of occupational schemes because they cannot afford to pay this increase, it could end up costing the tax payer more in the future as more people rely on means tested benefits. The imposition of a 3% surcharge for all employees is not only unfair in the short term but also risks the sustainability of public sector pension schemes in the long term.

The government announced a three pence in the pound increase in contributions in the October Spending Review, long before Lord Hutton had published his final report. The 3 pence in the pound increase has nothing to do with the wider reform agenda outlined by Hutton. It is a measure which is simply geared towards paying down the deficit by squeezing public sector workers. The increase was imposed without any negotiation with public sector unions. This increase amounts to a 3p in the pound increase in tax for public sector workers, at a time when they are already facing a pay freeze, higher inflation partly driven by the government’s VAT increase, not to mention the biggest squeeze in living standards in a generation.

I know that people who rely on services don’t want to see a strike: from parents who will have to take a day off work to those who rely on home help. And public sector workers— nursing assistants, teachers and dinner ladies—also care too much about the people they serve day in day out to consider action as anything other than a last resort.

Rather than telling hundreds of thousands of low paid, part-time working men and women who are set to be much worse off that they should not strike, David Cameron should be taking responsibility and trying to negotiate a deal that’s fair to public sector workers and taxpayers alike. That is what I want to see and that is why I support the action that union members are taking..

My recent series of posts on pensions only skim the surface of why so many ordinary people decided to take strike action today.

For more of this weeks PhotoHunt pictures check out tnchick.

Not one to do things by halves I arranged the meet up in Bruges, the journey there was a little tedious with an accident causing a 45 minute delay which left no chance for a break in the journey on the way to Dover.

The arrival at Bruges was equally challenging due to roadworks and a diversion on the way into the centre.  And when finally in the centre there was that little complication of  ‘road closure’ on the only way to get to the hotel from the part of the city…  A local resident stopped to help out and proclaimed we had a stupid map, followed by ‘IT IS IMPOSSIBLE’.  He then advised we go back out to the ring road and start afresh using a different route in.  That did the trick and we eventually managed to navigate to the hotel and book in.

A good time was had by all with site seeing, autumn views, good food, good company and time to escape from every day worries.  Well one person didn’t quite detach from every day worries and was obsessed with phone calls and what was going on back home.  I had the strong urge to surgically remove the mobile and throw it in the canal…

Anyway, I am getting a little ahead of myself.  Before I set out in the morning I had to fulfil a long-standing promise with regards to a sunrise photograph.  I got up a little bit earlier than necessary to make sure I didn’t miss it, you can see the beginnings of the sunrise in this photo.  The full sunrise and other photos of the weekend will follow in due course.

There was a bit of excitement with the air ambulance hovering near to the local shopping centre, we wondered if there had been a crash but sadly we found out later that someone had thrown themselves off the multi story car park.  I also learned that one of my colleagues from the Shropshire Action Group had passed away just before Christmas.