New wave of national strikes on way

[badapple]

The biggest strike in the UK for five years will cause huge disruption to schools, courts and travel tomorrow in the most serious industrial challenge to the British coalition since it was formed.

Hundreds of thousands of teachers, lecturers, civil servants and other workers will walk out for 24 hours in protest at controversial plans to change their pensions, cut jobs and freeze pay.

Mark Serwotka, leader of the Public and Commercial Services Union, said it was the most important strike in his union?s history, adding: ?Everything we have ever worked for is under attack.?

The British prime minister launched a fresh attack on the strike, while business leaders warned it will have a ?significant impact? on industry.

David Cameron told MPs there was no case for industrial action and repeated that the proposed changes to public sector pensions were ?fair?.

Speaking at prime minister?s question time, he said he hoped ?as many mums and dads as possible? would be able to take their children to school despite the action.

?I don?t believe there is any case for industrial action tomorrow, not least because talks are still ongoing. It is only a minority of unions who have taken the decision to go ahead and strike.

?What we are proposing is fair. It is fair to taxpayers but it is also fair to the public sector because we want to continue strong public sector pensions.?

He also attacked Labour leader Ed Miliband, who did not ask about the walkout, accusing him of being ?in the pocket of the unions?.

Picket lines will be mounted outside school gates, courts, jobcentres, parliament, driving test centres and government buildings by members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), University and College Union, and PCS.

Police leave has been cancelled in London, where union leaders and thousands of activists will take part in a march, followed by a rally in Westminster.

Airports have warned travellers to expect disruption on arrival into the UK as immigration and customs officers join the strike.

Passengers have been advised to consider travelling on a different day to avoid delays as hundreds of staff walk out.

Ryanair called on the UK government to use the army and or police to ensure passport checks at airports are kept open.

High-speed Channel Tunnel train company Eurostar said it would not be affected by industrial action.

It added that it was running two extra trains tomorrow - one from London to Paris, the other from Paris to London, to cope with expected extra demand.

***

DO YOU AGREE WITH THE STRIKES OR ARE YOU WITH THE GOVERNMENT???

[bonus2010]

I just think there is a lot of fuss being made about nothing. Think about it... One day strike.. Looks like the brothers and sisters just fancy a day off holiday. Nobodys mentioned that many of the schools are off on Friday for in-service training.. Oh... another days loss of education for the kiddies ... I'm worried!

Hey.... don't make me laugh

[johnboy1974]

well done to the unions i say sticking up for pension rights and retirement age rights.

[bobwill]

DO YOU AGREE WITH THE STRIKES OR ARE YOU WITH THE GOVERNMENT???[/B]

I hope the government do not give in to the unions demands as it is the tax payer that has got to pay the pensions no body begrudges the lower paid having a small council pension .Public pensions should be based on average earnings so everyone gets the same why should the chief ex get 30 times more than the cleaner her /his food cost the same .Remember a lot of public pensions are paid out of the council tax so when a pensioner with a little savings or a working family finding it hard to make ends meet pays there council tax 26% goes on paying the over generous public pensions. My little private pension I took out have been stolen by that arsehole Brown I do not remember the loony left union leaders worrying about that.

[stewiebee]

If the intention is to bring down this govenrment by these strikes who on earth will be left to run britain not the failed labour party who where not wanted only a few months ago as voted by the people in general election.

[stewiebee]

We are skint cupboard is bare we are spending our kids money.Blame the bankers not the government.Strike outside the world banks.

[Snowy79]

As someone who has spent 24 years in the Armed Forces it grips my shi@ listening to the Teachers bleating on about how hard done by they are. In the majority of cases their qualifications to carry out their role is mediocre to say the least. They get more holidays than Santa Claus. A decent wage and one of the best pensions out there. If they were paid on results most of them would owe money.

Looking at the TES website their are various figures for individuals failing Teacher Training. Most hover around about 2 every 5 years. Call me old fashioned but in my eyes this means the tests must be pretty easy. I believe if they had a 20% pass rate it might mean you were getting quality that should be paid for. I would then fully support a good wage and a decent pension. Looking at it another way who knows any teacher that has left teaching to take up another job if it's so hard?

If anything there should be one set pension for everyone regardless what role you carry out. You could then set wages accordingly to attract the correct calibre of individual.

If you earnt one years working pension for every years service we would then know how much we were going to have to splash out in the future. You work 20 years you get 20 years working pension on top of the basic pension then revert back to the basic pension once your 20 years is up etc.

As it is people are promised so much a year but if they live to 100 there's not enough money to pay it, this is why most pensions funds are bankrupt.

Public Servants argue that they do the job for the pension at the end not the wages, well theres a simple solution to that. Spend your additional wages on increased pension payments this way your take home pay will reduce to the level you want and you'll still have a good pension.

[super jumbe]

Govt arguments that people are living longer, suppose after another 5 years it happened to prove that people are not going to live longer then expected then what?

The whole arguments I would make with the Govt that what happened to the money when some one die before the age of there retirement? Obviously they keep that money, so what the fuss is all about!!!!!!!

[buccanneer20]

this opens a whole can of worms ,i.e should a teacher get the same pension as a police officer/ ambulance person / armed forces personel .imo no they bloody should not ,civil servents ?? come on this they take crud pay on the understanding that they get a good pension monkey socks ,we all have to pay for our pensions and i do understand that the public sector dont want to pay for it ,why would they let the silly private sector do it for them well tough we ant got the money no more ,pay into a pension to get out at the end ,end of ,dont pay in dont get that that what we are told

they only ones whos pension should remain untouched are jobs with real stress and or danger i.e armed forces police ,and the health services

[stewiebee]

And still the bankers responsible for this mess are still operating unpunished not one as been held accountable for there Incompetence.

[Snowy79]

The Bankers may have lent the money out but what about the wnkers that borrowed knowing they couldn't pay it back?

[cablefreejunkie]

The Bankers may have lent the money out but what about the wnkers that borrowed knowing they couldn't pay it back?

a lot of people borrowed beyond there means,,but as mentioned above ,a financial institute should have regulations in place as to who they do or do not lend to,,this quite clearly was not the case and these koonts have got off scott free

[RedSpider]

the rise in retirement age was gonna happen whoever was in power. striking will not effect it. its common sense. people are living longer and so it costs more to feed them. a few years more at work isn't a lot to ask and easy to accept when the alternative is sitting at home with the other half.
teachers have got it easy enough as it is with all their holiday time so they can ~~~~ off with their demands.

train unions can ~~~~ off too with the amount they charge for fares.

and firefighters can ~~~~ off too. yes they do a dangerous job but when they strike, the are holding the country to ransom and endangering life by refusing to work. and they should be arrested imo.

the armed forces do a dangerous job for little pay and with dodgy equipment. can you imagine what it would be like if they decided to strike?

[cablefreejunkie]

[QUOTE=Snowy79;1157807]As someone who has spent 24 years in the Armed Forces it grips my shi@ listening to the Teachers bleating on about how hard done by they are. In the majority of cases their qualifications to carry out their role is mediocre to say the least. They get more holidays than Santa Claus. A decent wage and one of the best pensions out there. If they were paid on results most of them would owe money.

Looking at the TES website their are various figures for individuals failing Teacher Training. Most hover around about 2 every 5 years. Call me old fashioned but in my eyes this means the tests must be pretty easy. I believe if they had a 20% pass rate it might mean you were getting quality that should be paid for. I would then fully support a good wage and a decent pension. Looking at it another way who knows any teacher that has left teaching to take up another job if it's so hard?

If anything there should be one set pension for everyone regardless what role you carry out. You could then set wages accordingly to attract the correct calibre of individual.

If you earnt one years working pension for every years service we would then know how much we were going to have to splash out in the future. You work 20 years you get 20 years working pension on top of the basic pension then revert back to the basic pension once your 20 years is up etc.

As it is people are promised so much a year but if they live to 100 there's not enough money to pay it, this is why most pensions funds are bankrupt.

Public Servants argue that they do the job for the pension at the end not the wages, well theres a simple solution to that. Spend your additional wages on increased pension payments this way your take home pay will reduce to the level you want and you'll still have a good pension.[/QUOTE

the robbing koonts have robbed all the pension pots anyway,,,completely mugged off joe public

[Canker_Canison]

Looking at it another way who knows any teacher that has left teaching to take up another job if it's so hard?

I know several, including some of my old teachers. Those that left before retirement age all left due to working conditions. The lack of discipline among pupils, the lack of powers given to teachers to control such pupils, made physical assaults more & more common.

They had the same threat of violence, day in day out, as the police.

Where I think the government has gone wrong is with trying to amend current workers pensions.

If they changed the pension rights for new civil servants just joining. Leaving current & long standing staffs rights in place. There wouldn't be a problem.

This has been done in the private sector for years. They want to cut expenditure, so cut benefits to new staff. You don't mess with the back bone of your company.