The Strike

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ro_c

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Hi. Here in Britain today there was a public sector walkout of over a million teachers, nurses and public sector workers, in demonstration at cuts to the pension pots and a generally worsening state of affairs. I wanted to know what everyone else felt about this civil unrest?

Note I joined in the march through my city center with some fellow students and lecturers in support of this movement. Do you know how the old adage goes? 'The workers united will never be defeated!'
 
I fully support the action as its the ordinary worker who is suffering thanks to the greed of corrupt bankers.Check the deficit before the credit crunch.It was bailing out the banks that caused this huge deficit and it has got nothing whatsoever to do with benefits and pensions.Osborne is a liar and is protecting his cronies in the city.
 
This has been the biggest raid on public finance in history. The audacity of the government telling us it's our fault and we need to just suck it up is disgusting. The point of life is not to make money for rich men.

The Bear.
 
I think the cuts to the public sector have been short sighted and potentially catastrophic and I think it's disgusting that benefits will be raised with inflation but public sector wages wont - how can you justify giving a raise to the unemployed but what will amount to a ~10% pay cut to nurses.

That said, something needs doing about pensions, because with people living a lot longer than expected, the cost of pensions rapidly becomes unsustainable.

I don't think people approaching retirement age should have their pensions changed (although I think the retirement age could reasonably be raised), because they don't have time to make adjustments to their finances, but anyone under the age of 50 has no such excuse.
 
Money is being re-allocated from the poorest to shore up the middle classes, who are being robbed to pay the bankers.

What size of a cut do you reckon the politicos are in for from their pals?
 
Hmm, im not going to be too pro about this

i went to school, i only had 2 lessons today, i did homework in my frees, bearly anyone was there so it was nice and quiet, i finished my programming, but it still doesnt work :@...

Also i did some biology revision in peace, my lessons went fine.

I then did some swimming during school hours for about 45 minutes or so...

i then watched some boxing videos of many pacquio vs marquez (however you spell the names, i swear their names are so hard to spell!!!!)

So i wasnt really affected. I mean the swimming pool staff were there... so i didnt really care :P

that rhymes :P!!!

i know im acting like a child... but i really dont know whats going on... im too engrossed in combat sports, martial arts, studies, and probably anime too... All i know is that some people today got an extra free peroid as one of the teachers were not there...
 
Agreed with the principle but admittedly it was outweighed today by being pissed I missed out on a lot of hours with a lecturer only a few lessons away from exams.
 
I'd be hard pushed to think of an educator that wouldn't lament the short-term negative impact on your education.

But set against the bigger picture, action is required. Mine was the last generation where hard work=good qualifications=a reasonable job.

Young people today will work harder, for poorer quality educational outcomes, to end up in a job barely better than unskilled, minimum wage labour in terms of pay and conditions. And this situation will only get worse if the current socio-economic cowboys continue to get their way, as this is part of their long-term gameplan.

I think striking for pensions was poor PR. I also think that what is required is a General Strike, not a Public Sector strike. They want us divided, don't they?
 
i'm confused as to who wants us divided?
if a democratic government is not the people then who are they and why are they in power?
 
The current lot do not have a mandate.

Also, we don't really live in a democracy in the sense that most people use it.
 
Agreed. I think what made me annoyed personally was my teacher for today is pretty active in her union but she decided that, whatever strike action was taken at college, she'd teach our lesson because of how close we are to the exams. Sadly my principle closed the whole college as part of his protest so the decision was forced on everyone rather than it being a personal choice. Thing is at the end of the day the strike was for selfish reasons, and my objection is based on selfishness too.

I also don't see what the strike achieved? If an airline goes on strike, or the london underground or something it actually causes pretty big problems. The fire service going on strike that time was a massive symbolic gesture. Teachers striking however effects no one apart from the students and from everyone I've spoken to all this strikes achieved is pissing us off too.
 
The only thing labour has to withhold is its labour. What should educators do? Not mark your exams? That would annoy you. Not mark your coursework? That would annoy you. Reduce the quality of in-class teaching? You see the point I am trying to make?

Also, I only partly agree with your selfishness point. Many people only a few years from retirement are now being told that (say) the 20 000 they have paid into the scheme over the years has been reduced to (say) 15 000, so that some bankers can get their bonuses. Also, pensions were reviewed less than 5 years ago, so this change is seen as grasping and punitive.

Yeah, for us relatively young 'uns, the strike means something different. But for a lot of old timers, they are having their piggy banks raided a day before they are due to go to the sweetie shop.
 
Yeah I'm not sure what point I was trying to make with the selfishness thing. That neither opinion is particuarly objective or reliable maybe?

Admittedly I have very little knowledge of this case (had a serious depression hit a couple weeks ago, have been avoiding the news since) so is this cut effecting only their state pensions they paid taxes into, or their personal ones?
 
Teachers Striking... meh, best opportunity for the students to actually learn something.
 
It's nothing to do with banker bonuses and prior accruals remain unaffected.


The main reason I don't support the strike is the sheer amount of misinformation out there regarding the whole situation. The fact is, people are living longer and the country is still paying for people in the public sector to get some very generous final salary pensions far outside the reach of the vast majority of workers in the UK.

I'm all for making the basic state pension better, thereby helping everyone in retirement, but it's very hard to have sympathy for workers complaining about being forced to accept a pension far better than the majority of the country will ever see.
 
For public sector workers, their personal pensions are administrated and paid out by the state, if you see what I mean. Arms-length shell-companies sometimes, but the state none-the-less.

It is similar to when private pension companies went belly-up, granted. But in this case it's the government more-or-less saying 'You're not having your money back, Freddie and the gang need new moats for their Land Rovers.'

This is a really contentious issue. Don't worry about the public sector. Worry about the long term effects of the neo-con/neo-liberal agenda and what it means for society as a whole. But as a depressive, maybe you shouldn't bother about it too much, in all seriousness. Worry about yourself first.
 
Just because its kinda related: I was first told about this stuff by the woman who runs my extra English class. She said about the pension cuts and stuff which sounded bad but then said she was incredibly mad at the government because it meant she couldn't retire 10 years early. It was very hard to feel sympathy for that one.
 
Interesting, Aegis, that's not what we're being told.

I agree that public sector pensions need reformed and that the recent government proposals for people near retirement age actually do go far enough. And as I said earlier, striking for pensions is a PR disaster. A lot of us younger public sector workers think that. The whole thing is, quite obviously, being orchestrated by the older generation of trade unionists who a) are close enough to retirement to care mightily and b) remember the good old bad old days of the 80s. But I stand by my assertion that this current lot won't stop here and it's symptomatic of their wider agenda.

:tinfoilhat:
 
Ok, my only problem with that is how does the government taking money from teacher pensions translate to bonuses for privately owned businesses? The banker bonus thing seems to just be pulled out these days anytime money gets cut somewhere.

Anyway I ask because if its pensions paid for through tax payments then frankly its up to government what they do with it. That's how taxes work. If it's a private fund where they put money in as and when they feel like it then that's something I would take issue with.
 
Of course you're right to call me out on my reductive forum-logic, Southpaw. I was merely spitting in the wind about the fact the government is savagely clawing back money from public services - and that is undeniable - while simultaneously propping up or refusing to (properly) tax the banks and other big corporate entities (or culprits, as I like to call them).
 
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