Somerset Strikers Head to Taunton by the Bus-load
UNISON members, along with other members of trade unions will be taking strike action on Wednesday 30 November. They will be joined by their families before marching against changes to public sector pension, which will see household budgets shrinking.
Bus-loads of union members from across Somerset will begin arriving at the Old Cattle Market, off Canal Road in Taunton at 12 noon. The march will commence at 12.30pm and continue through the town centre to the green in front of the historic Somerset County Council building. It will end in a rally with several key note speakers, including speakers from UCU, NUT, ATL, Somerset Older Citizens, PCS and Lisa Youlton, from UNISON South West.
Oliver Foster-Burnell, Area Organiser, who is organising the event, said:
"The proposed changes are an appalling attack on public sector workers. One out of every four workers in Somerset work in the public sector in Taunton and spend their pay in Taunton supporting local businesses. These changes will see them taking home less pay*, and in some cases will push families over the edge, leaving them in financial hardship. As a result businesses in Taunton will also suffer as our members will have less to spend in the local economy.
"Our members feel they have no choice left to them but to take this action and go on strike. They include dinner ladies, social workers, police community support officers, refuse collectors, nurses, carers and teaching assistants and members of other unions including teachers and probation officers. The majority of public sector workers aren't highly paid and don't get gold-plated pensions. 68 percent of local government workers earn less than £21k a year. The average pension for a woman in local government is £2,700 a year, which is hardly gold-plated."
Oliver continued:
"Our members aren't happy with the planned changes to pension schemes, which would see them paying up to fifty percent more in pension contributions. That is just one of the reasons why our members voted overwhelmingly for strike action.
"High earners get tax breaks worth £10 billion every year on their pensions contributions. At the same time, low wage public sector workers are being told to work longer, pay more and get less in their small pensions. The top 1% of earners on more than £150,000 a year, is worth more than three times what the government is trying to raise by taxing public sector workers' pensions. This is even worse when you consider that top bosses in the UK have average pensions worth 34 times more than the average public sector pension.
"Whilst top end bankers are taking home millions of pounds in bonuses every year, getting away without paying for the crisis that they caused, public sector workers are bearing the brunt of repaying the country's debts. It simply isn't fair. The wrong people are being attacked. This is the straw that broke the camel's back."
The changes implemented in 2008 made the pension scheme sustainable. The local government pension scheme had a surplus of £3.9bn in 2010/2011, which has been the average surplus for the last few years.
A local care worker in Taunton, who wished to remain anonymous, said:
"I work in the Social Care Sector dealing with elderly and vulnerable adults, the salary is not high but the job satisfaction is wonderful. I feel that resources are being finely stretched already, and now my pension is also at risk. It's extremely unfair to expect us to contribute extra when no extra contribution is needed and we will not benefit in any way."
ENDS
Notes for editors
Union members will be meeting from 12 noon, ahead of the march, commencing at 12.30pm at the Old Cattle Market, Canal Road in Taunton. It will proceed through the town centre (rolling road closure), ending in a rally at the green outside the County Hall, The Crescent, Taunton.
Key note speakers at the rally will include:- Lisa Youlton, UNISON South West; Ben Boydell, UCU; Vicki Nash, NUT; Richard Slater, ATL; Glen Burrows, Somerset Older Citizens; plus a representative from PCS.
*Public service workers are being asked to pay more, a fifty percent additional increase in pension contributions, work longer and get less.
The average pension for a women working in the public sector is under £3,000 a year and in LG for a man is around £4,500 a year – hardly gold-plated.
UNISON's position is that these public sector pension schemes are sustainable and do not need changing:-
If the LG pension scheme closed today, there would be enough cash to pay its liabilities for the next 20 years. The LG pension scheme takes on average an extra £4bn a year in surplus, after it's paid out its liabilities.
For health, the surplus is £2bn above its liabilities.
Senior Government Ministers have proposed concessions to the changes in the pension scheme, but these haven't been put into a formal offer for negotiation.
Most public sector workers have already seen their pay frozen over the last two years.
Public sector workers are expected to pay an extra £3bn a year for much worse pensions, by a Government that cancelled the bankers' bonus tax that raised almost the same.
For further information contact:
Oliver Foster-Burnell, Area Organiser or Liz French, Regional Organiser, UNISON South West c/o 01823 285318
Issued Tuesday 22 November 2011
For information about other events taking place in the South West region, see the event page, the SW TUC website, or the pensions justice website