25,000 pensions army falls short by 24,000
Unions downplay a low turnout for a lobby of Parliament
The issue has aroused passions not seen in the profession for decades, but union predictions that 25,000 teachers would descend on central London this week fell some way short of expectations.
Instead, an estimated 1,000 teachers attended a mass lobby of Parliament on Wednesday (26 October) over the pension changes planned by the Government.
It was organised by seven unions, including those for teachers - the NUT, NASUWT and ATL - and headteachers’ organisations the NAHT and the ASCL, and saw teachers arrive at Westminster in the afternoon in an attempt to press their case with their local MP.
When details of the mass lobby were first publicised in September, teaching unions said “up to 25,000 teachers and lecturers” would make the trip.
This week, unions played down the reduced numbers and pointed to the 155,000-strong petition handed to the Department for Education as the true indicator of the strength of feeling over teachers’ working ages being extended and higher pensions contributions.
NUT deputy general secretary Kevin Courtney admitted the prospect of a national strike at the end of next month had probably suppressed numbers.
“I think the lobby has been overtaken by the 30 November decision, which came after the 25,000 number was issued,” he said. “The lobby is still an astonishing event, but a lot of the activists are focusing their attention on 30 November.”
Mr Courtney said the issue had united the teaching unions like never before. “What is different is the uniformity of this. In the 1980s, the ATL wasn’t involved; neither was the NAHT.”
A spokeswoman for the ATL, which held the first strike in its 127-year history on the issue at the end of June, said the mass lobby was in part to get public opinion on their side. “It’s also about getting in to see MPs. Things get refined like all plans.”
Among the teachers who did make it was Paula Roe, an English teacher at Redhill School in Stourbridge. Speaking to TES before her visit to London, she said she was hoping to see Stourbridge’s Conservative MP Margot James - who also happens to be a governor of Redhill.
Mrs Roe, an NASUWT member, said she would be more than £100 worse off because of the changes. “We’re being cheated out of a pension that we’ve paid in to. There is a mood of anger and disgust that the Government is doing this. I think the mood of teachers is that they will want to do more,” she said.
And former ATL president Julia Neal, who teaches history at Torquay Grammar School for Girls, said: “Nobody wants to go on strike, but if that’s what it takes that’s what we will do.”
She told her local MP, Liberal Democrat Adrian Sanders, that she would be around £130 worse off every month. “We’re being made to pay for the mistakes of the financial sector. We’ve been really hard done by,” she added.
Teachers may in part be cheered to find they have an unlikely ally for their cause. The head of education at Policy Exchange, which has been described as David Cameron’s favourite think-tank, said he had sympathy for teachers.
“It’s clear there’s a lot of resentment out there for what the financial services sector did,” said James Groves. “Teachers in the public sector are not on massive salaries; they work hard and I can understand them being irked.”
But he warned that long-term reform of public-sector pensions was inevitable. “We can’t avoid the fact that we have to have reform of public-sector pensions.”
COURT CHALLENGE
On Tuesday, the NASUWT was one of six unions challenging in the High Court a decision by the Government to align public-sector pensions with the consumer price index (CPI) rather than the retail price index (RPI).
The unions, including Unite and Unison, claim the move, announced in the 2010 Budget, could end up cutting the value of public-sector pension schemes by as much as 20 per cent.
The policy came into effect in April this year, when RPI (as of September 2010, the benchmark month) was 4.6 per cent, compared with the CPI rate of 3.1 per cent. Next year, pensions will rise by last month’s CPI rate of 5.2 per cent, compared with the RPI rate of 5.6 per cent.
The CPI rate excludes housing costs, which the Treasury said is a more appropriate measure of inflation.
The central plank of the unions’ case is that the Government has abused the 1992 Social Security Administration Act, claiming that the law does not exist for the purpose of cutting a national spending deficit.
A decision is due next month.
Original headline: Predicted pensions army of 25,000 falls short by 24,000
Comment (13)
The Tory biased TES have cocked up AGAIN.
The numbers for last week were never planned on being large. The unions wanted one person or possibly two from any workplace.
Get your facts right before you slag off hard working teachers & their representatives; if this sort of reporting continues I'll be campaigning for a TES boycott.
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19:03
2 November, 2011
Brooke Bond
AT LAST THE GOVERNMENT IS MOVING! But not far enough.
However scum like Simon Walker, the IoD's director general, said: "The public sector unions cannot be allowed to hold a gun to the government's head in this way."
I think the gun has been pointed at the heads of teachers & it is still pointing this way for younger teachers.
Cameron said: "The cost of our public sector pension system is up by a third in the last decade. It isn't fair to go on as we are, but the new arrangements must be fair to people who work hard in the public sector and on whom we all rely."
What he didn't say was that contributions went up by MORE than that & that the scheme is still FULLY FUNDED!
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22:20
2 November, 2011
Brooke Bond
What a lie, Brooke Bond! The unions were sending out stuff about 25,000 teachers marching to London to lobby government! Only problem was, it was HALF TERM! That's the reason they didn't turn up. Teachers have got to get their priorities right, after all!! Unions are hopeless. I'm glad the government won't be moving any further (disappointed they moved at all, but I'm sure it was a planned 'one small move only', because they are quite shrewd like that - they have to be against union bullies). The unions and their dwindling militant leaders and teacher fans are blinkered and stupid, especially when the country is in financial straits. Grow up, unions. (And that's a teacher speaking.)
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23:13
2 November, 2011
walnuthead
Ooh, and by the way, your idea for a boycott of TES will probably be as successful as the unions proposing a lobby in half term... lol.
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23:15
2 November, 2011
walnuthead
The private sector bosses like Simon Walker never seem to mention the cost to the UK of the tax payer of subsidising the poverty wages they pay. It would be interesting to know how many profit making private companies get the tax payer to fund their wage bill via housing benefits, tax credits and the like. Many large well known companies post good profits on the back of tax payer subsidies to their workforce. Historians should see the similarities between this and the pre 1834 Speeenhamland system in which the parish subsidised starvation wages. If Teaching Trade Unions were only half useless this figure could be found and used to negate the argument of affordability.
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13:21
3 November, 2011
Marcussmod
Walnut head. I'd pay money to hear you in your staffroom sharing views. Are you in a minority or do the rest of the staff enjoy being a teacher the way you do? If so what a school that must be. Perhaps you're fighting a lone battle though. Tcch.
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16:32
3 November, 2011
thingwall
walnuthead,
Quote: 'What a lie, Brooke Bond! The unions were sending out stuff about 25,000 teachers marching to London to lobby government!'
I saw the London Lobby advertised but I didn't see any claims to 25,000; So exactly what union said this? And in what 'stuff'?
Quote: 'Unions are hopeless. I'm glad the government won't be moving any further (disappointed they moved at all, but I'm sure it was a planned 'one small move only', because they are quite shrewd like that - they have to be against union bullies). The unions and their dwindling militant leaders and teacher fans are blinkered and stupid, especially when the country is in financial straits. Grow up, unions.'
Given that most of the employment rights you enjoy were gained by unions the statement: 'Unions are hopeless' is not backed by actual EVIDENCE.
What EVIDENCE do you have that ''unions and their dwindling militant leaders and teacher fans are blinkered and stupid''? Have you any evidence of teaching unions being 'militant'? (By the way the Daily Mail cannot be classed as EVIDENCE.)
As for the pensions that WE HAVE FULLY FUNDED as teachers; I find it hard to believe that you ARE a teacher. My guess is you work for the TES!
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17:50
3 November, 2011
Brooke Bond
I note the ARTICLE says: ''When details of the mass lobby were first publicised in September, teaching unions said “up to 25,000 teachers and lecturers” would make the trip.'' I also note that the ARTICLE DOESN'T SAY which union or which publication.
I also note that walnuthead was pushing the Tory Party line about the country not being able to afford our FULLY FUNDED pensions. Maybe walnuthead has a different pension scheme than the rest of us or he is so blinded by his faith in Tory right-wing propaganda that he is blind to the actual funding of teachers pensions.
Remember these Tory theives have NO JUSTIFICATION to impose one extra penny onto our FULLY FUNDED pensions. This current tactic is merely an attempt at divide & conquer.
Do not be put off by bogus arguments about Gold Plated pensions from the Daily Mail Tory lobby!
Teachers (& their employers) contribute 20% of their gross pay for their entire career; which can be up to 45 years. For that they get 1/80 of their final salary for every year worked in pension plus a lump sum or 1/60 if employed after 2007 with no lump sum. If they retire early they can lose up to 25% of final benefits due to actuarial reduction. On average teachers earn under £30,000 & currently the average teachers pension paid out is well under £10,000. The teachers scheme was altered 4 years ago and is FULLY FUNDED by members; there simply is no statistical argument for increasing contributions at all.
A 3.4 per cent increase in pension contributions by 2014 doesn't sound a lot but represents an extra £100 per month to each teacher on average, on top of a public sector pay freeze, higher indirect taxes, fall in relative earnings & rising inflation.............teachers are being asked to do more for less.
Most public sector pensions are a variation on the old Ponzi fraudulent investment scheme. Teachers, Fire service people, Police etc have all paid huge sums of money into the scheme to fund current pensions & are right to be upset that now they're going to be asked to cough up yet more.
The statistics for forcing this current increase in teacher pension contributions through are FUNDAMENTALY FLAWED. There is no Public Sector Pension 'Black Hole'; it is a statistically created crisis.
No Black Hole?
The ConDem's take the pensions of teachers alongside the Police service pensions, Fire service pensions etc and then add in the BLACK HOLE which is the Armed Forces pensions. Teachers & their employers currently pay in 20% of a teachers pay for up to 45 years, and the Police/Fire service pay in a greater percentage for less time alongside the employer’s contributions which pay in huge amounts. The Armed Forces pay absolutely no contribution to their pensions. In the words of Monty Python; not a sausage, bugger all!..........that is why we have a Public Sector Pension Black Hole.
Traditionally the Armed Forces were not asked to actually contribute to their pension; they were given a non-contributary pension award. I have no argument & am not asking the forces to pay 'more'; but the ConDem's should not use teachers to cross-subsidise the armed forces pensions.
The cure?
1. Look at teachers, fire service, police service and others who PAY MONEY IN large pension contributions already separate from those who don't.
OR
2. Pay the Armed Forces 10% extra in pay & then take it off them as a 'pension contribution'; then include them with teachers, fire service, police service and others in calculating overall pensions.
Either way the Public Sector Pension Black Hole will vanish completely or at least reduce to a manageable size in seconds! That way the ConDem's have no excuse for 'reining in' pensions!
Do not be taken in; this is simply the ConDem party telling teachers to pay for a financial crisis that was created by the banking sector. A banking sector who currently are raking in millions & paying themselves a huge bonus out of what is effectively public money!
BIG Questions
Why aren't bankers being TOLD to rein things in? Why do the ConDem's wish to effectively impose extra taxes on one section of public sector workers & ignore the damage done by bankers to the economy? Could it be to do with who financially supports the Tory Party?
People recently fought for democracy in Eygpt & are currently fighting for democracy in Libya; so how come we have an UNELECTED Tory government disguised as a ConDem party with NO MANDATE from the people causing more damage to the public sector services & workforce.
Our egyptian tahrir square 'moment' is fast approaching!
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17:56
3 November, 2011
Brooke Bond
The TES reporting in the above article is entirely written from the ConDem perspective; quoting James Groves warning that long-term reform of public-sector pensions was inevitable: “We can’t avoid the fact that we have to have reform of public-sector pensions” without balancing that statement with the facts that the costs of public sector pensions are actually falling is simply BIASED REPORTING of a very poor nature.
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18:01
3 November, 2011
Brooke Bond
Quote: "I find it hard to believe that you ARE a teacher. My guess is you work for the TES!" You may find it hard to believe, but I am a teacher. But if there is a job going at TES I'll take it! Yes, I am a Tory supporter, but not a right winger and don't read the Daily Mail, read the Times. Quite moderate actually. My colleagues say I'm the leftiest Tory they know. Not sure if that's good or bad. But I simply agree with what they are trying to do. Lib Dems and Conservatives together, remember!? Who has actually been defending the pension offer and airing his disappointment at the unions to the hilt today, more than anyone? Nick Clegg, and good on him. Because he knows what the country's situation really is, financially. Shame some of his teacher supporters who voted him in (I know lots) don't listen to what he says. He talks a lot of sense, and that's at Tory talking.
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18:32
3 November, 2011
walnuthead
Oh, and by the way, Brooke Bond, every bit of ballot paper info junk strung up on my staffroom wall is militant. Evidence is in front of my eyes every day.
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18:35
3 November, 2011
walnuthead
You are simply a disgruntled Labour supporter. Calm down, dear, calm down.
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18:36
3 November, 2011
walnuthead
Hard-Nut-Head,
Quote: 'But I simply agree with what they are trying to do. Lib Dems and Conservatives together, remember!? Who has actually been defending the pension offer and airing his disappointment at the unions to the hilt today, more than anyone? Nick Clegg, and good on him. Because he knows what the country's situation really is, financially. Shame some of his teacher supporters who voted him in (I know lots) don't listen to what he says. He talks a lot of sense, and that's at Tory talking.'
The people who voted Liberal DID NOT vote for a right wing government; that is why they don't listen to Clegg; a man who has lied to them on several different political points. The country CAN afford our pensions simply because we fund them; the Tories are imposing this as an extra tax on us with this attack on public sector workers.
Quote: 'every bit of ballot paper info junk strung up on my staffroom wall is militant. Evidence is in front of my eyes every day.'
That is a circular argument. YOU decide what is 'militant' and you've decided that the ballot is a 'militant' act.
Quote: 'You are simply a disgruntled Labour supporter. Calm down, dear, calm down.'
Actually I am not happy that Labour is distancing itself from working people on a matter that THEY had settled in 2006. I am not happy that Labour won't defend it's own record on pensions from 2006.
Being a teacher & a Tory supporter in the current times reminds me of those long necked Turkey's who vote for christmas every year; I suppose a tory has a similar IQ to a Turkey eh?
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9:55
7 November, 2011
Brooke Bond