Workers Solidarity Movement

After the neo-liberal economic model/fantasy hit some black ice on the motorway of progress, and went hurtling over the crash barrier, there have been all sorts of attempts to get working people to pay cash to get this baby back on the road.   Therefore various jam jars of money are being raided to re-invigorate the beast. In the UK, the attention of Lord Hutton, the former Labour pension’s secretary has been focused on Public sector pensions. 

What Lord Hutton has suggested is to pay people less in pensions, and if people dare to live longer, they should work for longer. As Lord Hutton himself put it “....I think the responsible thing to do is accept that because we are living longer we should work for longer.” 

The suggestions in the report covers;

1.  Moving the retirement age which is set at 60 to 66 by 2020.
2.  Secondly, instead of the pension being linked to final salary, it will be based on averaged contributions
3.  Uniformed workers will not be able to retire early. 
4. Contributions may be raised by Ministers.

The only possible response from Trade Unions is a co-ordinated strike wave which apparently is already being planned for, and should hit services in June.

This can be contrasted with what was agreed and signed off on in the Croke Park agreement by the Irish Trade Union Movement.   This allows the state to set up a new pension arrangement for new public sector employees.  No doubt they’ll be looking to implement a scheme which has all workers, paying more, working longer, and for less in the end.

Let us now look to the National Pension Reserves fund which was set up in 2000 to “The purpose of the Fund is to build up assets which will part-finance the Exchequer cost of social welfare and public service pensions from 2025 onwards.”  According to the National Pension Reserve Fund as of Sept. 2010 – we have €25.9billon in this fund.  It’s hard to work out the true value because some of this money has been used to re-capitalise our broke banks.

In Feb. 2009 this Fund had €7 billon taken from it and thrown into the furnace of our banks. By October 2010 this ‘investment’ was down to €6.6 billon. Now, under the terms of the ECB/IMF deal it appears that one of the first jobs of our new Government will be to take another €10 Billion and put it into those same banks.

In the UK the Trade Union movement are strapping on their boxing gloves and preparing to defend the gains won by workers.  In Ireland, our Trade Unions sat in Croke Park and happily signed-up their members to a two-tier pension system,  and some of us can look forward to working until we are 67.  Meanwhile, we sit by and watch our Pension reserve fund get flushed down the hole that is the Irish Banks.

WORDS: Dermo