FALLING LIVING STANDARDS IN THE WEST–PENSIONS
As described in Dr. Pinna’s ECONOMIC RIP TIDE, living standards in the West will fall as the West is drawn into the deeper Economic Ocean where the competition for survival is fierce.
PENSIONS IN THE U.K.:Two million strike in Britain over pension changes
By Guy Jackson, from AFP
Up to two million public sector workers in Britain went on strike Wednesday over changes to their pensions, after the government responded to slashed growth forecasts with fresh spending cuts.
In what unions said was the biggest walkout in decades, only one school in 10 in England was fully open, hospitals were operating with skeleton staff and local authorities were paralysed.
Striking workers picketed parliament and public sector buildings in central London and more than 1,000 demonstrations were planned across Britain during the 24-hour strike in scenes reminiscent of the 1970s.
The strike is the biggest test so far of Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative-Liberal Democrat government, which sparked the unions’ fury by making public sector workers pay more into their pensions and work longer.
Anger rose further on Tuesday when finance minister George Osborne targeted the pay of teachers, nurses and soldiers and revealed plans to cut an extra 300,000 public sector jobs as he sharply reduced Britain’s growth forecasts.
Osborne infuriated the unions by announcing a new two-year, one-percent cap on public sector pay rises.
Cameron underlined the government’s message, telling parliament he was angry that the strike was called “at a time when negotiations are still under way” and downplayed the turnout, calling it a “damp squib”.
The unions were unrepentant.
Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), said the government has put the public sector “under attack” and the strike was fully justified.
“There comes a time when people really have to stand up and make a stand,” he told ITV. “With the scale of change the government are trying to force through, making people work much, much longer and get much, much less, that’s the call people have made.”
In Salford, northwest England, around 30 refuse collectors manning a picket line outside their depot dismissed claims that their pensions were “gold-plated” compared to those in the private sector.
Neil Clarke, a union organiser with Unite, said: “The government is attacking our pension schemes — they are looking for public sector workers to contribute more, work longer and receive less in pension benefits.
“The average public sector pension comes in at £3,000 ($4,650, 3,500 euros) a year. Could you live on £3,000 a year?”
Elsewhere in England, the light rail train system was closed down by the strike in the northeast city of Newcastle, while commuters struggled to get to work in Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland.
A giant union rally was to take place in the industrial central city of Birmingham and 300,000 workers were expected to walk out in Scotland.
Under the government’s proposals, public sector workers will be asked to work until they are 66 and increase their pension contribution payments.
Staff face a lower pension payout, based on their average salary as opposed to the final salary schemes to which they are currently tied.
Dr. Pinna says:
It is happening all across the West. They say that it is a banking crisis. It is not. It is a manifestation of inequality of wealth and the competition of the East where labor is cheap.
What are we going to do about it?
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