It'll......

.........never get better if you picket?

But seriously, is it on to work longer, pay more contributions and get less? It's not what I or hundreds of thousands of others signed up for.

Working in the public sector used to be that you got paid less (like for like) , were more secure and had a decent pension (that you paid for by paying more than SERPS) So after the financial crisis perhaps someone has said 'Oooh, look, well managed pension funds that are not struggling and have enough money in the pot. That would be ideal for us to plunder and help bail out our badly managed budget!' Or simply 'these public sector slackers don't deserve a decent retirement'.

This is on top of decades of less than inflation 'pay rises' and pay freezes. The gov't chose to day to announce that the next round of pay negotiations will be capped at 1% Is it me or is that designed to simply kick people when they are down? Never mind the manifesto promise to pay the lowest paid a greater increase to help them out of the poverty trap.

So I thought it would only be right, after finishing a night shift, to stand with others around a warm fire for a while and show some solidarity. Trouble is pensions are so 'tomorrow' who cares really? Are we all thinking we'll die young and stay pretty? Judging by the number of toots from passing cars there is a modicum of support from the public. Probably not the case from 'call me Dave'.

Staff in my area were still responding to emergencies and we restricted our protest to 6am to 6pm rather than the full 24 hours. We don't want anyone to suffer but equally does that mean we should just bend over take whatever is dished out to us without any say?


Hay ho, lets hope there are tomorrows that we can all enjoy. Such a contrast to the carefree weekend just gone! :-)