LadyPeter,
"The government", whether you work for them or not have been responsible for extending pension age for private sector workers and reducing returns on investments partly through stealth tax and partly through believing they had eliminated boom and bust economic cycles and not having anything in reserve for a rainy day let alone a string of rainy days (aka worldwide recession). All sections of the public are living longer and hence need retirement age/pension costs/provisions adjusting accordingly.
Please read up on what has happened to the world of pensions outside of the public sector bubble if you want to truly show some solidarity with all workers in your rage against the (previous) government rather than restricting it to them as your employer at this point in time.
The Unions are mobilising on some glib phrases such as
"protecting services for future generations" - Logically though at a time when funds are in very short supply surely it is obvious that if there is to be no change in how much a public sector worker costs in salary and pension contributions then there will just have to be less of them. How does fighting for no change in the cost of their pension provision therefore protect their jobs and services as a whole ?
"this shouldn't be a race to the bottom" - Do the public sector have trouble recruiting at levels where the changes will hit hardest ? No, where they have trouble recruiting is a further down the payscale closer to NMW type roles, carers etc. It has been explained that the lower paid workers will not be affected in the same way as the higher paid. So surely this brings up the bottom line of remuneration package for the lower paid ?
Read up people, don't be Union sheep. Fight for your remuneration package if you want too, it is your right to do so. That's the good thing about what Unions have achieved over the years, but don't dress it up as being about either of the above two phrases touted by the unions as the noble causes.
When Labour were fleecing private sector pensions the public sector, by and large, supported Labour as the defender of public services into which funds were injected and I for one, having worked in the public sector for a number of years, would have put money on the fact that most of it would end up in remuneration rather than service improvement. When they came after private sector pensions the public sector worker genrally wasn't bothered and supported Labour, now the national debt needs bringing down to a manageable level, don't be surprised when you haven't got the support of the private sector who have already gone through the process and adjusted their pension planning process accordingly. In fighting for maintaining your remuneration package at its current level you are asking the private sector workers to share in topping up your pension funding as well as attending to their own.