to say this to all the teachers who are striking next week

[Memoo]

As a parent I am 100 % behind you.

I really appreciate that you put your life and soul into your job and im sorry more people don't get just how hard you work for the benefit of our children.

Don't let the bastards grind you down!

Of course it isn't, when the public sector are losing theirs.

Some schemes currently collect more in contributions than is required to pay the pensions, but this is not expected to continue into the future as the number of pensioners increases and people continue to live longer

Teachers and NHS this is. So - why not increase the contribution but not decrease the payout? Surely there is a way through there.

Some schemes currently collect more in contributions than is required to pay the pensions, but this is not expected to continue into the future as the number of pensioners increases and people continue to live longer

Teachers and NHS this is. So - why not increase the contribution but not decrease the payout? Surely there is a way through there.

But for the NHS this is expected to continue for the next 21 years even taking into account longer average lives.

So even more reason to strike, because frankly, the reasons given for the changes to pension aren't actually true.

"A5. Of the 7 main public sector pension schemes, 6 are unfunded. This means that benefits payments are made directly from employer and employee contributions with any shortfall being met by taxpayer funding. The annual cost of these unfunded public sector pensions is expected to hit £30bn by around 2030. The government says this is unaffordable and it will become even more expensive as life expectancy continues to increase. "

Well, maybe I am biased but all through my DH's office I see people with multiple degrees and many years' experience carrying on working in the UK despite being offered better conditions elsewhere. They have publication pressures akin to being university researchers, and management expectations on a par with the private sector. They have to meet very high standards to even keep the salary they have now, year in, year out. Their department is a trading fund, so is expected to remain solvent and earn its keep. You're not going to convince me that people with degrees and phds in all the sciences and maths and with all the experience they could not find gainful employment in the private sector earning a fair bit more than they do at present.

So, what keeps them where they are? Maybe not altruism, but once we've ruled out apathy, which has been eradicated by the pay scheme I mentioned above, and greed, since their salaries are nothing special and certainly not comparable to US pay for identical positions, what is there left? Why would people do that?

Both the NHS and teacher scheme are both said to be paying in more than is being taken out.

If this is not the case I would like to see some transparancy in the figures to prove that this is or isn't the case.

I didn't think it is that hard to understand.

I actually think that the current government is using the recession to implement ideologically-driven changes. The Forensic science service is a case in point- shut down with very little notice and no time for the private sector to "take up the slack" to the extent that clients were still ringing up the week before my sister"s department shut for good asking for them to carry out certain tests. They simply had no other company lined up.

Good to know that certain valuable services but ultimately unprofitable services the FFS provided, like cold case review (which has over the last 5 years caught a fair number of rapists from the 80s and 90s who were living in smug anonymity) will simply no longer be done. Yes, that's progress.

So, yes, I support any action that would put a sensible brake on ideological changes for change's sake. No public sector worker strikes easily.

ideological changes, you could be scarily right
discredit the public sector, make way for Pearson Academies plc

I actually think that the current government is using the recession to implement ideologically-driven changes

Hear, hear. I think this is at the heart of it but rarely mentioned.

I am a Headteacher and our school is closing on Wed. We all feel very sorry about the inconvenience and expense we are causing working parents but strongly believe it is time to stand up for the profession we love and believe in. I logged onto here to see if you were talking about the strike, and what the general concensus was...I'm blown away with the support (not just for teachers) especially as the press would have us believe parents HATED us for this!

It makes me mad when I hear some of my friends who work for themselves talking about their tax dodges - what they can get away with putting on expenses. I have had some very heated debates - I guess I am a socialist at heart. I don't get to claim the cost of washing the clothes I wear for work as a business expense or the petrol I use to get to work or the laptop I've bought so I can do work at home. I know some people turning over a healthy living, paying little or no tax at all - and apparently this is all above board, according to their well-paid financial advisors.

I guess I am a socialist at heart. I work in a job that I perceive as doing some good for society. I accept that with my qualifications I could be earning double or more than what I earn as a teacher, however, I believe in what I do and it helps that the pension (and the holidays) are good. But with the pay freeze, an additional 3% of our pay going into our pension gives us the equivalent of a pay cut of around 8%. That is hard to stomach at the same time as teachers' contracts are regularly being broken, morale is falling fast and free schools and academies are further damaging the reputation of a profession where there is little enough respect already. Even with everything else, I enjoy my job and care about the students I teach. However, I will still be striking because I have to say enough is enough. If this ballot hadn't taken place, the negotiations would have been over long ago. I know some excellent teachers who have left the profession in recent years over terms and conditions - some have gone into industry, some into private education and others have gone abroad. I even know two who have left without another job to go to. We need to get good teachers into our state schools and keep them there and this will only happen if they feel valued.

Can I remind people out there in the private sector who think we have it easy that despite the difficult ecomomic times, there are still shortages in some subject areas in teaching! So come along and join the fun...

Tesco doctors
MaccyD Academies

It's all in the pipeline.

Son of my MIL's friend was bragging about paying tax in three figures on a private sector salary of over £100,000. He was paying the same as me, in a year I earned barely £10,000. Hard to swallow. I do think there's a massive unaddressed issue of who is paying tax and more importantly, who is not.

UKUncut(you can find them on fb) are urging people who support the strike to take cups of SolidariTEA to people on the picket lines and to post a photo on their flickr page showing your support.

oh no too late!
www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/careers/hamburger_university.html

"management expectations on a par with the private sector"

Huh? Huh? Yer wot?

I think it's fair to say that there are managers in both the public & private sector. I'm pretty sure I'm right there.

"Son of my MIL's friend was bragging about paying tax in three figures on a private sector salary of over £100,000. "

Clearly he is talking absolute tosh, or he's evading tax illegally. Where the money came from - private or public - is irrelevant.

"I actually think that the current government is using the recession to implement ideologically-driven changes."

And herein lies the rub. I think they're implementing harsh changes in order to save the country from collapse. Certainly in the process some pretty awful things have to happen and I don't agree with all of them - but I do feel that cuts need making, and striking makes things worse.

And yes, I am furious that the school is closing and yet if I take my child out for a day I have to get permission or risk being criminalised. NOT on.

Jo7Jo7 I support the teahcers' strike on the basis that a promised valuation - which is almost certainly required under the scheme rules - has not been carried out, and also on the grounds that that it is likely the government's eagerness to increase the percentage contribution you pay is not unconnected to the index linked nature of the pensions they are obliged to pay out (it seems likely they are not anticipating teachers' pay to keep pace with inflation for some time to come). However, I am always intrigued when public sector people claim so confidently that they could be earning double or more their current salary in the private sector. Doing what? What are these qualifications? I have no confidence at all that I could move from my profession to another one and earn double what I earn now. Or even the same as what I earn now. And I have got a very strong CV. For my profession.

" I think they're implementing harsh changes in order to save the country from collapse."

What have they done to earn this trust, carrot? Donated some of their own personal wealth to the cause? Given up their own pensions? Chased down companies who are not paying their tax bills and made them pay up?

Just reposting the Public Sector Pensions Commission Report 2010.

Clearly shows how unfunded these pension schemes are:

www.public-sector-pensions-commission.org.uk/wp-content/themes/pspc/images/Public-Sector-Pensions-Commission-Report.pdf

This will be a key document in negotiations. The Unions will not want it wildly publisizeed as it damages their cause.

Here is a typical poster by unison:

docs.google.com/open?id=1kdM...qsj7Zi_H7eeqQI

It is worrying devoid of facts about any affordability issues but contains soundbites such as the much quoted "Pay more, work longer, get less"

Your 2nd link doesnt work iggly2.

I think we were sold a pup quite happily with labour for 11yrs, simply because we were, at the point in time, so damn glad they weren't that particular conservative gov.

Now a conservative gov is trying to put some stuff right and I do believe that this has to be done. I hate it. I really bloody do, but it has to be sorted out. Its just luck that its this way round and not the other, it so could have been....

Now, does anyone know why all the bankers etc haven't got together and decided to rewrite the rules completely? Why not barter in chickens or something randomly else? The definition of madness is to repeat the same action expecting a different answer and all we seem to keep doing is following the same stream path towards a known waterfall we can't survive (getting dramatic here!) so why is someone not suggesting a massive alteration in route?

Just mildly wondering after a couple glasses of cava now house is peaceful....

Cheers!

Iggly, here are some posters put out by my union, the NASUWT. Any comment on them?

For every £1 paid from the public purse to support the modest pension of a teacher or nurse, £2.50 is paid by taxpayers to offset the pension contributions of the top 1% of earners and to plug the gap in the private sector, where employers have failed to provide occupational pensions for their employees.

The Teachersʼ Pension Scheme was reviewed in 2007.
Changes were made to make it viable, sustainable and
affordable in the long term.
This has been confirmed by the Treasury and other sources.
The changes being proposed by the Coalition are, therefore,
unnecessary.

The Coalition Government is proposing to raise pension contributions by 3.2%.
This is not to make the pension schemes viable but to pay towards deficit reduction.
This is, therefore, nothing more than an additional tax on teachers and other public sector workers.

"What have they done to earn this trust, carrot"

Got elected (albeit only just). That means they're the best hope we have.

Look, I really, really sympathise with "the public sector". I also sympathise with "the private sector". I'm in one or the other of them, as are most people. It's all awful. We're all in shit.

I just don't agree with striking being a method that will get anyone anywhere, and in the meantime it causes a great deal of difficulty for yet more people.

Oh dear carrot please don't go trusting that the government has our best interests at heart just because they got elected (well, managed to pull together a coalition that just about squeaked in).

Blindly trusting them is an appalling suggestion. They should be challenged every step of the way when making huge decisions which affect people's lives like this. Especially when the bunch of over-privileged rich ex-public schoolboys with plenty of connections in banking and a distrust of the public sector look like they're acting with suspicious motives.