Member Article

Unison votes overwhelmingly for Public Sector strike action

Members of the UK’s biggest trade union have voted in favour of striking against government plans to change public service pension schemes.

The BBC reports that 78% of Unison members were in favour of strikes, which now means a huge national strike is likely on November 30.

This decision comes despite the Government’s offer of concessions, which were met with a lukewarm response from union members.

Commenting on the announcement, Simon Walker, director general of the Institute of Directors questions where the government promises would end.

He said: “The original reform proposals were the bare minimum needed to put public sector pensions on a sustainable footing.

“Yesterday’s more generous offer was a bad idea and should now be taken off the table as there is no sense in carrying our half-hearted reforms now and crisis cuts in five or ten years’ time.

“The plain fact is that people are living longer and so public sector pensions, like any other type of pensions, need to be reformed so they can continue to be paid in the future. Ordinary taxpayers cannot continue to subsidise public sector pensioners at today’s levels.”

Unison’s decision will put the number of trade unions planning to strike up to 6. This could rise to 20, and potentially result in the biggest day of co-ordinated strike action since 22 January 1979.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .