Unity is strength

In breaking news, the Government acknowledge that there is a difference between the (funded) Local Government Pension Scheme and the other (unfunded) schemes…

I believe that Danny Alexander and Francis Maude may also have commented favourably upon Papal Catholicism and the arboreal toilet habits of ursine mammals.

Let’s be clear. The Tories want to destroy occupational defined benefit pension schemes. Career average is a Lib Dem friendly halfway house whilst they use contribution increases and benefit reductions to sabotage our pension schemes. Mark Serwotka seems to have got the measure of the Government in these "negotiations".

Last time it was local government workers who were left to fight alone as the unions chose to do a deal which excluded us. Don’t let us, this time, be broken away from the rest of the public sector again.

Those who emphasise building unity “scheme by scheme” are not serious about unity. And those who are not serious about unity are not serious about victory in the most important fight faced by our trade unions for a generation.

I’m all for our union leaders meeting the Government as early as possible and as late as necessary, but in the mean time we need to get on with preparing for industrial action. Our General Secretary is right to say on our website that;

"We give our full support to our brothers and sisters in PCS, NUT and ATL, taking action on Thursday over pensions – their fight is our fight – and UNISON will be taking part in demonstrations up and down the country to support them. Our advice to school and college staff is clear – do not cover unless it is part of your job. And I send support to our members taking action on the same day in Camden, Doncaster Birmingham and Southampton, over job cuts."