Pension dispute – organise against a sell out

The leaders of some of the trade unions are threatening a sell out of the pensions dispute. Although 3 million struck on November 30th, and there is pressure from the rank and file, and the smaller left unions to call another day of action in the New Year, Dave Prentis of UNISON and Brendan Barber of the TUC have tried to get the unions involved in the action to accept the deal.
Fears of a sell out over the pensions dispute escalated on 16 December when a letter signed by heads of Unison, GMB and Unite was circulated.
The new deal which is being offered by the government is not substantially different from the one that was on the table before the N30 strikes. It delays the start of the new payment system by two years but makes no concessions at all on the main issues. Yet Brendan Barber is intent on trying to get this deal agreed to end the pensions struggle.
As the head of Camden Unison explained in a message to members warning about a sell out “our lead union negotiators appear ready to concede an increase in the retirement age for all those currently under 50 years of age, rising to at least 68 for those currently under 35 years; agree a career average rather than final salary, which is likely to prove less favourable for most LGPS members; abandon to the courts the attempt to reverse the Government’s switch to the less favourable Consumer Price Index for pensions benchmarking, and ultimately to accept large increases in our LGPS [Local Government Pension Scheme] contributions, albeit at a later date.” (source: Camden Unison blog)
There is a danger now that the larger unions will try and sell this rotten deal to their members and isolate the smaller and more militant unions like the PCS.
The urgent task now is to prevent a sell out by putting pressure from below on the union chiefs. There are several petitions circulating the internet, including this one. But more than petitions or emails to general secretaries we need to get organised.
And this is perhaps the greatest failure of the Unite the resistance conference in mid November – it launched no real organisation to prepare us in the event of a sell out. If the union chiefs agree to this rotten deal then it would be a complete sell out of the struggle, leaviong workers paying more, for longer, for less. It would also set back the entire resistance to the government’s austerity agenda. What is lacking is any abillity for the rank and file to assert control over the strikes. We urgently need to develop rank and file organisation within and between all the unions involved in the action. A first step to doing this would be to convene a conference of all trade union branches, all anticuts groups, all workers and socialist groups, who want to escalate the action and oppose a sell out.