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PEGASUS, post: 383227, member: 32 Wrote:Your right, we sat back and did nothing about this, but some of us certainly raised an eyebrow and asked questions at the time, including myself. Someone on here did a lot of work and put up a calculator to show how much we would lose over 10, 20 and 30 years due to the changes. his/ her name escapes me at the moment, but I will try to find it again.
This goes back to 2006 in my view, when we sold out the youngsters coming in to the job on a worse pension scheme. Asking them then to support a fight to retain RPI for retired firefighters was a non starter. Your right about the Tories picking soft targets but in retrospect it started with new labour in 2006, and gave the Tories a way in to claw away at all pensions. The barstewards are the same anyway. So it's probably our fault for not dealing with it then, we get blamed for everything else anyway.
Pegasus there was nothing we could do about this appart from possibly questioning the legality of this. I beleive that unite did. We have no muscle whatsoever, we can't strike, or threaten any form of industrial action.
This set a precedent in that pensioners already in receipt of pensions had the conditions of their pensions altered, I may be wrong, but I don't think that had ever happened before.
Sorry Pegasus but as this was carried out throughout the public sector the changes that were made to the FPS in 2006 had little or no bearing on this. They used the 2008 banking crisis and our longevity as their excuses for this. These changes affect every current serving member of the public sector not only those that have retired. But with everything else that is and was going on this was buried. With people in work fearing for their jobs, struggling to cope with continual changing working conditions, we could never expect them to lose pay on our behalf. Even if the trade unions had balloted I doubt very much if there would have been any stomach for this.
The slimy politicians picked an easy target, and got away with this, and we are all worse if because of it.
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Just a wee thought Pegasus we did have one means of fighting back.
not voting Tory.
Ah well, 
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PEGASUS, post: 383227, member: 32 Wrote:Your right, we sat back and did nothing about this, but some of us certainly raised an eyebrow and asked questions at the time, including myself. Someone on here did a lot of work and put up a calculator to show how much we would lose over 10, 20 and 30 years due to the changes. his/ her name escapes me at the moment, but I will try to find it again.
This goes back to 2006 in my view, when we sold out the youngsters coming in to the job on a worse pension scheme. Asking them then to support a fight to retain RPI for retired firefighters was a non starter. Your right about the Tories picking soft targets but in retrospect it started with new labour in 2006, and gave the Tories a way in to claw away at all pensions. The barstewards are the same anyway. So it's probably our fault for not dealing with it then, we get blamed for everything else anyway. Pegasus you are so right. Many of us lay officials were shouting this from the roof tops and the figures with the proposed introduction of the 2006 scheme. We said it would be the beginning of pension change not the end. But reality was many members and senior officials were not up for a fight.
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velbert, post: 383369, member: 239 Wrote:Meanwhile in France - http://yournewswire.com/media-blackout-a...200-years/
This is what is required here.
No more the FBU fighting alone, working people standing together hand in hand.
A TUC that is no longer simply a talking shop, doffing their caps to establishment.
Working people who beleive that they are not simply pawns for the elite, who value their worth, and who are prepared to create havoc if that is what is required.
This is not a revolution in France, this is simply people fighting to maintain what they have fought hard for over the years, they are not seeking anything but the retention of status quo, do we remember that once we were the same.
The revolution is what the establishment have secured here, treating workers like commodities, this has been and this is their revolution, not ours. The French are on the front foot, we are on the back foot.
vive la France.
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Remember this thread......
http://www.uk-fire.net/forum1/index.php?...ost-301230
Have a look at that. RPI to CPI was the biggest robbery of all because it's implications weren't fully understood by the public.
For firefighters or people who retire from 50, it's horrendous. Especially as you get past 70
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lou1z, post: 387374, member: 1 Wrote:Remember this thread......
http://www.uk-fire.net/forum1/index.php?...ost-301230
Have a look at that. RPI to CPI was the biggest robbery of all because it's implications weren't fully understood by the public.
For firefighters or people who retire from 50, it's horrendous. Especially as you get past 70
Hi Lou,
You have many times highlighted one of the largest highway robberies ever inflicted on pensioners in this country. Over the years pension funds have been raided by various governments, most recently by Gordon Brown, and previously by Thathcher. In those days pension funds were seen as fair game for such raids as they were viewed by some as being to profitable. But how things have changed private pensions are struggling to meet the expectations of those future pensioners, and with the change from RPI to CPI yet another underhand almost clandestine raid took place.
People tend to accept things if they are gradual, subtlety affecting their monthly pension payments over the years, but as you have highlighted so well Lou, this change has and will reduce drasticly pension payments to all of those on index linked pensions over the years.
Unfortunately the horse has bolted and trying to get him back into the stable will prove all but impossible. But when considering Cameron's legacy let's not forget that he joined the ranks of those who robbed pensioners of what they had paid for all of their working days, pensions linked to the RPI.
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And yet we have people on here saying JC is not electable. One of the few politicians that puts forward a new way in politics and would stop this.
Yet many still vote Tory
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Benito M, post: 387501, member: 1535 Wrote:And yet we have people on here saying JC is not electable. One of the few politicians that puts forward a new way in politics and would stop this.
Yet many still vote Tory
Benito I don't think JC is electable, but I will be voting labour at the next GE.
It's not that I don't like his policies or would be unhappy to see him inside no 10, it's exactly the opposite on both counts, but I would be amazed if labour won the next GE.
But in saying that, right now I don't think anyone in the Labour Party could defeat the Tories. I hope I am wrong, but I reckon the Tories will see me out.
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bill.advanced, post: 387502, member: 10308 Wrote:Benito I don't think JC is electable, but I will be voting labour at the next GE.
It's not that I don't like his policies or would be unhappy to see him inside no 10, it's exactly the opposite on both counts, but I would be amazed if labour won the next GE.
But in saying that, right now I don't think anyone in the Labour Party could defeat the Tories. I hope I am wrong, but I reckon the Tories will see me out.
Meant to type unelectable.
We all have opinions, thank god they are not all the same, or there would be no debate.
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