Pensions battle, fight must go on

This week is turning out as expected in many ways. As i blogged earlier in the week how big this week could be it looks like going to form at this moment in time. The unison exec seem to be recommending their members accept the governments rotten deal and will eitehr ballot for this or simply accept i ti imagine. Its not all lost on the unison front but it doesnt look promising either.

But what i wanted to stress is that this is not the end and we must remain as united as we possibly can. The government has tried to split us and split us in part it has but there is still a great determination from a lot of trade unionistrs and workers to continue the fight. Especially from more left leaning unions like the PCS etc.

No doubt the governments plans to try and isolate the PCS have backfired with other unions including Unite, NIPSA, POA, UCU and the possibility of the NUT joining the growing group of rejectionist unions. I quite like that term. These are the unions which i do hope who will branch out to unions fighting pension battles in the private sector with news of Unilever set to strike too to link the battles and carry on the fight.

Of course as i have previously stated the tactics will be important to get right and judging the mood properly is key too.

I wouldnt suggest anything at this time of tactics that will be for each union to decide what they do of course but there does need to be some sort of co-ordination and unity built again with the remaining unions willing to fight.

As was said at the PCS left unity conference last weekend if there are further strikes with the remaining unions not to accept this shoddy rotten deal from the government and further industrial action is called this could make things very difficult for Unison as if there are pickets it will put a lot of pressure on unison and their members not to cross those picket lines by other unions. This will be another key to racking up the pressure on the union high bureaucracy to rejoin the battle. Just like with the strikes on June the 30th last year many unison members will be asking themselves why are we not out on strike causing a knock on affect inside the union movement.

What also could be interesting is if Unison do go all the way and sell out their members what affect that has on the contiousness of the members of that union. Will they loose lots of members to say unite ? it is entirely possible that that could happen if Unison is not careful.

Please lets not un do all that great work for N30. It was right to strike then and it is still right to reject this deal on pensions and keep on fighting. Lets unite with public and private sector workers and fight for fair pensions or all and not back down untill we do!