Pensions strike: Support the Dundee University workers
Jim McFarlane, Unison NEC (personal capacity) and Socialist Party Scotland
Workers at Dundee University are taking five days of strike action, starting on Wednesday 29 September, in defence of their pension entitlements. The well paid senior managers of the university are attempting to slash the pension entitlement of around 900 staff.
The proposals mean the ending of the current defined benefit scheme, affecting the lowest paid working at the university.
The proposed changes impact on those on the lowest six pay grades not those running the university and putting forward this cut. This will clearly leave many in pension poverty and would result in some losing up to 40% of their projected pension, most of them women.
Hundreds of UNISON, UCU and Unite members have been forced into taking this strike action. The employer has repeatedly failed to engage in meaningful discussion with the trade unions representing the workforce.
This strike action is organised to coincide with the start of the new academic year. This determined period of strike action deserves the widest support possible from the organised workers’ movement.
UNISON branches across the country have responded to the appeal for funds has already boosted the morale of the workforce. They need to know they will not be left to fight alone.
Solidarity donations and messages of support are vital. Socialist Party Scotland members in UNISON and other trade unions will ensure that happens where we can.
The trade unions at a national level need to throw their full weight into this vital struggle. Workplace pensions are not a benefit but deferred wages.
It’s clear that senior management thought they could just impose this brutal attack without much resistance. This period of concerted industrial action shows how wrong they were.
This employer needs to know they are not just taking on its own workforce but the whole trade union movement. The struggle for pension entitlements was won through common struggle and needs to be fought for again and again.
The plan to take these five days of strike action has resulted in an increase in trade union membership at the university. That needs to be built on and consolidated. If the employers are not prepared to back down then the five days should be seen as the first step in fighting back.
Activists can continue their discussions to widen the action and if necessary spread that to other sections of the workforce as well as other universities.
The Scottish government have come under pressure to intervene in the interests of the trade unions but they cannot be relied upon.
Determined action and solidarity can force the university management to withdraw these proposals.
The attack on pensions is part of the wider capitalist offensive on the rights and living standards of working class people.
Only the struggle for a socialist society can ensure that all workers can be protected at work and in their retirement.
