Across the Yorkshire region UNISON pickets were out early at hospitals, council depots, offices, town halls, police headquarters and other centres.
Among those on the line early was Sue Highton, UNISON’s national president in 2008. She is on the picket line at Grenoside Hospital outside Sheffield in South Yorkshire.
Sue, 58, has worked for the NHS for 36 years. “I started off as a domestic, then as a support worker,” she said. Now she represents 2,500 members as secretary of Sheffield Community Health branch. She doesn’t mind losing a day’s pay even though she is her family’s only wage-earner.
“My husband is retired through ill-health,” she said.
After a spell on the hospital picket line she is moving to the Community Mental Health Trust offices where she will be joined by trust chief executive Kevin Taylor.
“He is not on strike because of the position he’s in but he supports us because he knows the strike isn’t against the trust but against the government because of what they are going to do to our pensions,” said Sue.
Sections of the media – particularly anti-union, anti-public service sections of the press, have been conducting a propaganda campaign, with descriptions such as “gold-plated” for public sector pensions – even though the average is only around £4,500 a year, about £90 a week.
“Pensions for our members at the NHS are not gold-plated,” said Sue. “It can vary on the length of service, but a good 50% of our members will be on £7,000 to £8,000.”
She believes the attack on pensions left public service workers with no choice but to strike.
Then there are the changes planned for increasing retirement age. “Now people can retire at 60 but they will have to work until they are 66,” she said. “Over the next two years they will also have to pay another 3% of their earnings, and their pensions will be reduced.
“Even people on decent wages will think twice about joining the pension scheme. It will become unaffordable – pay the mortgage or rent, put food on the table, or pay for your pension. They will just stop paying it. Even now people are paying 6% of a low wage. It will go up to 9%. That’s a lot of money.”
She believes all workers – public service and private sector – should be entitled to a fair pension.
“We should be fighting for a fair pension for everybody.” And of her public service colleagues she said: “People go into the public services. It’s 24-hour services, 52 weeks a year. We accept that. It is public service and we all love doing it. But you knew you were getting a proper pension and they are trying to take it away. Our people work from 18 to 60 and they walk away with a £7,000 lump sum and a £2,000 a year pension.
“Compare that to the pensions Nick Clegg and David Cameron will get. Yet they say their offer is generous. This cannot be fair.”