Unions Together

Amazing campaigners

27.05.11

Just two days ago, Barbara sent an email out to all out campaigners asking them to keep the pressure up on pensions. The response so far has been amazing. Over 1000 people have sent an email to Steve Webb and George Osborne, asking them to think again on their unfair policy. Even more excitingly, two dozen people have volunteered to deliver our petition to their own MPs (we're targetting all the Lib Dems, and those Conservatives with majorities smaller than the number of women affected by this policy).

Hopefully, this time next week I'll be able to share with you some great photos of campaigners like you doorstepping their MP with our 'hands off our pensions' petition.

This campaign has been a real group effort, and I've been so inspired by all the people who have been involved, particularly those who have never been active in campaigning or politics before.

Make sure you've sent your email to Steve and George! http://www.unionstogether.org.uk/emailsteveandgeorge

Helen

Your NHS in grave danger

26.05.11

The coalition government's NHS reforms are "unworkable", "destabilising" and "could destroy key services".

Those are the words of the Prime Minister's own health specialist. Yet despite the pause in the NHS reform Bill, our healthcare system is still in very real and mortal danger.

While David Cameron may profess his "love" for the NHS, his government's Health and Social Care Bill could be the death of the service. His own Chief of Policy, Oliver Letwin, reportedly observed that in five years' time the NHS will cease to exist.

We must come together to stop this. Make sure you and everyone you know understand what's at stake - watch this film now:

If we do not stand up for our NHS and fight this Bill now, this will happen:

1. Your GP will become an accountant, juggling budgets as well as your health needs.

2. The body meant to regulate the new regime, Monitor, will be compelled to put competition before your care. Private healthcare providers will cherry-pick the easy services looking to make a profit from your health needs. Hospitals will compete with one another and many will close.

3. The Government's historic duty to provide universal healthcare, free at the point of use, will go.

4. Senior doctors fear social insurance will inevitably follow as patients find they must pay more to get the care they need.

Don't be fooled into thinking the Lib Dems will somehow save the NHS. Their amendments will still leave the door wide open to privatisation.

Our short film tells you everything you need to know about the true consequences of the NHS Bill - watch, then share it with everyone you know.

http://nhs.unitetheunion.org/fight-for-nhs

At Unite, we know how important the NHS is, and we will never give up the fight to protect the NHS for everyone - but we need your help.

Time to save it is running out. Already waiting lists are spiralling and 50,000 frontline NHS jobs have been lost.

We firmly believe this Bill must be scrapped. The debate about how we safeguard the service for the future must be started from scratch.

Watch this video to find out the full scale of the threat to the NHS, then join our fight against the Bill.

http://nhs.unitetheunion.org/fight-for-nhs

The fight for our NHS is quite possibly the most important issue facing our country today. For sixty years the NHS has helped generations of working people raise their families without the fear that decent healthcare was beyond their means.

Unless we all fight for it, the NHS we pay for and rely on will disappear. Please, please play your part in saving it.

Yours sincerely

Len McCluskey

Unite General Secretary

My story

26.05.11

I am one of the women facing an increase of almost two years in my pension age and like many others, I am desperate to get the government to listen.  For the first time in our lives we are wishing we were just four years older and would now be retired.  Nobody argues with the principle of equalisation but a three year difference in pension age over the course of one year seems so very harsh. 

I only work part time with a net salary of just over £7000 per annum to enable me to look after my grandchildren.  My daughter needs to work to pay her mortgage and child care is too expensive.  My parents are in their 80s and in need of more care as age and infirmity catch up with them.  Looking after my family is my greatest privilege and pleasure but it is demanding and knowing that I will now have to work for almost two more years has left me completely dismayed.  I have just survived a redundancy round and discovered that my private pension is just over £600 per annum.   My husband had already been made redundant when this was announced and we had considerably changed our retirement plans and expectations.  We live quite happily on a very modest income but knowing I will now have no choice but to retire three years after him seems like a blow too far. 

I am not particularly disadvantaged in any way but this has upset me more than any other political issue in my life and I have never felt so strongly about anything.

We’ve got to keep the pressure up now

25.05.11

When I started this ‘hands off our pensions’ petition back in February, I didn’t imagine for a minute I’d end up delivering 10,000 signatures right to the door of Number 10 itself.

I started our petition because I didn’t know how I would manage if I had to carry on working until 66. Along the way, thousands of us have signed up to campaign, written to our MPs, and even been down to Parliament to meet them. And last week, along with Yvonne, who’s going to have to wait an extra year for her pension, and Rachel Reeves, Labour’s Shadow Pensions Minister, I took the petition to Downing Street on behalf of all of us.

And finally, it seems that together we are starting to make an impact. Like many of you, I read in the newspapers over the weekend that the government might have realised that they’ve got it wrong on the state pension age. There are rumours that they are looking at alternatives to their current unfair plans.

Now they’ve started to listen, we have to keep the pressure up. That’s why we want as many people as possible to email the Pensions Minister, Steve Webb, and the Chancellor, George Osborne:

http://www.unionstogether.org.uk/emailsteveandgeorge

We’ve all played our part in this campaign, and so far we’ve made a real impact. Over 150 of our MPs have signed up to support us, the Labour Party has campaigned side by side with us, and now we have a real chance to get the government to backtrack on this policy.

That’s why we need to focus our energy on Steve Webb and George Osborne now. We need to make sure Steve Webb is prepared to fight for our pensions within Government, and we have to ensure that George Osborne, who has the final say on the money, understands why their current plans are wrong.

Email Steve and George now:

http://www.unionstogether.org.uk/emailsteveandgeorge

We have a real chance to win this fight now. Together, the pressure we’ve been putting on is working and we can’t stop now. We need to make sure they know we’re not going to give up on campaigning for our pensions!

Thanks

Barbara

To Downing Street!

20.05.11

On Wednesday, 200 campaigners gathered in Parliament to meet their MPs and ask them to help put a stop to these unfair changes to the State Pension Age.

At 3pm, Barbara Bates and Yvonne Swingler, accompanied by Rachel Reeves, Shadow Pensions Minister, headed into Downing Street to deliver our 10,000-strong petition to Number 10.

See the photos here:

It’s not too late to join us in Parliament next Wednesday

12.05.11

Since my email two weeks ago, over 100 people have signed up to come to Parliament next Wednesday (18th May) to meet their MP and ask them to oppose the government’s unfair plan to increase the state pension age.

We have a real fight on our hands if we are going to stop these changes - we need to make sure every single Member of Parliament understands why these proposals are wrong, and knows that there are people like you in their constituency who want them to put a stop to them.

That’s why we’re holding a mass lobby of Parliament next week - to send a message to our MPs and to the government that we think these pension age changes are wrong.

It’s not too late to get an appointment with your MP and join us in Parliament next week:

http://www.unionstogether.org.uk/May18th-cometoParliament

We have an easy tool to help you make an appointment with your MP (I sent my MP an email and got a reply back with a suggested appointment time within two days!) and we'll be there on the day to help you decide what to say in your meeting. We have lots of resources to help you as well, from a guide to winning the arguments to a factsheet you can give your MP.

By coming to Parliament, you’ll be helping to make sure your MP knows they’re under real pressure from their voters about this issue – and we have to keep that pressure up if we’re going to win.

http://www.unionstogether.org.uk/May18th-cometoParliament

Join us in Westminster next week to send a message to the Government loud and clear – hands off our pensions!

Yvonne’s story

18.04.11

I left school to begin my working life at the age of 15. At this time the state retirement/pension age for women was 60.

When I had my first Daughter at the age of 22 I was unable to return to full time work due to childcare issues so I took on part time work to fit in around my husbands work.

During the next few years I had 2 more children. Money was very tight I needed to work to keep our heads above water, so I continued to work part time. At one time I was doing 3 different jobs, an early morning cleaning job before my husband left for work, a couple of hours in the middle of the day while one of my daughters was in full time school, another at nursery part time and a friend looked after my youngest. I then had another cleaning job at tea time when my husband returned home from work.

When I was in my mid 30s, in the 1990s we were told the age for women’s retirement would be increased to 65, but it would be increased in stages from 2010 to 2020, I was not happy about it but this change was a long way off for me.

At the age of 35 I returned to full time work with my present employer.

I was invited to join the company final salary pension scheme, at last I was able to see a good future for myself and looked forward to a good income when I retired.

In 2010 my company told us they were closing down our Final Salary Pension. I had been in the scheme for 19 years and had the scheme remained open I would have had a very good lump sum and monthly pension by the age of 65.

In fact I had planned to reduce my hours when I reached the age of 60 to help my Daughter with her childcare so she could get back into work as she is unable to return to work now due to the cost of childcare for her 2 children.

The good pension and lump sum I had been looking forward to has now been taken away from me.

I will be 55 this year, and now this ConDem government has decided they want me to work until I am 66. I have worked since the age of 15, having only 10 or 12 weeks at home following the birth of my 3 children. I work in manufacturing doing a manual job, I have arthritis and a few other medical problems. At times now I struggle to cope with my work, as I get older I expect I will struggle more. If I am unable to carry out my duties at work I will be at risk of my employer dismissing me on the grounds of capability. If that happens before I can draw my pension how will I cope financially, who else will employ me, how will I survive without an income? I am now frightened about my future, because all I can see is an old age of financial hardship after a lifetime of working. How many thousands of women like myself are this government condemning to a dismal future. These plans do not give us enough time to plan and save for a half decent retirement.

Do you want to support our campaign to STOP these unfair pension changes that will hit people like Yvonne so hard? If so, sign the petition now.

From strength to strength

12.04.11

Over the past few months, our 'hands off' campaign has been going from strength to strength.

Over 10,000 people have now signed our online petition, nearly 2,000 have emailed their MP, and this weekend hundreds will be taking part in our weekend of action, and going to make the case to their Members of Parliament.

We have also now just added some resources to our site that you can print off and use to support the campaign locally.

Petition: print off this petition and use it to collect signatures locally, and raise awareness of the campaign. Download it here.Or you can download this version that allows you to collect address, in case people don't have email addresses (though we can't add them to the online petition without emails - but it's still worth doing to help raise awareness!).

Leaflets: print off these leaflets and use them as part of the campaign (you'll need to print them on the front and back of paper, and chop them in half!). Leaflet - front.Leaflet - back.

Let’s step this campaign up a gear

08.04.11

Last week, I sent out an email letting people know how close we came to winning on some amendments to the Pensions Bill in the House of Lords – amendments that would have reduced the impact of the government’s unfair changes to the state pension age that are making thousands of women wait up to 2 years longer for their pension.

We now know that the Bill is due for it third reading in the Lords at the end of April – that means that it’s likely to move to the House of Commons in May.

This could be our last chance to stop these changes. We need to convince MPs to oppose them in Parliament. That’s why we have called a local 'weekend of action' on April 15th and 16th. We need as many people as possible to go and see their MPs in their local constituency surgery, and explain why the government’s plans are unfair.

Help us take this campaign to the next level. Sign up now to lobby your MP next weekend:

http://www.unionstogether.org.uk/weekendofaction

Together, we’ve put together a huge petition against increasing the state pension age, thousands of people have emailed their Members of Parliament, and we’re currently creating a campaign video with the stories, photos and voicemails many of you sent us last week.

But the only way we can stop this is to get as many MPs as possible to understand why these changes are unfair, and to agree to oppose them in the House of Commons. Letters and emails can only do so much - the most powerful way to persuade MPs is to go and talk to them, to make this issue personal.

Lobbying your MP is easier than it sounds – they hold weekly surgeries in their constituency in order to meet local people and listen to their concerns. And we’ve put together a simple guide to lobbying your MP to help you - from making an appointment, to what information you should look up before you go, to what arguments you can use to persuade your MP.

Sign up now to go and see your MP on our weekend of action:

http://www.unionstogether.org.uk/weekendofaction

Together, we can make sure every single Member of Parliament gets the message that these pension changes are unfair, and we won’t accept them without a fight.

Thanks

Helen

Hand off our pensions - tell us your story

31.03.11

Last night, the House of Lords debated the Pensions Bill – the law that the government are trying to pass, which will mean thousands of people will have to work up to two years longer before they get their state pension.

They discussed and voted on amendments that would have reduced the impact of the Bill, and meant nobody had to work more than a year longer. The debate was fierce, and the vote was on a knife-edge. In the end, the government managed to defeat those amendments by just 12 votes.

After Easter, the Pensions Bill will move to the House of Commons, and we will have another chance to try and fight this unfair change, that will see so many people missing out on up to two years' of pensions they’ve worked hard for.

To help us win that argument in Parliament, we are making a campaign video that tells the stories of those affected by these proposed pension delays. If you are affected, you can help us now by sending us a photograph of yourself for our video:

http://www.unionstogether.org.uk/tellusyourstory 

Our campaign has gone from strength to strength – over 10,000 people have now signed our petition, and almost 2,000 have written to their Members of Parliament to protest against this change. This pressure helped us come so close to winning in the House of Lords last night.

By keeping the pressure up, we can make sure the government have to listen when the Bill comes to the Commons. Our video will help make sure they know just how worried people are about missing out on their pensions and having to work longer.

If you are affected, you can also help us with the video by calling our special answerphone on 020 3318 1659 and leaving us a voice message about how you feel about having to wait longer for your pension. We’ll use those messages in our video, along with the photos.

With technology as it is, it only takes a few minutes to upload a photo of yourself, or leave us a voice message. Your personal touch is just what we need to help convince Members of Parliament that these pension-age changes are unfair and should be stopped.

http://www.unionstogether.org.uk/tellusyourstory

Thanks for your support. Together, we can fight this.

Helen