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ATL has fired the first shot in the pensions battle but we need to remain active and alert, says general secretary Mary Bousted.
A new year; new classes, clean registers, and all is set for the autumn term. But we all know that the slate is never wiped entirely clean. Some of the issues we faced last year reappear.
So it is with teachers’ pensions: 30 June, the day of action, was historic for ATL. It was the time when the most moderate, professional and pragmatic of the teacher unions said enough was enough. Those of you who made the difficult decision to strike, those of you who marched in towns and cities across England and Wales, will remember that day for the rest of your lives.
It was a day when you said that you would not be taken for granted; that your opinions should count and that you expected the government to keep its promise to you. That in return for your dedication to children and young people in the most difficult, challenging and exhausting of professions, you would have dignity in your retirement. Over 85% of state schools in England and Wales were closed or partially closed. Over 67,000 public sector workers marched. Our voices were heard. There can be no doubt that 30 June enabled teachers to make an incredibly compelling argument against changes to teachers’ pensions.
ATL members are entitled to ask what the strike achieved. In my view 30 June changed the nature of the pensions debate.
Up until the week of the strike the government had got away largely unchallenged in the print and broadcast media, with its propaganda against public sector pensions. This came to a head with the Prime Minister’s assertion, in his speech to the Local Government Association three days before the strike, that public sector pensions were in danger of going broke. This is plainly and simply wrong. Net pension liabilities reach their peak in 2012.After that, they decline – and, as a result of the changes made to pensions in 2007, changes we negotiated with the government, the percentage of GDP spent on public sector pensions will decline from 1.9% to 1.4% - a saving of £67 billion.
The fact of this decline in the cost of public sector pensions will not be news to ATL members. But this fact was not known to the public. However, the strike prompted the press to do some research and present government ministers with the facts. Ministers were so stumped for a response that they absented themselves from TV studios on the day of the strike. Their argument about affordability had been destroyed.
This was not the only issue on which ministers and politicians were defeated. Another charge laid against me as I navigated TV studios during that week in June was that ATL was acting irresponsibly in taking action while negotiations were ongoing. The answer to this was simple. What did the government think we were negotiating? The rise in pension contributions, amounting to over a three per cent pay cut? No, these had been declared by the Chancellor in October 2010. The rise in pension age? No, ministers were adamant that teachers had to teach until they were 66, rising to 68. So, what, exactly, was it that we were negotiating? The only answer ministers could come up with was the way their proposals to change the teachers’ pensions would be implemented. The absurdity of this position was recognised by broadcasters and by the public.
And there was another consequence of the strike: the ineptness and incompetence of the government’s approach to public sector pension reform became known. If the government had nothing to hide why had it delayed its valuation of the teachers’ pension scheme which was now two years overdue?
It was remarkable that most parents interviewed at the school gates said that they understood why teachers were taking action. They spoke movingly about the work that teachers did, admitting frankly that they would not be able to do a teacher’s job in a million years and that teachers deserved gold medals, as well as their pensions. (It has not gone unnoticed that the recent riots in cities across England happened during the school holidays. Perhaps the essential work that education workers do to keep the youth of this country gainfully occupied will now be more widely recognised.)
In late July, however, the government announced the first stage in its proposed increases in pension contributions, quoting rises in contributions which amount to 40% of the pension tax it wants to impose on teachers and other public sector workers over the next three years. This is a sign of the government’s intention to plough on with its proposals, never mind their merit or their effect.
Reflecting on these events I come to one overwhelming conclusion. We have fired the first shot in the pensions battle but we have a long way to go. ATL, along with all the other teacher unions, is commencing sector scheme negotiations with the Department for Education. We do so in good faith. Alongside these negotiations we must keep up the pressure on government and we must continue to inform the public that teachers’ pensions are a good investment in a society which, now more than ever, needs teachers and lecturers to educate the nation’s youth. We need to remain alert. We need to remain active. Right is on our side.
