Letter: Strike is undemocratic and misguided

Some of those striking today are doing so as a result of peer pressure and to keep the peace in the workplace.

What part of “there is no money” do the strike leaders not understand?

If the public sector workers get to keep their pension entitlements, then the private sector workers will have to work even longer and for even less than they can already expect.

Most private sector workers have already taken a far bigger hit in their pensions than the public sector is being asked to take, and can only dream of a settlement like that on offer to the unions.

We are heading towards a divided society, where the elite are now the public sector with their protected benefits and higher average salaries, and the private, wealth-creating sector, are the wage slaves who will be working until they drop.

Andrew Peters

The Breakfast Mission

Old Fishmarket Close

Edinburgh

YOUR interesting table (28 November) of how members of the 31 public sector trade unions voted for strike action failed to put the voting into proper perspective; this would have been achieved by showing the percentage of membership from each union which actually voted to strike.

Doing this shows that the membership of only two unions voted by more than 50 per cent for this action: the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (56.8 per cent) and the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (52.1 per cent). The vote for strike action by the remaining 29 unions ranged from 15 per cent to 49 per cent, with more than half only voting 15 per cent to 30 per cent for action.

Interestingly, the members of the bigger unions were not interested in strike action: the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) saw a 19.5 per cent vote for action; Unison (the biggest public sector union) a 25 per cent vote for; Unite, 25.3 per cent; the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), 44.3 per cent.

Hardly an endorsement for the democratic process! It is very much a small tail wagging the dog. It appears from this that union legislation would be improved by insisting at least 50 per cent of the overall membership vote for strike action.

(Dr) Gordon Cochrane

Dargai Terrace

Dunblane

THE COUNTRY should not be held to ransom, especially at a time of economic crisis.

Only a third of union members even took part in the ballot and only a quarter of Unison’s members have triggered this facile political strike. If the unions go ahead, the government should give notice that it will freeze all pension schemes with a view to moving state employees to money-purchase.

The public sector clearly wants to play hard ball, so let play commence.

(Dr) John Cameron

Howard Place

St Andrews

FOR FINANCE secretary John Swinney to refer to the proposals for pension reform in the public sector as a naked cash grab suggests he has not studied the Hutton report.

The current arrangements are unaffordable and put an increasing burden on the taxpayer. His stance stinks of hypocrisy and gives me no confidence in his abilities to manage Scotland’s budget.

As for Scottish Labour, they should remember that John Hutton was pensions secretary in the Labour government and our last government kicked them into the long grass rather than take on their union paymasters.

John Kelly

High Street

Dalkeith, Midlothian