This is not my normal territory but what the feck.
I am utterly stunned that so many people appear to support today’s strike. I keep on thinking I’m missing something. It seems so flipping obvious to me. The money’s not THERE!!! Yes, it’s harsh, yes it’s not fair but it IS real.
The private sector deals with the consequences of losses by cutting costs and trying to improve performance, or you go under trying. No life rafts available. What we have here is a total lack of public sector life rafts but no one wants to believe it. We are all casting around for an economic miracle. It’s not there. We have to fall back on basic budgeting, cutting our cloth.
I understand the frustration, the anger, the resentment. I respect the right to strike. BUT I see no mileage, no traction to this strike. Any sop offered to strikers will dig us deeper into this economic hole. We need to recognise we’re in trouble and get on with trying to get back on track.
For the record, I am a private sector worker who has seen her pension wrecked, salary stymied and customer base drop off a cliff. I have the utmost respect for public sector workers but because they are humans not because they work for the State.
Hear hear! I am currently working for the public sector but have also worked in the private sector and they were stopping the kind of pension benefits currently enjoyed by the public sector over 10 years ago. Even with the cuts my pension still gives a much better deal than my husband’s private sector scheme. People need to get real.
I agree totally. I worked for myself for 25 years – no sick pay, no paid holidays, private pension that cost a fortune and was rubbish.
I was lucky enough to spend the last 12 years working in the public sector, and am thrilled with the pension I’ve achieved. However, at university fellow lecturers were always under the impression that they were being short-changed, and that rewards were much greater ‘out in industry’. I was never able to persuade them that this certainly wasn’t the case in my experience. Workers in the public sector are much more cushioned, and have wonderful pensions where the employer adds an even greater percentage than they do themselves.
It’s wonderful, but we can’t afford it. Grow up, public sector workers.
So glad you agree. Thought I was losing my financial wits!!