ATL Conference backs strike ballot on pensions

Great news from the ATL Conference - where delegates have backed a ballot for strike action over pensions.

NUT Conference will also agree for a ballot at its Conference next weekend. Come on NASUWT - don't stand aside! Let's build united action on pensions!

Press Association Report on:
http://bit.ly/idoqaP

Text of motion
That conference notes with deep regret the lack of any change on the part of the government to its proposals for public sector pension schemes despite a series of meetings between the government and the TUC. Conference condemns the following proposals for the Teachers' Pension Scheme in England and Wales and any similar proposals which may be made for the schemes in Northern Ireland and Scotland:
i. a pensions tax in the form of increased contributions in order to reduce the public spending deficit by £2.8bn, to fall disproportionately on workers paid between £21,000 and £45,000 including teachers, without regard to the circumstances of the schemes;
ii. the normal retirement age for teachers to rise to 66 and later to 68;
iii. the replacement of the final salary scheme by a career average scheme;
iv. the change of indexation method from RPI to CPI;
v. the exclusion of teachers in independent schools from the scheme.
Conference further welcomes the joint approach undertaken by ATL under the auspices of the TUC, and particularly with other teacher organisations.
Conference welcomes the participation of members in lobbying against these proposals, and regrets that reasoned argument has produced no movement from the government.
Conference instructs the executive committee to consider, as a matter of urgency, whether the failure of negotiations and the failure of reasoned argument now justify a ballot for strike action by members, jointly with other teacher organisations, in order to encourage the government to negotiate more flexibly.