Exclusive: Why are nursery nurses going on strike?

Nursery workers and teaching assistants are among the millions of public sector workers, who will be taking industrial action over damaging changes to their pensions.

These workers did not take this decision lightly when they voted 76 per cent in favour of the action.

Public service workers go to work day in, day out, to make their communities better places in which to live and work. They don’t want to inconvenience people who rely on their vital services, but they’ve been left with little choice. Government ministers’ plans to make them work longer and pay more, all for less in their retirement, are not only unnecessary, they are also unworkable and unfair.

Applications to join Unison have jumped a massive 126 per cent since the result of the union’s ballot for strike action was announced. An overwhelming 81% of these applications have come from women – reflecting exactly who nursery workers are turning to for support. 

The applications to join spike every time Danny Alexander is on his feet in the house, talking about his plans to undermine public sector pensions. The day he made his statement in the house, on the eve of our ballot result, saw the largest spike in our membership ever recorded.  
Unison has said from the start that we want to reach an agreement, and nothing has changed. We will be negotiating right up until 30 November and beyond, but the Government waited until the day before Unison’s ballot result before coming up with new proposals, leaving little time for further sector talks. As a result, there is still no deal that we can put to a single nursery worker.

As always, the devil is in the detail, and for our members, it’s a case of once bitten twice shy. Public sector workers have already been stung by promises made in Parliament that were never delivered. In his first Emergency Budget, George Osborne promised workers in the public sector earning less than £21,000 a £250 pay boost – easing the pain of the pay freeze. But for low paid local government workers, this money has never materialised. They’ve been stuck on a pay freeze for two years, which could stretch to three – at a time when inflation has just kept on rising.

Despite what the anti-public sector pensions lobby say, in reality, there is no pensions crisis. Only four years ago, unions negotiated new schemes to make them affordable and sustainable for the long term.

Nursery workers are not asking for much – they’re doing the responsible thing, going without between 5 and 8% of their salary to save for their retirement. When they do get their pension, it won’t be a fortune – the average pension in local government is £3,800 a year, but for women, it’s less than £2,800 – just £56 a week.
 
If the local government scheme closed tomorrow, it could afford to pay out all its liabilities for the next 20 years, without a single penny more in contributions. The local government pensions funds take billions more in contributions and investment returns, than are paid out in benefits. Last year, income from member contributions in England alone increased, outstripping expenditure by between £4 and £5 billion.

If Government ministers were really interested in pensions fairness, they would not be hitting nursery staff, they would be tackling the real pensions crisis - the lack of retirement provision in the private sector. Two thirds of private sector workers do not get a single penny from their employers towards their pension.

Although this will cost taxpayers billions in means tested benefits in the long run, its still used to pit private sector against public sector - fuelling a damaging narrative that could lead to poverty in retirement for all.