{"id":10958,"date":"2017-01-09T16:21:03","date_gmt":"2017-01-09T16:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=10958"},"modified":"2017-01-09T16:21:03","modified_gmt":"2017-01-09T16:21:03","slug":"nuclear-pensions-raid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=10958","title":{"rendered":"Nuclear pensions ‘raid’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Energy minister Jesse Norman should step up to the plate and meet the unions over the proposed \u00c2\u0141600 million \u00e2\u20ac\u0098raid\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 on the pensions of 16,000 nuclear industry workers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c otherwise, industrial action could be on the cards.<\/p>\n

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The warning came from Unite, the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s largest union, after a shop stewards\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 meeting this morning (January 9) to discuss the proposed plans by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).<\/p>\n

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Unite said that it believed that the NDA is a stalking horse for the government in an attempt to save money at the expense of workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 retirement incomes, despite the fact that the pension scheme was not in deficit.<\/p>\n

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The joint union statement can be accessed here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Unite national officer for energy Kevin Coyne said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe meeting today reflected the high level of anger by the shop stewards from the respective unions.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey are dismayed that the retirement incomes of 16,000 nuclear industry workers are under serious threat because of the financial machinations of the Treasury.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis threat is made worse by the fact that the pension scheme is not in deficit \u00e2\u20ac\u201c this is like rubbing salt into the wounds,” he added.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe have further meetings with the NDA scheduled, but in the meantime, we are preparing our membership databases for a potential industrial action ballot for which there is a large groundswell of support.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe were due to have a ministerial meeting on Wednesday (11 January) but that was abruptly called off. This demonstrates the continuing contempt of the government for the nuclear industry and its highly skilled workforce and calls into question whether ministers are serious about resolving this issue.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe fact that the last meeting the unions had with ministers on pensions was 12 months ago speaks volumes. The silence is deafening.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe are now calling for an urgent meeting with the recently appointed energy minister Jesse Norman to discuss what we consider an unnecessary Treasury-led \u00e2\u20ac\u0098raid\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 which could see our members\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 pensions slashed by thousands of pounds.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite will be coordinating its response with its fellow trade unions and is considering industrial action to protect our members\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 retirement incomes, which they have spent years building up.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is blatantly clear that the NDA is the stalking horse for the government is which hell-bent in saving \u00c2\u0141660 million over the period of decommissioning. Our members have already made big sacrifices since the last pension changes were imposed in 2008 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and enough is enough.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Energy minister Jesse Norman should step up to the plate and meet the unions over the proposed \u00c2\u0141600 million \u00e2\u20ac\u0098raid\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 on the pensions of 16,000 nuclear industry workers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c otherwise, industrial action could be on the cards.     The warning came from Unite, the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s largest union, after a shop stewards\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 meeting this morning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10672,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[54,127,270],"wps_subtitle":"Unite calls for urgent meeting with energy minister ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10958"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10958"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10959,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10958\/revisions\/10959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}