Today's students are tomorrow's pensioners - let's stick together

The government has apparently tried to buy off older workers (within ten years of retirement) with some minimal concessions.

It's very welcome that UNISON has told the rich-list cabinet to get stuffed and declared 30th Nov is still on (see analysis here and here).

The government think they've spotted a chink in our armour - the average age of trade unionists is, sadly, above 50 - so they're trying to exploit that.

As a public sector worker who is nowhere near retirement age, (and I won't even be covered by a promise that the offer would be binding for the next 25 years), I don't see anything in this for me or my generation.

As I argued last year we in the labour movement need to be arm in arm with the next generation if we're to turn around our decline. We cannot allow our movement to be divided by age. We'd be selling out a future generation of public sector workers, who share zero blame for the current financial crisis.

Solidarity with the next generation. If we sell them out, we haven't got a hope. Instead, we must congratulate the TUC for rejecting this offer and not only throw our weight behind building for the 30th November, but also get involved in building the demo next week.

Today's students are tomorrow's pensioners - let's stick together. See you next week.