National Delegate Conference 15-18 June 2010

Conference considers one fund to defend pensions

Rory Malone

Conference set out an agenda for defending the Local Government pension Scheme (LGPS).

Central to the strategy will be a reduction of the funds that make up the LGPS, from the current 101 to single funds for England, Wales and Scotland - greatly reducing the costs paid to fund managers.

Managing the funds in-house would prevent millions of pounds of pension fund income going to bankers and traders.

Opposing an amendment which would have committed UNISON to taking a pensions motion to the TUC, Dundee's Rory Malone told conference that the amendment added nothing to the policy of the union and would take away flexibility to respond to events at the TUC.

"We have a successful strategy that we have been following. We have already worked successfully through the TUC as part of a wider coalition.

“We have campaigned politically to ensure that our demands are understood by those in power and we have campaigned in the media to refute all those stories of gold plated pensions when the reality is that our members will pay all their lives for a pension of less than £5000 per year, and even less than that if you are a woman."

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