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As an individual you have virtualy zero chance of effecting any change - I have how ever got several thousand people a better pension at British Telecom (I was

As an individual you have virtualy zero chance of effecting any change - I have how ever got several thousand people a better pension at British Telecom (I was the secretary for one of the larger BT union branches)

smsm42 10y ago
My experience suggests the opposite - I've successfully effected change of my personal conditions several times, without help of any unions. So did many other people I know personally. Of course, it is natural for union officials to see themselves as benevolent godlike figures distributing goods to the plebes. But this particular plebe is doing just fine without you and would like to continue as long as possible without any unions. And BTW guess what I found as looking up BT pensions on Google? https://www.ft.com/content/5505d45e-ac29-11e6-ba7d-76378e4fef24 https://www.ft.com/content/5505d45e-ac29-11e6-ba7d-76378e4fe... BT has second-worst funded pension scheme in the world Are you sure you've told the members of your union about that? Who would be left holding the bag when this thing blows up? Would it be you, or would it be those thousands of people who got unfunded pension promises? Or would it be UK taxpayers who would be forced to pay for it?
- Apocryphon 10y ago
  Sounds like unions are a creaky old institution that's ripe for an update. If only there was an industry that goes around innovating things.
- lostboys67 10y ago
  Ah Lies dam lies and Pension valuations - the current pension valuation rules are designed by accountants to make it easy for companies to shut them down. On one valuation the BTPS is in surpluss Oh and I am an activist not a full timer ;-)
  - smsm42 10y ago
    I didn't study the BT issue, but I read a bunch about how California did their pension valuations, and it's a circus. They basically just assume the fund would earn what they want, and project based on that. And needless to say, they assume they're market geniuses. And when it becomes dangerously underfunded, they just screw the newcomers - basically make a Ponzi scheme out of it by making new contributions finance the gaps for the old-timers and have new member to accept much worse conditions then the old ones.
  - smsm42 10y ago
    How about this pack of lies? http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-28/ny-teamsters-pension-becomes-first-run-out-money-expert-warns-pension-tsunami-coming http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-28/ny-teamsters-pensio... I'm sure these people were very happy with their union reps, and their union reps were very proud of it. Until it turned out their pensions are unfunded. And now the taxpayers have to pay their pensions.

smsm42 10y ago

My experience suggests the opposite - I've successfully effected change of my personal conditions several times, without help of any unions. So did many other people I know personally. Of course, it is natural for union officials to see themselves as benevolent godlike figures distributing goods to the plebes. But this particular plebe is doing just fine without you and would like to continue as long as possible without any unions. And BTW guess what I found as looking up BT pensions on Google? https://www.ft.com/content/5505d45e-ac29-11e6-ba7d-76378e4fef24 https://www.ft.com/content/5505d45e-ac29-11e6-ba7d-76378e4fe... BT has second-worst funded pension scheme in the world Are you sure you've told the members of your union about that? Who would be left holding the bag when this thing blows up? Would it be you, or would it be those thousands of people who got unfunded pension promises? Or would it be UK taxpayers who would be forced to pay for it?

Apocryphon 10y ago
Sounds like unions are a creaky old institution that's ripe for an update. If only there was an industry that goes around innovating things.
lostboys67 10y ago
Ah Lies dam lies and Pension valuations - the current pension valuation rules are designed by accountants to make it easy for companies to shut them down. On one valuation the BTPS is in surpluss Oh and I am an activist not a full timer ;-)
- smsm42 10y ago
  I didn't study the BT issue, but I read a bunch about how California did their pension valuations, and it's a circus. They basically just assume the fund would earn what they want, and project based on that. And needless to say, they assume they're market geniuses. And when it becomes dangerously underfunded, they just screw the newcomers - basically make a Ponzi scheme out of it by making new contributions finance the gaps for the old-timers and have new member to accept much worse conditions then the old ones.
- smsm42 10y ago
  How about this pack of lies? http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-28/ny-teamsters-pension-becomes-first-run-out-money-expert-warns-pension-tsunami-coming http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-28/ny-teamsters-pensio... I'm sure these people were very happy with their union reps, and their union reps were very proud of it. Until it turned out their pensions are unfunded. And now the taxpayers have to pay their pensions.