We're all in it together - to save our pensions

Today is an opportunity to explain to working people and their families in Wales that, when it comes to public-sector pensions, we really are "all in it together."

An attack on any kind of pension is an attack on the principle of decent pensions for all.

Private-sector schemes have been under siege from greedy and incompetent as well as hard-pressed employers for years.

Those politicians and media pundits who cry crocodile tears about "disadvantaged" private-sector workers today, have never lifted a finger to defend final-salary and other schemes in the past.

Their efforts now to turn private-sector workers against colleagues in the public sector deserve only contempt.

The state retirement pension has also been devalued over recent years, not least by the Con-Dem government's decision to link uprating to the consumer price index.

This underestimates the real increase in the cost of living for most pensioners even more than the retail price index used to previously.

Decent state, private and public-sector pensions are essential for all workers to enjoy their retirement in hard-earned comfort and dignity.

Eroding any kind of pension does not put an extra penny in the pocket or purse of any other kind of pensioner. That's why an injury to one is an injury to all, whether in work or in retirement.

Government steps to put back the retirement age in public-sector pension schemes is also an attack on a decent work-life balance for all workers.

Again, forcing workers to work longer in any one sector benefits no-one in the others.

Even worse, it denies jobs to any of the 137,000 unemployed in Wales, including 27,000 young people.

More Welsh workers are out of work now than in the 2009-10 recession, with unemployment rates of more than 22 per cent for youth and just over 9 per cent in total.

Everyone benefits from high-quality public services. Such services can only be provided by public servants who are well-rewarded and, as a result, well-motivated and conscientious.

Which brings me to another reason why all who need and want high-quality public services should support decent public-sector pensions.

The real, underlying Con-Dem agenda is to privatise some of our biggest and potentially most profitable public services - if they can get away with it.

But as their attempts to privatise Royal Mail confirm, prospective buyers are not willing to take on public-sector pension commitments. These are so large that it would be difficult for any government to subsidise them.

So they must be slashed to make schools, colleges, health trusts and the main local authority services more saleable.

That is why a massive display of public as well as trade union solidarity is important today and in the future.

Defending public-sector pensions is a vital part of defending the caring, civilised essentials of a civilised society.

But even the greatest turnout today will not halt David Cameron, Nick Clegg and the bankers in their tracks. Bigger salvos will be necessary over the coming months.

Anti-cuts campaigning will have to be stepped up, drawing together a wide range of trade union, community, pensioner and student organisations and the general public.

The People's Charter highlights the kind of alternative economic and social policies we need for a new society rather than a new recession.

More marches, lobbies, petitions and rallies will be needed, together with industrial action that unites public and private sector workers.

We are all in it together - to get rid of this unelected government and the policies for which it has no democratic mandate.

Andy Richards is Unite Wales regional secretary and Wales TUC president.