How the academic cream has learned from unions of old

WHEN I read your Editorial headlined “No remedy” saying doctors must not strike on pensions (Yorkshire Post, March 31), I began to think about how the face of industrial relations has altered in this country over the past 40 or 50 years, a period when the only people who appeared take strike action were dockers. miners and shipbuilders and the like.

To even consider a time when teachers, doctors, university lecturers, would take this type of action to protect their pay and pensions is surprising, after all these citizens were, of course, the academic cream of our great society, and yet they voted by a majority to use this method of action. Why?

Maybe we have now reached a point in our industrial history where by using the strike as a legitimate weapon, I believe that we can only conclude that the unions of old should now be given overdue credit for making them see the light.

From: Debbie Wilkinson, Wakefield Road, Drighlington, Bradford.

i AM a paramedic working in Leeds for the Yorkshire Ambulance Service – an NHS Trust. This is a job I have been proud to do for more than 20 years but never have I felt more unappreciated and genuinely hard done by than under the coalition Government.

The Government want to reduce my pension, make me pay more and work until I’m 68 – while doing a manual and very stressful job. Now, after freezing my pay for two years and capping it for a further two, they want to introduce regional pay so I will also be punished for where I live and who I serve.

Surely everyone who does the same job should be paid the same? We are just as busy in Leeds city centre as our colleagues in London – already working in excess of 12 hours with little or no rest.

I have always loved being a servant of the NHS but this is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain.

All ambulance staff and NHS workers ask for is a decent living wage to enable us to continue to serve the public in a meaningful way.

From: Brian Sheridan, Redmires Road, Sheffield.

I AM puzzled by BJ Cussons’ defence of the proposed increase in the state retirement age (Yorkshire Post, May 31) citing the work-shy Greeks in a cautionary tale about over-dependence on the State.

I know the Greeks, with their healthy Mediterranean diet, are renowned for their longevity but how many of them are being carried by the State for “55 or more” years after putting in “30 odd years” work? Even if they started work at 16 they would have to live to be over 100 to make such a protracted drain on the State’s resources.

Some professional people do not start work until they are in their mid-20s and later after years of essential training.

They will find some consolation in your correspondent’s news that they have a life-expectancy of more than 11 decades. And BJ Cussons calls Dr Glyn Powell’s opposition to the proposals “laughable”. I think 30 odd years is a decent stint. The real drain on the State are those who have never worked and never will.