Freelance Unbound

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In solidarity with oppressed comrades at the BBC, Freelance Unbound is going on a 48-hour strike.
Obviously if there was a simple “no update” strategy, visitors to the site might make the mistake of assuming I just hadn’t got round to writing a new post. So here is a special “On strike” update, that in no way should be considered to be a real update.
Let’s remind ourselves of the cause of this bitter dispute.

• Increases to pensionable pay will be capped at 1% from April 2011
• Employees will be forced to reduce pension contributions from 7% to 6%
• Pension benefits are a new career-average amount – revalued by up to 4% a year. (Whatever than means.)
• Payments will increase automatically each year in line with inflation, by up to 4%.

Clearly, this is appalling. The Freelance Unbound (Non-pension) Collective can only back NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear’s comment that:

“NUJ members across the BBC have consistently dubbed the proposals a ‘pensions robbery’. That hasn’t changed.”

The Freelance Unbound editorial assistant has already walked out in solidarity (she does this twice a day, actually – she’s very committed to the cause).
Now, all I have to do is sort out a pension so I can campaign on how poor its terms are.
Then, as I’m a licence fee payer, it’s back to work twice as hard on Monday to actually pay for the BBC’s pension scheme…

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