Workers' Fight workplace bulletin editorials, 27 March 2012

Nobody expected Osborne's budget to have a go at pensioners' allowances. This was not one of the giveaways to the rich, paid for by takeaways from the poor, which was leaked beforehand.

So it is no surprise that the so-called "granny tax" which the chancellor claims will gain £3.3bn by 2016/17 from 4.4m pensioners, for handouts to bankers and business, has resulted in so much anger - even from the ConDem's own voters.

Indeed, Osborne could live to regret the Robin Hood-in-reverse act he has just performed, after having boasted how "unashamed" he was for being so "good" for "business"!

The budget freezes age-related tax allowances for pensioners from 6 April 2013. These allowances were more than those for working people, taking into account the extra costs of getting old.

In fact the personal allowance for over 65s this year comes to £10,500 (for over 75s, £10,660), compared to the tax-free allowance of £8,105 for the rest of us. The budget will increase this allowance to £9,205 in April 2013, but it will also reduce pensioners' allowances, so that they fall to this same level. So if you retire after April 2013 you immediately lose between £63 - £83/year and from 2014, you lose between £285-£322, when you start paying tax at this lower level!

Of course, those on incomes of £150,000+, will see their tax bills go down from 50% to 45% - a handout to them of £10,000!

The justification for taxing working class pensioners is that the elderly must "share the burden of austerity"! The ConDems have the nerve to claim that up to now, pensioners have been shielded and "have never had it so good"!

They even dare to compare the poor situation of youth - the "jinxed" generation which has been targeted like never before by this government - with the "well-off" pensioner! Yet it is precisely thanks to not very well-off pensioners that many unemployed and low-paid manage to survive, living/eating with retired relatives and getting kids cared for by them!

As for the "biggest rise ever in state pensions", this 5.2% is now linked to lower CPI inflation - and it does not even keep up with real inflation! Anyway, retirement age is being increased to the point where many will not live to enjoy a pension. If you are currently 33, you may not get a pension until 70. Current average life expectancy for blue collar working class men is just 73!

Those who smugly claim that pensioners should now "pay their share" seem to have forgotten how low pensions are in this country compared with the rest of Europe and that 25% of all pensioners live in poverty. Or maybe they haven't forgotten. Maybe they just couldn't give - in the albeit hypocritical words of Ed Balls - a "Friar tuck". But those of us in work - could. Which is why it is up to us to keep fighting the ongoing attacks against those who are unable to fight.

The overwhelming (69%) vote for strike action among 2,000 fuel tanker drivers has resulted in an overwhelming bout of hysteria from both government and media!

As soon as the result became known on Monday, the ConDems posted a notice on the "Directgov" website condemning Unite the union and the workers who voted to strike. These workers were "selfish" to "disrupt the lives of millions" in the "Olympics year"!

The notice says members of the public should not start panic-buying and that the government, "If we have to, will use emergency powers... to ensure trained military personnel are available to drive oil tankers"!! One can only hope that these army tankers and their soldier-drivers are a little more fit for purpose than the vehicles and drivers used to try to break (unsuccessfully) firefighters' and ambulance strikes in the past!

The oil tanker drivers who voted to strike are no longer working directly for the stinking rich major oil companies like BP and Shell, but are mostly employed by the oil-majors' many subcontractors - nevertheless supplying fuel to 90% of all petrol stations. Like all contractors, these ones cut health and safety corners to reduce costs, to win their contracts. They force drivers to try to "beat the clock", and induce a "turn and burn" culture to meet ever-shorter delivery deadlines. Some workers have had 6 different pension schemes in 10 years from as many different contractors. Unite wants a collective bargaining forum so that all contractors are forced to respect a bottom line of improved terms and conditions.

Of course, the strike may not happen. But the reaction to this mere threat of action, is a welcome reminder of the power of the working class. It does not take much to send panic waves into the boardrooms of the biggest fish in the capitalist sea. Their loyal lieutenants in Downing Street may have been instructed to come to their rescue, but we will yet see if they can...