[Ruth]

The thing is, the post office have not been paying into their employee's pensions for 14 years. The staff have to pay into their own pensions - they don't have a choice about that. The post office were not keeping up their own commitment, and staff were told that there was not enough money to pay their pensions. The government gave them money to bail them out of this situation, and what did they do? Gave the powers that be at the post office a huge salary raise, instead of using the money to put into the pension scheme where it was supposed to be. Now they have told the staff that they cannot retire at 60 (which the retirement age for the post office has always been) - they have to work until 65, and they don't have a choice about that.

The strike is inconvenient, but the fact is that the staff are not working under the conditions that they signed on for. The money is not there for their pensions, and they have not been looked after properly by their employers.