Beaver
The notice just says that both the union and NATS are in agreement that the pension fund might have some difficult times ahead.
It goes on to state that there is a lot of work to be done to bring both sides to agreement and that there is still a big divide between the two camps.
It then goes on to say that the next meeting is 14th Aug, and more info will be available after that.
As for all you say in your post, you are correct. A two tier pay award will definately be the way things go if we close the pension scheme to new joiners.
Any promotion jobs, even GS/LAS will involve joining the new pension scheme.
Any bung to vote for a change would need to be hefty - circa £200-£300k - that's what we could easily lose.
What the stance of the Union is is unknown to me... I know a few union reps who state they are still trying to keep the scheme viable, but it may mean several measures need to take place - such as future pay rises may not be 100% pensionable i.e. the pay award is for 4% but only 2% counts towards pensionable salary etc etc.
I don't believe it's a lost cause, a lot of reps want to fight it, but we may have to accept that in it's present form it will not survive so to keep it open for all, we may have to compromise to some degree.
Closing the pension scheme to new joiners should not even be contemplated unless current members wish to have a very high risk of losing out in the future.
Thisis the management team that claimed that pensions would not be affected when they took contribution breaks... we can only speculate what damage having so much less money in the pot to invest since late 2001 because we helped the company has done.