THINGS CHANGE

Time passes and things change beyond all recollection of what things were in recent memory, without our realisation.

Let’s take a look at our own association and the way in which things have changed since its creation, and the manner in which we operate.

At one time; representation and dialogue was with the local company-BAC and then BAe. We knew exactly who was responsible for various matters (in particular Pensions) and it was relatively easy in those days to gain access to the Filton site and make approaches to the responsible person.

That situation is no longer possible. Filton site is no longer BAe (or BAE SYSTEMS as it is now known). The site is now primarily Airbus and administration of the pension organisation has now effectively moved to Farnborough.

It is difficult in the extreme, to gain access to the Filton site, even if we had need and RMSA as an organisation are no longer able to take direct action on behalf of its members.  We operate these days through the Joint Pensions Consultative Committee (JPCC) which is broken down into areas - ours is Area 8. This was set up at a meeting with the Company in Birmingham many years ago. RMSA representatives meet quarterly with our colleagues from Plymouth and Filton Employees, and with recent expansion we have the addition of Marconi and Royal Ordnance.

When this new system was set up we had high hopes of making significant progress. We were able, with the assistance of our then representative Tony Dudman, to make some progress particularly in the improvement of small pensions. Unfortunately Tony recently suffered a stroke and has been replaced as Pensioner Trustee by our new representative in that capacity – David Moakes.

Seeking improvement through the AREA 8 meeting is by its very nature somewhat torturous and frustrating. Our AREA 8 representatives to the JPCC are Peter Aze and David Moakes. They do their best to take the views of the Area 8 committee and problems of individual pensioners forward, but as we have found all too often, that co-operation from BAE SYSTEMS PENSIONS is often somewhat lacking. We create various sub-committees to form policy and keep plugging away at the various problems. Some progress can be seen on occasions.

The recent decision to terminate the Life Membership class of membership was not taken lightly. An accounting exercise showed that in a very few years we would be in severe financial circumstances.  We have a situation where more and more of our members were achieving Life Membership with the subsequent loss of annual dues beyond five years. There was no influx of new members to maintain a balance hence the need for change. Fortunately every member spoken to leading up to the change, agreed with the need and many proposed an increase in the annual membership fees, but the committee did not want to go that far.

The membership attending the A G M where the proposal was presented, accepted the need for change without dissent.

So, as you can see, in the relatively short life of the RMSA, many things have changed.

How many of us have realised the extent of the change?

Bill Brand

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