Protest and Strike over pension reforms in Taiwan and the UK

Taiwan, like many European developed countries, is facing demographic changes in the past decades. In fact, according to Taiwan News (2017), Taiwan’s birthrate is now world's 3rd lowest, together with the growth of aging populations and the rise in average life expectancy, the government is gradually failing to keep the promise that made to civil servants, teachers working for public schools, and soldiers due to fiscal shortage. This week, Taiwanese Veterans’ group and other groups gathered and broke into the Legislative Yuan in Taipei to protest the pension reforms that aim to tackle the governmental pension fund’s deficit by a significant cut.

(source: Taipei Times 28 Feb, 2018)

Similarly, university lecturers across the UK began strike action over pensions since 22 February. This sweeping industrial action supported by the University and College Union is the biggest ever that brought widespread disruption to campuses across the UK (2018 Guardian News).

(Source: Financial Times, 22 feb 2018)

Students are quite vulnerable under such a situation and unable to predict how long it will take. Until 28 Feb, we are informed that the strike will be extended to one-month long. 

campus is now quiet and relatively empty

Studying in the UK can be highly pressured as the British university education is designed as an intensive module to be completed within shorter academic years. Without regular taught courses, students seem happy for self-study without too many complaints. Meanwhile, the UK is experiencing its spring snows, students take advantage of this spare time to enjoy making a snowman on campus.

臺灣及英國正針對年金改革抗議及罷工

像許多歐洲發達國家一樣，台灣在過去幾十年面臨著人口變化。事實上，根據“Taiwan news”（2017）報導，台灣的低出生率是世界第3低。

再加上老齡化人口的增長以及人均壽命的提高，政府由於財政短缺，正逐漸對公務員，公立學校教師和軍人失去原有的承諾。本週，臺灣退伍軍人團體和其他人聚集並闖入台灣立法院，抗議其以大幅削減年金以因應政府退休基金赤字的退休金改革計劃。 

同樣地，自2月22日以來，英國各地的大學講師開始針對退休金進行罷工。這一席捲而來的罷工行動由大專學院聯盟所支持,是有史以來規模最大的一次，大幅度擾亂了英國各地的校園。學生在這種情況下是非常沒有法度的，無法預測這場罷工會要多長時間。直到2月28日，我們被告知罷工將延長至一個月。 

在英國讀書可能會有很大的壓力，因為英國的大學教育是被設計成在較短學期內完成密集的課程。沒有常態的教學課程，學生似乎很高興自修，沒有太多的抱怨。在此同時，英國正在經歷春季降雪，學生們剛好利用這段閒暇時間在校園內享受堆雪人的樂趣。