If so, it's not funny.
LUL wants us to sign up to a five-year - yes, five-year - deal, where they give us RPI+1% in the first year and RPI only for the next four years. And what do we get for this? Shorter hours? Better pensions? Increased staffing levels? More leave? No - we get nothing.
RPI systematically underestimates real inflation as it affects working people. It is at a low level now because the prices of luxury goods are falling. Meanwhile though, the prices of stuff we use every day - food, electricity, etc - continues to rise by an annual rate of up to 10% or even more.
What this adds up to is that an RPI-only pay rise is not a pay rise at all; it's not even a pay freeze; it is a pay cut. And we are not going to stand for that. Even the RPI+1% in the first year amounts to a paltry rise, possibly even a cut.
A five-year deal also means locking away our weapons for five years, giving up our right and our power to fight for better pay in the run-up to the Olympics and beyond. With the uncertain economic climate, we should deal with pay one year at a time.
LUL's cheesy internal bulletins tell us that we can't have a decent pay rise because of the recession. But they don't say why, because there is actually no logic to that statement. A crap pay deal for us will do nothing to reverse the recession. In contrast, if we fight for better pay, it could start to turn the tide of workers taking the hit for the bankers and their crazy system.
