Welcome

WELCOME to the Association of Mirror Pensioners’ website.

l-r: Jim Muir, engineers; Bob Miller, ex FOC electrical; Peter Currie, ex FOC electrical; Ian Gordon, ex FOC platemaking Stuart Darkins, engineers

THE Association of Mirror Pensioners was formed in 1990 and its spirited existence continues – though it was formed originally simply to make a legal challenge to Robert Maxwell. Memories are sometimes short and hazy but no pensioner or Mirror employee of the time will forget the traumatic news splashed across all the front pages in December 1991. They confirmed what the Association always knew: Maxwell was a crook. It had taken a month since his plunge into the Atlantic on November 4 to discover that more than £400 million was missing from our pension funds.

One of the reasons the pension fund did not collapse was that the Association’s legal action was accelerated by the High Court so that all parties concerned – the company, new trustees, pensioners and staff – were able to sit down and plan the highly successful recovery that still protects our pensions today. It was several years before the High Court finally approved the result. The original Association of 1990 has remained in existence by demand simply because no one can say what the future holds. It is right that pensioners have their own independent organisation alert to their interests.

The Association is open to all members of the MGN Pension Scheme. That means all pensioners, including deferred pensioners, and active employees of Reach plc.

The AMP is totally independent of the company and of the trustee board – although four pensioners (who are Association members) are elected members of that board. The Association keeps members in touch via two newsletters every year, Spring and autumn, and this website. It costs £10 to join the Association for life – see JOIN US. Please click here – committee – to learn about our officers and committee. The committee represents most titles and departments of Mirror Group, but is always looking for volunteers to take an interest and keep our organisation buoyant.

l-r: Quentin Woodley, independent chairman of the MGN Pension Scheme Trustee Board; Deborah Thomas, Chairman AMP; Gerald Mowbray, Secretary AMP; Ray Evans, Treasurer AMP; Deborah Latimer, legal advisor to AMP