Which pensions?
Most government jobs, especially local ones haven't had a "gold plated pension" open to new employees for at least 20-30 years, and back when it was the "norm" in the 50's-70's (a lot really cut back during the 80's), it was basically seen as a trade off, y0u potentially got a significantly lower wage working for the local council, but if you stuck with it your pension was linked to your final salary and you got the chance to retire a few years earlier*.
A lot of the larger "professional" private companies had similar "gold plated" pensions back then (although I've seen that term used for everything from great pensions, to ones that were absolutely common when people joined them 40 years ago), it's wasn't some extra special perk exclusive to the council.
*Again something that wasn't too unusual in some private industries, IIRC a neighbour who worked at a big company had the option to retire in his 50's as he'd been working with the company since the late 70's.