UNITED KINGDOM: Britain faces mass strike action over public sector anger over pension reform and government austerity measures

Record ID: 340620

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: Britain faces mass strike action over public sector anger over pension reform and government austerity measures
  • Date: 1st December 2011
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (NOVEMBER 30, 2011) (REUTERS) PICKET LINE OF STRIKING HOSPITAL WORKERS OUTSIDE HOSPITAL PICKET LINE SIGN HOSPITAL SIGN AND UNION FLAG "I'M DEFENDING MY PENSION" BANNER STRIKING WORKER HOLDING LEAFLET READING "WHY WE'RE TAKING ACTION TODAY" PICKET LINE OUTSIDE HOSPITAL BRENDAN BARBER, GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE TRADES UNION CONGRESS (TUC) BEING INTERVIEWED
  • Embargoed: 16th December 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom, United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5OV9QOWUL7AX0PJNQEBQNLC3
  • Story Text: Teachers, hospital staff and border guards are among workers taking part in Britain's first mass strike for more than 30 years on Wednesday (November 3), adding to pressure on a coalition facing a weakening economy.
    Up to 2 million public sector workers are protesting over reforms that unions say will force them to pay more for their pensions and work for longer before they can retire.
    The government says reform is needed as people are living longer and public service pensions are unaffordable.
    The stoppage will hit services as diverse as health, refuse and tax collection, close schools and probably bring chaos to ports and airports as border control staff walk out.
    Outside St Pancras Hospital in London medical and support staff staged a picket line, holding banners and wearing shirts with slogans like "Get angry and fight back".
    General Secretary of the umbrella group coordinating the strike, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) Brendan Barber joined them in moral support.
    He said the strike action is turning into a class war.
    "I think there is a real feeling that it is the poorest and the weakest who too often are being asked to pay the price for this crisis rather than those people who really caused the crisis which is the financial elite and until that changes there will be growing public anger at the injustice of the government's approach," Barber said.
    Reacting to grim economic forecasts on Tuesday (November 29), the government said a further dose of austerity was needed to keep its deficit-cutting plan on track.
    Chancellor George Osborne said pay rises for public sector workers, who are already enduring a two-year freeze, would be capped at one percent from 2013, while job losses would shoot up to 710,000 from an original estimate of 400,000.
    A coalition of 30 trade unions will take part in the strike, billed as the biggest walkout since action during the "Winter of Discontent" in 1979 that helped Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher sweep to power.
    Unions have organised 1,000 demonstrations and rallies across the country and picket lines will spring up around public buildings and hospitals.
    The dispute mirrors those in other European countries where countries are grappling with tight budgets and ageing populations.
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