Tens Of Thousands Take Part In Strikes

Tens of thousands of public sector workers go on strike today as a fresh wave of industrial action sweeps through "austerity Britain".

Airports, jobcentres, courts, libraries, museums and tax offices face varying degrees of disruption with 750,000 public sector workers expected to join the walkouts.

But schools will bear the brunt of the action.

The National Union of Teachers said that up to 85% of schools in England and Wales will be affected.

Members of Unison , the University and College Union (UCU), Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) and were also due to stop work today.

:: Which unions will walk out and why? - Read our full list .

The mass action has been criticised by Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour leader Ed Miliband.

The British Chambers of Commerce said the 24-hour stoppage will result in tens of thousands of parents having to take a day off work to look after their children.

Director general David Frost said: "Many of those private sector employees affected by these strikes envy the better working terms and conditions enjoyed by those in the public sector."

Manchester parent Helen Eastwood has had to take time off work to look after her son Isaac.

"My younger daughter goes to nursery on Thursdays anyway so I will still have to pay for that on top of taking the day off work," she told Sky News.

"I am feeling torn because I'm cross and annoyed at the knock-on effect of this action.

"The first people you feel annoyed with are at the school for not opening but I don't blame them."

Mike Cherry, policy chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses , said that small firms were worried about the impact.

"The recovery remains in a fragile state and this action will have a wider impact on the economy as businesses lose productivity - something the economy simply can not afford."

But unions have hit back - insisting that public sector workers are facing an unprecedented attack on pensions in particular.

Special needs teacher Mark Baker, from Rochdale, said a pension of £18,500 that he had expected to receive when he retired at 60, would be cut to £13,500 if Government proposals go ahead.

Mr Baker is a regional official for the Association of Teachers and Lecturers and insisted the organisation was renowned for its moderate outlook.

"There must be something serious if a union that doesn't strike is taking strike action," he said.

"To find myself in this position makes me feel resentful. The Government has not given me any choices; it has not given the unions any choices.

"It has not offered to negotiate genuinely on these things."

Carole Horstead is head of Spanish at a school in Croydon.

She currently pays more than £100 a month towards her pension. She says under the Government reforms, the contribution from her salary will rise from 6% to 10%.

"I see myself being in the classroom a lot longer than I expected, potentially another 20 years, which I really do not relish the thought of.

"I also see the fact that I may not have enough money at the end of it to put my own children through the education that they deserve," she said.

The Government is cutting £80bn from public spending and insists everyone must share the pain. It has described the measures as tough but fair.

Education Secretary Michael Gove said the strikes would not be widely supported.

"The public have a very low tolerance for anything that disrupts their hardworking lifestyles."

The UK Border Agency has warned passengers travelling into Britain may face long delays at ports and airports as passport officers join the strike.

The impact started on Wednesday night as immigration and customs officials began striking.

Unions say this is just the beginning of action.

Mark Serwotka, leader of the PCS said: "We will see hundreds of thousands of civil and public servants on strike.

"We fully expect to be joined by millions more in the autumn."

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/government-faces-mass-strike-action-015728787.html

Government faces mass strike action

Press Association – Thu, Jun 30, 2011
The Government is set for a war of words with leaders of striking teachers, civil servants and other workers as the coalition faced its most serious industrial challenge.
Hundreds of thousands of public sector workers started a 24-hour walkout in protest at controversial plans to change their pensions, cut jobs and freeze pay.
Picket lines were being mounted outside school gates, courts, jobcentres, Parliament, driving test centres and Government buildings by members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), University and College Union and the Public and Commercial Services union.
In some Government offices, civil servants affected by the teachers' strike were being allowed to bring their children to work to minimise disruption to services. And police leave has been cancelled in London, where union leaders and thousands of activists will take part in a march, followed by a rally in Westminster.
Business Secretary Vince Cable said he believed the public would find it difficult to understand why the strike was going ahead when negotiations over pensions were continuing. It was "imperative" that public sector pensions were reformed, said Dr Cable, adding that he intended to be in his office and hoped that if any Business Department staff went on strike it would not "spoil" the working relationship.
Airports warned travellers to expect disruption on arrival into the UK as immigration and customs officers join the strike. A spokeswoman for Virgin Atlantic said: "Virgin Atlantic is working closely with the UK Border Agency to support their contingency planning and minimise disruption to our customers."
High-speed Channel Tunnel train company Eurostar said it would not be affected by industrial action and will be running two extra trains - one from London to Paris, the other from Paris to London, to cope with expected extra demand.
Downing Street said the Government was doing everything possible to ensure it was "business as usual", with the Prime Minister's official spokesman saying: "We have been for some time putting contingency plans in place to ensure essential services are maintained."
Based on returns from around three-quarters of the schools in England, the Government said it expected around a third will be shut completely, a third will be partially affected, and a third will remain open.
Officials said they expected around one-in-five of the UK's 500,000 civil servants will take part in the strike, adding that the "vast majority" of courts, job centres, and HM Revenue and Customs call centres would remain open as usual.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/tens-thousands-part-strikes-232435060.html

Tens Of Thousands Join Pension Strikes

Thousands of striking public sector workers have joined rallies across the country in protest over Government reforms to their pensions.
Schools, airports, job centres, courts, libraries, museums and tax offices face varying degrees of disruption as up to 600,000 people join the industrial action.
While marches have so far been peaceful, about 10 youths wearing black hoodies were taken away from the London demonstration and questioned by police.
As the rallies got under way in many of the country's major cities, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude said people needed to wake up to the stark economic realities.
"Those who say pensions are affordable should also say which hospitals to shut down to subsidise their pensions."
"People are living longer, so should work longer."
But the general secretary of the TUC said the Government was simply not playing fair with their cuts.
"I'm a firm believer of negotiations and as I've said today, I hope we're going to be able to resolve this through negotiations - without the need for further industrial action.
"But the Government never negotiated announced unilaterally the change in indexation of pensions, which at a stroke slashed the value of pensions by 15%.
"I'm a believer in negotiations, but the Government needs to demonstrate that in real terms."
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said the Government was "not seeking to be at loggerheads with the unions".
"I think it's a real shame there are strikes because there are talks ongoing between the Government and the trade unions," he said.
"We all agree across the political spectrum that public sector pensions need to be reformed.
"We want to do that in a resonable way - but that reform does need to happen."
Teacher Angela White told Sky News that while she understands cuts must be made, she feels there should be a re-think about the severity of them.
"We're not saying we don't want to take a hit - we understand people are being squeezed," she said.
"What we are saying is, please negotiate and not do all these things at once to us.
"We're not asking for cuts not to be made - we're asking for negotiation rather than ignorance."
Schools are bearing the brunt of the 24-hour walkout.
The National Union of Teachers said up to 80% of schools in England and Wales have been affected.
The Department for Education said its figures indicated 26% of schools were closed, 22% were partially closed and 23% were fully open.
However, it added it was still waiting for information from some schools.
Leave for all Met Police officers has been cancelled, with thousands of people taking part in London's protest march.
Other protests were being held in major cities around the country, including in Birmingham and Manchester.
The UK Border Agency has warned passengers travelling into Britain may face long delays at ports and airports as passport officers join the strike.
Heathrow Airport and the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) said 70% of border staff at the airport have gone on strike.
Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour leader Ed Miliband have both criticised the mass walkout.
Mr Miliband said the strikes were "wrong" but again accused the Government of "reckless" behaviour.
The British Chambers of Commerce said the 24-hour stoppage will result in tens of thousands of parents having to take a day off work to look after their children.
Director general David Frost said: "Many of those private sector employees affected by these strikes envy the better working terms and conditions enjoyed by those in the public sector."
Mike Cherry, policy chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses , said small firms were worried about the impact.
"The recovery remains in a fragile state and this action will have a wider impact on the economy as businesses lose productivity - something the economy simply can not afford."
But unions insists public sector workers are facing an unprecedented attack on pensions in particular.
Special needs teacher Mark Baker, from Rochdale, said a pension of £18,500 that he had expected to receive when he retired at 60, would be cut to £13,500 if Government proposals go ahead.
Mr Baker is a regional official for the Association of Teachers and Lecturers and insisted the organisation was renowned for its moderate outlook.
"There must be something serious if a union that doesn't strike is taking strike action," he said.
"To find myself in this position makes me feel resentful. The Government has not given me any choices; it has not given the unions any choices.
"It has not offered to negotiate genuinely on these things."
The Government is cutting £80bn from public spending and insists everyone must share the pain. It has described the measures as tough but fair.
But unions say this is just the beginning of action.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/beat-officers-help-man-999-lines-113116661.html

Thousands protest over pensions

Scotland Yard has been forced to pull officers off the beat to cover for nine in 10 emergency call handlers who joined the public sector strikes.
All police leave in the capital was cancelled to help cope with the walkouts by civilian staff. Officers were also policing as union leaders and thousands of activists took part in a march, followed by a rally in Westminster.
By 2pm, police had arrested 18 people at the protest for a variety of offences including possession of drugs, criminal damage and breach of the peace.
Among the buildings being picketed in London were Parliament, the Royal Courts of Justice in central London, many courts including Westminster magistrates, and the headquarters of the education and business departments.
Immigration officers at ports and airports across the UK joined the strike, with the prospect of long delays for travellers returning to the country.
In Liverpool, thousands of protesters marched from William Brown Street to Chinatown for a rally, carrying placards, flags and leaflets bearing slogans like: "Fight the Cuts!" and "Unity is Strength." Strikers blew whistles and chanted: "No ifs, no buts, no public sector cuts."
A carnival atmosphere pervaded in Brighton and Hove as more than 1,600 striking public sector workers marched in opposition to the Government's plans. People young and old banged drums, waved flags and banners, and listened to music from a stage set up on The Level near the city centre. From there they marched through the streets to Hove Town Hall for a rally highlighting discontent at Government plans to raise pension contributions and increase the retirement age.
Around 1,500 people gathered in the centre of Sheffield for a rally, march and even a sing-song. A series of speakers addressed the crowd from the steps of the City Hall before The Sheffield Socialist Choir led a good natured sing-a-long and the mass of teachers, civil servants and students moved off for a mile-long circuit of the city centre.
Up to 6,000 people joined the pensions protest through Newcastle city centre, a union leader said. With one in three North Easterners working in the public sector, many people felt Government cuts were having a greater impact in the region than elsewhere.
In Manchester's busy Oxford Road, passing motorists blew their horns in support as hundreds of teachers, civil servants and protesters mustered for a march and rally in the city centre. Police and unions had expected around 500 marchers, but numbers appeared to be well up on that figure.

40,000 in London – the demonstration was a mile long

10,000 in Birmingham – the demonstration filled the whole of New Street, the biggest demonstration for years

6,000 in Manchester

5,000 in Bristol

4,000 in Brighton

3,000 in Sheffield and Nottingham

2,000 in Newcastle, Leeds

1,000 in Glasgow, Cardiff, Donington

500 in Canterbury, Preston, Lancaster, Plymouth, Southampton, Norwich, Hull

450 in Herfordshire

400 in Leicester, Barnsley

300 in Dorchester

250 in Derby, Kirklees

200 in Truro, Wakefield, Southend

150 Coventry

100 in Dundee, Swindon

Ed Miliband's failure to support strikes 'a disgrace'

30 June 2011 Last updated at 22:08

The head of one of the unions striking over pensions has said Ed Miliband "should be ashamed of himself" for urging workers to call off the action.

Mary Bousted, leader of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, told a rally in London his stance was "a disgrace".

The Labour leader said the strikes were "wrong" because negotiations with the government were still ongoing.

He said his MPs should turn up for work as normal on Thursday despite the picket lines outside Parliament.

Hundreds of thousands of public sector workers have staged a 24-hour walkout in protest at planned changes to their pensions.

They include members of three teaching unions and the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, which represents civil servants but has no formal links to the Labour Party.

The action has been condemned by ministers who insist that meaningful negotiations are still continuing.

The unions involved in these talks - Unite, the GMB and Unison - were also those that last year backed Mr Miliband's bid for the Labour Party leadership.
Angry response

Mr Miliband told the Local Government Association (LGA) annual conference in Birmingham that he understood "the anger of workers who feel they are being singled out by a reckless and provocative government".

But he said: "I also believe this action is wrong.

"Negotiations are ongoing, so it is a mistake to go on strike because of the effect on the people who rely upon those services.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote

What has he done to oppose this devastating attack on our pensions?”

Mary Bousted Association of Teachers and Lecturers

"And it is a mistake because it will not help to win the argument."

The Labour leader's stance sparked an angry response from Ms Bousted when she addressed an audience of striking workers in Westminster Central Hall.

"I am pleased we are not affiliated to Labour," she said, to loud applause.

"The response of Ed Miliband has been a disgrace - he should be ashamed of himself.

"If our strike is a mistake, what has he done to oppose this devastating attack on our pensions? If the opposition will not defend our pensions, we will."

She later told the BBC that the Labour leader had "not taken any interest" in the fact that the government had never carried out a promise valuation of the teachers' pension scheme.

"We haven't been able to negotiate, we haven't had the basic information we need from the government.

"[So] to come at this stage, two days before the strike, and say, 'You should negotiate, there's another way round'... is, frankly, unhelpful and ill-informed."
'A mistake'

Christine Blower, the leader of the National Union of Teachers, told the BBC's Question Time she would have liked more from the Labour leader.

"It would have been nice if Ed Miliband had felt he could have supported what we're doing," she said.

The NUT is not affiliated to the Labour Party and Ms Blower refused to be drawn on whether she would have chosen Mr Miliband to lead it.

Click to play

Ed Miliband: "These strikes are wrong at a time when negotiations are going on"

Shadow business secretary John Denham was booed by the Question Time audience when he too refused to support the walkouts.

"I actually think the strike was a mistake because children lost a day in school today that they shouldn't have lost and many parents had to take a day off," he said.

"I don't think it was justified when there are talks taking place."

Labour MP John McDonnell said earlier that public sector workers "expected more" from the Labour leader and urged Mr Miliband to listen to their concerns over pensions.

"They want to have an opportunity to explain to him why they feel so strongly about what is happening to their pensions," he said.

Mr Miliband also condemned the government's handling of the pensions issue, accusing ministers of declaring their final position while talks were still taking place.

"This disruption could have been avoided if ministers had been willing to engage with the concerns of those affected by changes to public sector pensions," he told the LGA.

"The government's handling of the issue has been high-handed and arrogant."

"one of us spoke to an Italian communist and teacher who saw the uk uncut thing and was baffled by how polite we were and wondered why we didn't just use molotov cocktails"

I sympathise.

Nice cakes, nice smiles, nice weather, nice chats, nice intentions about general strikes, nice polite domesticated Englishness it seems - and no anger towards scabs, no anger towards the Union fuckercrats, no anger towards the enormity of what's coming down, no attacks on The Ritz or their local equivalents etc. Nice day, but the previous demos with the black blocs and the attacks on banks, etc. provoked questions - and showed up all those pro-Union let's keep it all nice ideologues. Egypt explodes again, Greece continues to explode, but what can a poor boy do in sleepy English towns...? It's nearly the 30th anniversary of the riots that spread through these English towns and woke people up - but England and the rest of the UK have been hammered back into a coma, a sleep of reason breeding ever-worsening monsters, which only a Millbank of every government, multinational building and rich man's castle will shake people out of.

Lecturers, teachers, students, civil servants and others assembled at Leeds Metropolitan University to march towards Leeds city square. The march was welcomed by the cheers of a several hundred strong crowd who had already gathered in the square, as well as the steel drum band which gave the crowd a positive and lively festival atmosphere in which to start the rally.

The rally closed with a local musician singing several songs reminiscent of the long history of the class struggle.

I feel that the government should do what Mr Edwards did in 70’s with all the British Leyland striking workers – Sack them all and re-employ again on new contract and make sure that new contract is a lot worse than the current offer on the table !!!
With over 2 million unemployed we can give the jobs to who wants to work and work hard. The pension for public workers is 100% better then the private sector. I know because I have just taken my pension and get less than £800 per month !!! and I am happy !!!!

Isakenaz wrote:Nothing more, obviously nothing happened yesterday apart from the royal vultures descending on Canada (God bless them). However in a piece on pensions someone had replied with this example of ignorant crap;

I feel that the government should do what Mr Edwards did in 70’s with all the British Leyland striking workers – Sack them all and re-employ again on new contract and make sure that new contract is a lot worse than the current offer on the table !!!
With over 2 million unemployed we can give the jobs to who wants to work and work hard. The pension for public workers is 100% better then the private sector. I know because I have just taken my pension and get less than £800 per month !!! and I am happy !!!!

Don't you just love the caring capitalists?