Wednesday, 30 November 2011

A mass walkout to defend public sector pensions

Hundreds of thousands of public sector workers took industrial action today to protect their pension.
  
More than 1,000 rallies were held across the country and one protest in central London was attended by tens of thousands. It was the biggest walkout in UK since the 1970S and most people came on strike for the first time in their career.

About 2.6 million workers have been balloted in the row over Government plans to make them work longer, pay more taxes and get lower pensions.
Following tensions between unions and ministers, the Government had also declared that it would withdraw an improved offer if the pension dispute was not settled by the end of the year.  Ministers added that people near pension won’t be affected.
However, the Trades Unions Congress (TUC) accused the Government of alienating its workforce and public sector workers did not change their plan to take the streets.

The strike did not bring the nation to a standstill but more than 70 per cent of the schools shut all over the UK.
Also courts, museums and libraries closed, transport was disrupted and thousands of NHS appointments and operations were cancelled.

A group of 37 protesters were arrested in London to prevent further trouble following an attack on a Police Community Support officer (PCSO).
Apart from this event, the protest was mostly peaceful.

Prime Minister David Cameron dismissed the action as irresponsible and damaging, while the Labour party leader Ed Miliband said that even though he does not support strikes, he cannot condemn those taking action.

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