Strike by local government staff cripples U.K. |
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Tue, 28 Mar 2006 16:05
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LONDON: A strike Tuesday by nearly 1.5 million local government employees led to closure of schools, libraries and leisure centres across the U.K., disrupted transportation and created chaos on the city streets.
The strike, claimed to be the biggest industrial action since the 1926 general strike, has been initiated by 11labour unions. It is in protest against the government's decision to scrap an 85-year-old rule, which allows members of the Local Government Pension Scheme to retire at 60 on a full pension if their age and years of service add up to 85 or more.
The unions representing workers in local government institutions content that laws of the same government allow employees in other, better paid, public sector firms to retire at 60 and charge that the law targets those in lower paid, more menial jobs.
The government proposes to bring in the change in October this year.
Employees affected by the change include carers, charity workers, refuse collectors and people who work in call centres, environmental services and housing associations.
National secretary of the GMB Union Brian Strutton said the workers wanted fairness in the system.
He asked in a statement, why thousands of low paid, long serving dinner ladies and classroom assistants lose a quarter of their pension for retiring at 60 when the better paid teachers they work alongside can retire on an unreduced pension.
Unison, the largest of the 11 unions organising the strike, claimed the response has been larger than expected.
The union leaders have warned that further industrial action will be taken if the government failed to resolve the issue.
The strike affected Liverpool as the Mersey river tunnels were shut and ferries stopped running. All buses and trains were cancelled in Northern Ireland. The Metro railway on Tuneside was closed and in London, 70 per cent of schools did not open, while the Tower of London was closed and the river Thames anti-flood barrier reduced to emergency staffing levels. Multi-storey car parks in Newcastle did not open and the city's traffic wardens joined the strike.
Picket lines were seen outside council offices, police stations, universities, day centres, libraries, museums, schools and other local authority buildings.
The direct action in Britain comes at a time when a widespread labour protest is now on in France over a new job law.
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