Pensions strike a 'wake-up call' for ministers
PCS leader says unions will keep up protests until reform plans are dropped as doctors back ballot on industrial action
Thursday's 24-hour walkout by teachers, lecturers and civil servants over plans to overhaul public sector pensions should serve as a "wake-up call" for the government, said the leader of the Public and Commercial Services union.
Mark Serwotka warned that the unions were determined to keep protesting until ministers change those plans as he claimed the strike was the "best we have seen for 10 years". He hailed the turnout as proof of the anger felt towards the government by public sector workers, but Downing Street insisted disruption to the public had been "minimal".
The action by four unions came on the day that doctors overwhelmingly backed a ballot on industrial action over NHS pensions reform plans. The leader of the Royal College of Nursing, representing more than 400,000 members, warned that it may end up doing the same.
The threat of further and more widespread industrial action loomed after thousands took part in a huge rally in central London, with others staged in towns and cities around the country.
The London rally heard union officials and teachers criticise the government, while Labour leader Ed Miliband was branded "a disgrace" for failing to support the action.
But the Cabinet Office countered the claim with figures suggesting that just under 100,000 civil servants about one in five of the workforce and less than half of the 250,000 balloted-membership had taken part in the action.
It said: "Less than half of PCS union members have taken strike action, and the vast majority of civil servants are at work. Approximately 80% of the civil service workforce was not on strike, and fewer PCS members have gone on strike today than in either 2004 and 2007."
Serwotka said the protest should jolt Francis Maude, the minister for the Cabinet Office spearheading the pension reform talks on behalf of government.
"May! be this is the wake-up call he needed," said Serwotka. "What they now need to do is get around the negotiating table and try to negotiate an agreement. They haven't done that yet, but hopefully having seen how strongly feel today they will have a change of heart.
"It's a very, very clear signal to the government that they have been rumbled. This is not about pensions, this is about making public sector workers pay for the economic problems, and we are determined to keep going until they change direction."
The PCS leader said 85% of his members had been on strike today, that MPs had refused to cross picket lines and staff in Downing Street had taken action.
Maude claimed the turnout was lower than the 2004 and 2007 strikes against Labour's pension reforms. ""I am not at all surprised by the very low turnout for today's action less than half of PCS's own members chose to take part. Very few civil servants wanted this strike at all less than 10% of them voted for it and they are right.
"It is simply wrong for their leader to be pushing for walkouts when serious talks, set up at the request of the TUC itself, are still ongoing."
More than 11,100 schools in Britain closed or cancelled lessons, forcing parents to stay at home or make other arrangements for their children.
Kevin Courtney, deputy general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: "We realise that's very disruptive for parents, and we do regret that. We had hoped to reach a settlement before the industrial action, but the government isn't serious about talks."
Michael Gove, the education secretary, said the strikes were "disappointing and unnecessary".
Downing Street insisted that Britain's borders and essential services had remained "open for business", with air travel unaffected.
David Cameron suffered no disruption to his working day at No 10, where fewer than five civil servants took part in the strike action, according to a Downing Street spokeswoman.
"The prime minister thinks t! hese str ikes are premature," she said. "There has been minimal impact on services."
She added: "The civil service put rigorous contingency plans in place and essential public services are up and running."
In Wales, around 40,000 public sector workers joined the strike. An estimated 1,000 Welsh schools closed, and dozens of government buildings and services were also shut.
The Met police put in place to police the march estimated to have drawn a crowd at least 20,000-strong.
There were picket lines outside government buildings in Whitehall as well as well as schools, tax offices, courts and jobcentres across the country. Around 350 colleges and 75 universities also closed or operated a scaled-back timetable.
Miliband denounced the strikes in a speech to the Local Government Association. "These strikes are wrong at a time when negotiations are still going on but parents and the public have been let down by both sides because the government has acted in a reckless and provocative manner," said the Labour leader.
"After today's disruption, I urge both sides to put aside the rhetoric, get round the negotiating table and stop it happening again."
Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, told the London rally that his comments were a "disgrace". "We are here because of our force of reason, not the Government's reason of force."
Bousted, whose union has never before gone on strike, said Miliband should be ashamed of himself. "If our strike is a mistake, what has he done to oppose this devastating attack on our pensions?"
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