Pension walkout

About 600,000 public sector workers in the United Kingdom went on strike Thursday to protest pension reforms, threatening to disrupt schools and airports.

The 24-hour strike was called by four education and public sector unions in response to reforms that they say would give them less for more: higher payments into pension funds and longer work hours for reduced pensions.

Unions said the walkouts would affect about 80 percent of schools in England and Wales. Strikers established picket lines outside government buildings, job centers and courthouses. There were reportedly delays at airports and sea ports because of striking border control workers.

Prime Minister David Cameron has said the reforms are necessary because "the pension system is in danger of going broke," and that the strikes were premature because the details of the reform were still being worked out.

"It is absolutely unjustifiable for parents up and down the country to be inconvenienced like this, forced to lose a day's work when they are trying to go out to...earn money to pay the taxes that are going to support teachers' pensions," Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude told BBC television.

'Insult to injury'

But a spokeswoman for the ATL education union said the strike was "not something we do lightly."

"We've never done this before in our history," she said. "But the bottom line is we're worried about what the government is going to do to the long-term future of teaching."

Brendan Barber, head of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) union body, said no one should be surprised that workers were striking to protest the reforms.

"They know that they are being asked to play an unfair part in deficit reduction," he said. "What adds insult to injury is that this is wrapped up in attacks on public service pensions as gold-plated, unreformed and unsustainable."

Union and government representatives met on Monday to discuss the reforms. Many unions, including the largest public sector union, Unison, sat the strike out, although they say they may strike later this year if talks fail.

The pension reform is part of the conservative-led coalition government's broader deficit reduction plan, which includes a two-year pay freeze on civil servants and 330,000 job cuts by 2015.

Author: Andrew Bowen (AFP, Reuters)
Editor: Martin Kuebler