More than 70 schools are shut across Bristol today as members of the National Union of Teachers and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers join a national strike.
Court staff, Job Centre workers and passport controllers have also refused to work as the biggest strike for more than five years gets under way, in protest at the government’s changes to pensions in the public sector.
Early indications were that the estimate of 750,000 strikers across the UK could prove to be accurate.
The Government believes public sector pensions need to be altered because the cost to the taxpayer is too high as life spans increase. But unions believe the “devastating” changes to be unjustified and claim they will lead to poverty after retirement for too many people.
Despite little or no support from the Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, the leader of the party in Bristol has backed the principle of the strike.
“Anti-public sector ideology lies at the heart of today’s government-provoked protests – not a desire to reach agreement over pensions provision for vital public servants,” said Councillor Peter Hammond.
“Encouraging a ‘race to the bottom’ where currently those with better pension arrangements are being castigated by some who have been forced into worse provision by this government’s actions and the consequences of bankers’ activities needs to be resisted.
“After all, our pensions are simply our wages stored up for our retirement, not a piggy bank to be raided by government to pay for somebody else’s crisis.”
A rally from College Green to Castle Park is due to take place this morning, organised by Bristol & District Anti-Cuts Alliance.
A spokesman for the group said: “This is the biggest industrial action for at least 25 years. Hopefully it is the prelude to even bigger action in the autumn by many more unions. If we can win on pensions, we can defeat the cuts.”
One person who won’t be joining the rally is a former Apprentice candidate, who will be in Bristol next week to tell a business networking event that “the cosy protected public sector seems intent on throwing their dummies out of the pram and going on strike”.
Katie Hopkins, a former candidate in the BBC show, will be at Ashton Gate next Tuesday at the Network Central event to share her views to businesses.