Public-sector workers begin strike in UK - Europe - Al Jazeera English

Nearly two million British public-sector workers opposed to government pension cuts, are set to embark on a 24-hour general strike.

Wednesday's strike will involve immigration officers, teachers, garbage collectors, firefighters and other public-sector workers spanning 30 union groups, and will be the largest since 1979's Winter of Discontent.

Angry over pension overhaul, which they say will require them to work longer before receiving a pension and contribute higher amounts each month to the account, as many as two million people could stay away from work on Wednesday.

Some within the Confederation of Trade Unions, the group organizing the strike, predict the walkouts could be the largest since 1926's General Strike.

Austerity measures are also one of the catalysts of this strike. Downing Street extended on Tuesday a cap on public-sector pay raises through to 2014.

Reporting from London's Heathrow airport, Al Jazeera's Andrew Simmons said many people will be taking strike action for the first time in their lives. For a head teachers' union, it will be the first strike in their 100-year history.

Monica Hirst, a nursing educator and single mother, told Al Jazeera's Laurence Lee in London that government cuts have left the people with no other option than to walk out.

"I don't want to be losing a day's pay...but we have no choice we've been backed into a corner," she said.

David Cameron's government, however, does not see the walkouts as the solution to the challenges ahead for the UK economy.

via www.aljazeera.com