Britain was hit on Thursday by the most wide-ranging wave of work stoppages since the Labour government came to power 11 years ago, with up to 400,000 public sector employees on strike. It was another blow to Prime Minister Gordon Brown after he was forced by party rebels into a humiliating policy reverse over tax cuts on Wednesday and came a week ahead of local elections that will be his first major test at the ballot box.
Refinery workers at the Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland are also set to strike in a dispute over pensions that could cause major fuel distribution problems. Business Secretary John Hutton said there was no need for the government to invoke emergency powers and Britain had enough fuel stocks and imports to maintain supplies.
More than 200,000 teachers as well as thousands of college lecturers are staging their first national strike in 20 years, frustrated over pay deals they say do not match the rise in living costs.
"We teach the future leaders, the nurses, the teachers - you can't do without us," teacher Janet Arthur told Reuters at a protest rally in London. "It's a vicious circle and poverty will set in. We want to have families as well." Union spokesman Alex Kenny said: "Today's strike won't be the end of it." Brown's popularity has plummeted after a string of crises. He is battling to keep the economy on course and trying to keep a lid on public sector spending.
"It is regrettable for pupils, it is regrettable for parents," he said of the teachers' strike. "This a government that over 10 years has doubled expenditure on education." Teachers were joined in a co-ordinated wave of strikes by more than 100,000 workers from 10 government departments, ranging from coastguards to driving test examiners.
A spokesman for the Local Government Association, which represents local councils, said: "It is the most wide-ranging strike in a decade." The government made concessions on Wednesday to Labour lawmakers threatening a rebellion over tax changes and said it would look at ways of helping those worst affected by the abolition of the lowest income tax band.
The popularity of Brown, who replaced Tony Blair as prime minister last June after 10 years as finance minister, has slid as the effects of the global credit crunch dented his reputation for sound economic management. Local elections next Thursday will be the first polls Labour will face with Brown at the helm.
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