Strike!

Today was the day of strike action for public sector workers across Scotland. Unions across the public sector joined together to protest against the changes to public sector pensions. Essentially, they aren't pleased with recent changes that require workers to pay higher pension contributions and base pension payments on an average salary over their whole working life, rather than on their final salary.

The news estimates that approximately 300,000 Scots walked out of their jobs. The result of the strike is that the Glasgow Underground was shut down, hospital appointment and operations were cancelled or postponed, schools were shut down, and many parents had to take the day off to take care of their children. The University unions have joined the call for strike action, with the result being that all classes were cancelled, some buildings were closed due to security staff striking, and barely anyone showed up to work today.

The support staff in my office did come in to work, but needless to say, with no students, classes or academic staff, it was not a productive day. We trudged along for most of the morning and stopped for a tea break. As we were breaking up, we heard noises coming from the street below.

Looking out our office windows, we saw a huge crowd of protesters gathering to march. For the next 30 minutes the crowd continued to grow in number, with various union groups lining up to join the march. Just after 12:30, the protest got on it's way, as thousands of workers marched through the city center, carrying banners, chanting and drumming.

It was a sight to see!