Civil servants take fight to Parliament

Jobcentre, tax and passport office workers, who walked out for a second day to protest at huge cuts to the Civil Service compensation scheme that threaten to slash their pensions by a third, were joined by civilian police support staff and court workers as the demonstration passed picket lines at government departments in central London shut down by the strike.

The nationwide stoppage by more than a quarter of a million civil servants led to the cancellation of court sittings across Britain and caused chaos as Border Agency staff walked out at airports - while even UK frontier guards at the French ports of Calais, Dunkirk and Boulogne joined the strike.

Serious Organised Crime Agency officers also refused to work and security staff at the Houses of Parliament ringed the Palace of Westminster with its first picket line since cleaners protested against poverty pay five years ago.

Speaking at a mass rally of strikers in Westminster, PCS union leader Mark Serwotka pointed out that the walkout was the biggest Civil Service strike for two decades and emphasised that union members' response to the attacks on their pensions showed that ministers needed to listen to their workforce.

"The government needs to stop burying its head in the sand and wake up to the scale of anger that has been generated by their plans to cut jobs on the cheap," he declared.

"Loyal civil servants face losing tens of thousands of pounds if they are forced out of their jobs because the government is tearing up their contracts - even while claiming that nothing can be done about bankers' bonuses because of 'contractual obligations'," Mr Serwotka added.

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis told the strikers that civil servants had the "full backing" of all public-sector workers across Britain who were being subject to the government's "daylight robbery."

He stressed: "The government, instead of attacking its own workforce, should be standing up to the tax cheats and the rich City bankers.

"I call on all public-service unions to unite and use our collective strength to say to whoever is in power that we won't tolerate attacks on our services or on our members' pay and jobs. We will fight to defend them."

RMT leader Bob Crow also stressed that unions needed to "send a clear and united message that attacks on jobs will be met with the strongest possible resistance.

"Politicians and employers need to understand that there will be no easy ride for them in the race to the bottom on public-service cuts."