SWAN Statement on N30 Strikes

The Social Work Action Network (SWAN) welcomes the votes for strike action by public sector workers on November 30th 2011 that were passed with overwhelming majorities. The strike will see up to three million workers in Britain take action to save their pensions.

Under these plans social workers, social care staff and other public sector employees would be forced to pay more into their pensions, work longer and get less at the end. The attack on public sector pensions is part of the government’s broader austerity assault on the welfare state, public services, pay and jobs. We are being made to pay the price for an economic crisis we did not cause.

The strike offers a historic opportunity not only to defend public sector pensions but to fundamentally challenge the government’s austerity measures. This agenda has seen the coalition government cut billions of pounds from welfare benefits and services, while privatizing and outsourcing social work and care. This has meant fear, insecurity and anxiety for workers and service users alike who face pay cuts, job losses or poorer quality services. The austerity agenda has meant the hardest hit have been those in greatest need in our society and the workers providing vital care and support services. This is why public sector workers will be supported on the day of the strike by anti-cuts campaigners, disabled activists and the unemployed.

The strike is part of a wider struggle against austerity that has developed over the past year. This has seen general strikes in Greece, the ‘indignados’ movement of young people in Spain and, inspired by the fight against dictatorship in Egypt and the Middle East, the emergence of the Occupy protests at Wall Street that have now spread around the world. N30 is part of this global movement.

SWAN offers our full support to the strike and the protests and rallies that will take place on the day. We urge all SWAN members and supporters to participate in strike action and encourage colleagues to join the action, picket workplaces and attend local and regional rallies during the day. We also call on students and service users involved in SWAN to show solidarity with the strike by attending the picket lines and protests.