Over a million public sector workers are on strike in the United Kingdom on Thursday in a bitter dispute with the government over pay caps, cuts in pensions and jobs, changes in the age of retirement and privatization of public services.

Support for the strike extends across the country as is clear from the news and images of demonstrations, picket line protests, and rallies that has been pouring in on media channels and websites. The strike is reportedly the second largest industrial action the country has seen in the last decade.

Amongst those on strike are teachers, NHS workers, council workers (who include refuse collectors, parks attendants, caretakers for the elderly, cleaners, etc) fire fighters, civil servants and transport workers.

The major issue driving the strike is over pay. The government froze salaries in the public sector in 2010, and in 2012 introduced an annual 1 per cent cap on pay rises. This year too, the wage rise is only one percentage point higher than last year.

General Secretary Dave Prentis of UNISON, one of the major unions participating in the strike said: “The government should look hard at the economic benefits of lifting the pay cap and ending the misery of low pay for public service workers and their families.”

“By starving local councils of the finance they need to deliver vital public services and pay staff a fair wage,” he said, “the government is missing an opportunity to not only inject money into the economy but to create much-needed full-time jobs."

In Parliament Prime Minister David Cameron attacked the strike, claiming that it was supported only by a minority, and promised that a change in the ballot law would be on the manifesto of his party in the next elections.

(Britain’s labour law requires that the union must hold a ballot of the workforce that will go on strike; inform the employer of the timing and duration of the action, conduct the strike strictly for the purpose indicated, and ensure that the protest is peaceful. If they take industrial action without doing this, the participating workers could lose their jobs.)

According to the Trade Union Conference (TUC), the umbrella organization of trade unions in Britain, over 450,000 workers in local government earn less than the living wage. A combination of pay freezes and pay rises below the rate that prices are rising have left household budgets stretched to the limit. The average public sector pay is £2,245 lower in real terms today compared to May 2010, the TUC states.

“Workers don’t take strike action lightly. But they have just had enough. Year on year their pay does not rise, and they are just getting poorer,” Rob Holdsworth, a TUC spokesperson told The Hindu.