Social workers begin three-day strike

Social workers begin three-day strike

Participants make paper helmets at the rally in Edinburgh Place, Central. Photo: RTHK

Yellow helmets are arranged to spell out the word 'strike' in Chinese. Photo: RTHK

Joanne Wong reports

People from the social work sector began a three-day strike on Tuesday to try to pressure the government into responding to the five demands of the protest movement.



Around 200 people gathered at Edinburgh Place in Central for the first of a series of events.



Participants folded yellow paper helmets to symbolise that social workers feel unable to properly protect young people.



A social worker, surnamed Lam, said she felt sad to see young people being suppressed by what she called systemic violence and police brutality.



"The paper helmets symbolise we want to do the minimal things to protect young people but we can't," she said.



Another social worker, Adino Chung, admitted that some social welfare services would be affected by the strike, but said he felt he must come out to pressure the government to listen to people's demands.



“This is motivated by the government. If the government listens to our demands, no one would go to the streets to strike or demonstrate,” he said.



Organisers had said they expected some 2,000 workers from the social welfare sector to take part in the three-day strike.