An estimated 60,000 public sector workers across Nottinghamshire went on strike on 30th November. The aim of the strike was to put pressure on the government over its plans to radically change public sector pensions. Unions claim that the proposed changes would mean that workers pay more, work longer and receive less at the end of it. Undoubtedly the strikes were also a protest against the wider austerity agenda of the present coalition government.

On the newswire: Pickets: 1 | March: 1 | 2 | Rally: 1 | Critical Mass: 1 | 2 | 3 | Events at Occupy: 1 | 2 | NUJ meeting: 1 | Disruption: 1

Previous features: All out for N30 in Notts! | Bigger Society Free Space in Nottingham | STRIKE on 30th November!

Thirty public services unions voted to take action on the day, including Unison which balloted over 1m workers, PCS (civil service and government agencies), NASUWT, NUT, UCU, ATL (teachers and lecturers), GMB (local government) and Unite (local government and health).

In Nottingham pickets were held outside public and council buildings from early morning which were supported by soup runs by Notts Uncut and Occupy Nottingham. Strikers then gathered at the Forest Rec from 10.30 until the march began at 11.30. An estimated 10,000 took part in Nottingham’s biggest demonstration for decades. The march was greeted enthusiastically in the Market Square by people from the Occupy camp. The march ended at the Albert Hall where there was a rally.

After the march, a critical mass of 25 cyclists left Market Square at 1pm and spent over an hour on the streets of central Nottingham bringing traffic to a crawl and spreading the word about the strike. Meanwhile, renowned anti-capitalist academic Samir Amin gave a talk at the Occupy camp.

In the afternoon a discussion on the strikes and the broader anti-cuts movement was held at the relocated Notts Free Space at the Sumac Centre in Forest Fields. It was followed by a showing of the film The Take about workers’ expropriation of factories in Argentina. In the evening, the National Union of Journalists held a meeting about their own struggle against job and budget cuts at the BBC.