Two million join British public-sector strike

Two million public-sector workers in Britain went on strike on Wednesday over changes to their pensions in the biggest walkout for decades. Three-quarters of schools were closed, hospitals were only ensuring emergency care and services at airports and in local authorities were expected to be disrupted.

Reuters/Toby Melvill

More than 1,000 demonstrations were expected to take place across the United Kingdom.

Passengers arriving at London's Heathrow airport were warned of delays of up to three hours to have their passports checked as border control officials join the action. Immigration staff were drafted in from other sites to replace striking workers.

Unions called the strike against Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative-Liberal coalition government’s decision to make public-sector workers pay more into their pensions and work longer.

On Tuesday finance minister George Osborne targeted the pay of teachers, nurses and soldiers and revealed plans to cut an extra 300,000 state-sector jobs as he announced lower growth forecasts.

Osborne also announced a two-year, one-per-cent cap on public sector pay rises.

The government wants public sector workers to work until they are 66 and increase their pension contribution payments.

And it intends to lower pension payouts, by changing the method of calculating inflation a,d basing them on average salary as opposed to final salary.