US Nurses Take Action in Solidarity with British Counterparts
More than three million embattled British nurses and other public employees were on strike (11/30/2011) to protest attacks by the British government on pensions and retirement security.
Like their U.S. counterparts, British officials want to slash public worker pensions to cut public deficits — even though, like Social Security in the U.S., British pension funds are financially sound.
As the 19 unions, representing nurses, other healthcare workers, teachers, and other public employees say, the government position is “pay more, work longer, get less.”
“These plans are just a cynical move to raise £4 billion to pay down the deficit caused by the bankers. Instead of raiding the pensions of hard working public service workers, why not impose a tiny transaction tax on the banks instead — this would raise £20 billion a year?”
— Karen Jennings, assistant general secretary of UNISON, which represents tens of thousands of nurses and other healthcare worker.
In the U.S., National Nurses United is leading the call for a financial transaction tax on Wall Street. The tax would tax Wall Street to heal Main Street. Similar taxes are being proposed by workers around the world. Nurses are rallied to show their support for British nurses and workers whose pensions are in jeopardy.
Find out more at: www.mainstreetcontract.org
