DC Workers Support Massive UK Public Sector Strike

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)Chanting “No ifs, no buts, no public sector cuts” as they circled outside the British Embassy in Northwest DC, over 100 area workers rallied Wednesday in a show of solidarity with striking public sector workers in Britain. The DC demo was one of six organized in the U.S. by the National Nurses Union (the others were in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, and Orlando) as over two million British workers took to the streets in the biggest strike in the United Kingdom in a generation. Joining a busload of nurses from Washington Hospital Center were workers from AFT, the Teamsters, SEIU, the Letter Carriers, and occupiers from Occupy DC. NNU Co-President Karen Higgins delivered a letter to the Embassy along with Metro Washington Council President Jos Williams, Fran Lawrence, Executive Vice President of AFT, and OPEIU’s Nancy Wohlforth, an AFL-CIO Executive Council member. The UK public sector cuts “may affect public workers primarily,” Williams told the crowd, “but it really affects all workers globally.” Turning the megaphone toward the Embassy, Williams asked “Can you hear us in there?" - report/photos by Julia Kann