It was women on the frontline outside West Bridgeford police station this morning.
Passers by beeped their horns and supportive police staff brought out hot drinks for the all-women picket line.
All the women said they were struggling to make ends meet. IT worker Sharron Hather said she had to support her unemployed brother with her £23,000 a year salary.
“I’m having to economise by not going out or going on holidays. I am here because we have to say something and cannot let them walk all over us.”
At Nottingham City council headquarters UNISON and GMB pickets had been out since before dawn to leaflet colleagues rushing into work from the nearby railway station.
Gary Ward, UNISON branch secretary at the city council, said: “There are 4,000 members in the city council and I hope at least 75 to 80 per cent are out today. I have already heard that no one is going in at the depots. At this site you also get corporate directors and agency people who are not in the union but people are taking leaflets and being polite and cordial. We cannot stop them going in but we are trying to educate them.”
A mile down the road at Queen’s Medical Centre, home to the local emergency department and children’s hospital, an empty bus pulled away from the site.
Standing amid the flags and placards on the picket line UNISON branch secretary for Nottingham University Hospitals Trust Martin Benn said: “Normally that bus going to the city hospital site is full and standing room only. There would be a queue of workers waiting to get on but there is nobody here. This is an early indication of how well the strike is being supported.”
Outside County Hall, a picket in a T-shirt with the slogan ‘get angry and fight back’ on it stopped drivers going into the main car park to lobby their cause.
UNISON member Liz Pritchett, a senior information officer, had been there since 7am. “Mainly people have been friendly. We are their colleagues at the end of the day. I think most sympathise with us.”