Strike day kicked off in Scotland with a piper and reception committee welcoming the security guards at Glasgow Caledonian University as they came out on strike at midnight.
As the morning unfolded, pickets from Stornoway to the Borders raised the UNISON flag at council offices, health centres, hospitals, police headquarters, universities and colleges, including Glasgow’s iconic Rennie Mackintosh School of Art.
Speaking on a picket line outside the offices of a voluntary organisation in Motherwell, steward Craig Mooney said: “It needs to be remembered that quite a number of voluntary sector staff are also affected by the attack on public sector pensions.”
Elsewhere in Motherwell, pickets were out in force at housing and home care offices.
Area organiser Janet Stewart said: “The strike has closed the big leisure centre here and all bar one of the other centres. Public support has been great and at one picket line a pensioner handed the pickets a tenner to buy themselves teas and coffees!”
Across the motorway in Hamilton, three generations were on South Lanarkshire branch’s picket line at the council HQ, as retired teacher Catriona Mason joined Seniors Together project manager Christine Calder and her daughter Rachel in the fight for pensions justice.
Political support for the strike came in from councillors and MSPs across the country.
Strathclyde police staff were joined on the picket line by police board chair Stephen Curran bearing bacon rolls, while Green MSP Patrick Harvie went on BBC Radio Scotland to support the strike.
Mr Harvie’s actions were in direct contrast to Scottish Finance Minister John Swinney, who crossed at least two picket lines.