Nurses, care workers, librarians, school dinner ladies, paramedics, care workers, cooks and cleaners are among the public service workers and their families taking to the streets in London, Belfast and Glasgow on Saturday 20 October.
The marchers are joining tens of thousands more on the TUC’s “March for a Future that Works” to send the government a strong message that their austerity agenda is not working and is slowing our chances of economic recovery.
Members of UNISON, the UK’s largest union, will be travelling in more than 200 coaches, on chartered and scheduled trains, via tube, on boats and on foot to take their message for a fairer society onto the streets of three of the UK’s largest cities.
Thousands will snake through the streets, with UNISON’s familiar giant balloons marking the route, accompanied by a cacophony of whistles, vuvuzelas, a brass band and drummers. The march is designed to wake up the Government to the damage they are causing and show there is an alternative. What people want now is a pro-growth, pro-jobs, pro-hope economic agenda to sweep away the Tory-led coalition’s failed austerity policies.
Dave Prentis, UNISON General Secretary, said:
“Tomorrow people will travel by train, coach, bus, tube, foot and even by boat to join marches in London, Glasgow and Belfast. They will join tens of thousands to march through some of the UK’s largest cities.
“They will be marching to tell this shower of a coalition that they are wrong, wrong, wrong. They are wrong to make ordinary people pay with their jobs and their futures for a deficit that none of them caused. They will be demanding that the bankers be made to clear up the mess they created.
“They will be marching because they know that the Tory led coalition’s austerity policies are scarring our country and jeopardising our children’s futures. Tory cuts are taking vital support away from the elderly and from some of the most vulnerable people in our society. And as services and jobs that people rely on disappear it has all been for nothing – all pain and no gain as the debt has got bigger.
“Tomorrow’s march is only the beginning. Through autumn and beyond our campaign against the Tory-led coalition’s damaging austerity agenda will continue to grow. We will build an alternative coalition to campaign for a fairer future.”
Transport round up:
41 coaches are travelling to London from the South West.
33 coaches, plus trains will be travelling to London from the West Midlands.
The North West region has chartered two trains from Liverpool and Manchester, carrying approx 900 people to London. They have block booked more than 400 further train tickets from towns including Lancaster, Preston and Chester, as well as more than 5 coaches.
From the South East of England more than 30 coaches and one train will be bringing people to London.
More than 30 coaches are travelling from the West Midlands. Hundreds of marchers will be going by train. Passengers will include healthcare students who are concerned about the new NHS Health & Social Care Act and the dangers of NHS privatisation. A local Samba band is also travelling down to London from Birmingham University.
More than 40 coaches will be arriving from eastern England to London, with branches also organising train travel.
More than 20 coaches are arriving from Wales to London, with more than 100 marchers booked onto trains.
Several buses will be bringing marchers from around Scotland, with most people making their way on public transport.
More than 250 UNISON members from the north east are booked onto trains and buses.
23 coaches and scheduled trains will bring more than 1,000 people to London from Yorkshire and Humberside.
