CWMBRAN shoppers were given an insight into how those taking strike action at the town’s DWP pension centre felt yesterday, as defiant workers were in full voice.
Branch union and learning coordinator Sarah Kamrowski joined branch organiser for South East Wales Clive Taylor and office representative Teresa Meredith chanting against the Government’s proposed pension reforms.
Ms Kamrowski said only around 40 people had gone to work in the Gwent Square building, out of a workforce of approximately 400.
Mr Taylor said many workers felt strongly about the government’s proposals, as their Cwmbran office deals directly with pensions.
He said: “I want to protect my pension and I want my children to have a decent future.”
Although there was no visible strike action at Pontypool’s job centre, elsewhere in the town, Coleg Gwent teachers stood outside the campus gates.
Earlier in the morning Rachel Merriman had run from Cwmbran to the site as part of the protest, with a banner strapped to her back.
Union representative David Garner from the Pontypool campus said with proposals to raise the retirement age and plans to change pensions, enough was enough.
“I can’t imagine teaching 30 students when I’m 68, it doesn’t bear thinking about,” he said.
And at Coleg Gwent’s Crosskeys campus, teachers on the picket line said there had been a ‘very good response’ to the strike, with all 160 union members taking action.
Branch secretary of the universities and college union at the campus, Wayne Gronow, said: “The general public have been supportive, putting their thumbs up to us as they go by.”
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