Public sector cuts and pensions rally in Birmingham

Public sector workers from across the West Midlands are due to attend a rally in Birmingham city centre over cuts to their pay and pensions.

The government said reform would stop the pensions system from "going broke".
More than 3,500 schools in England and Wales will close and 2,600 others will partly close due to Thursday's strikes.
Unison union, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers and the National Union of Teachers said the government was making an enemy of public workers.
'Government enemy' Birmingham City Council workers are also striking in support of their fellow public sector employees and to highlight their own dispute with the council about plans to scrap allowances for working anti-social hours.
The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition that controls the council said it had to make savings of more than £300m in the next four years and its contracts were fair.
The unions estimate that about 10,000 people will converge on Birmingham City Centre on Thursday to protest.
Details of school closures and other services due to be disrupted on Thursday are available on the Birmingham City Council website or the respective council website.
Caroline Johnson, assistant branch secretary of the Unison Birmingham branch, said: "We are public sector workers along with the teachers and other staff and it's public sector workers at the moment who seem to the enemy of the government.
'Minority of unions' "They are cutting our pensions, our pay, our terms and conditions, everything we have ever worked for, so that is why we wanted to be part of something other than just our own dispute."
Sian Ruddock, from the West Midlands branch of the Public and Commercial Services Union, said she hoped the joint strike would make a difference to all the government's public sector proposals.
Prime Minister David Cameron told the Commons on Wednesday: "I don't believe there is any case for industrial action tomorrow not least because talks are still ongoing.
"It is only a minority of unions who have taken the decision to go ahead and strike... what I want to see tomorrow is as many mums and dads as is possible able to take their children to school."

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