STRIKERS were up early to picket all the entrances at Southend Hospital.

Entrances at the back of the hospital in Carlingford Drive were manned by striking pickets before 8am.

Also up early was the Unison branch secretary Dean Jones who joined the pickets in Prittlewell Chase.

Unison memebrs were handing out leaflets to explain why the strike action was being supported.

The leaflet explained how public sector workers perform a range of vital services from street sweeping to caring for the sick.

It said "they work hard to hold our communities together but now they are told that their pensions, the schmes they pay into every month, must be cut".

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