Striking UK workers kick pension plan into touch

London (CNN) -- The players take to the pitch: 11 bankers complete with bowler hats, against 11 public sector workers. George Osborne, Britain's Finance Minister, is the referee.

As soon as Osborne blows the whistle, signaling the start of the game, he starts sending off the public sector players for no good reason. The bankers celebrate until a group of young children invades the pitch and batters them to the ground with pillows.

This bizarre scene really did take place on a patch of grass next to the Houses of Parliament -- or something like it.

The referee wasn't really George Osborne and one of the teams wasn't made up of real bankers. But the other team was made up of public sector workers, including teachers, lecturers, driving instructors, and police support officers.

Though the match was fun, it was staged to make a serious political point.

The particpants were among an estimated 20,000 public sector workers who took to the streets of central London Thursday to protest against changes to the pensions system as Britain looks to implement spending cuts.

British workers take to streets

Many feel the wrong people are being targeted -- they blame the bankers for the perilous state of Britain's finances.

"I'm really angry about the government's politically motivated attempts to steal our pensions," said Annie Holder, an Adult and Community Education Tutor from south London.

"I don't see why myself and my colleagues should take the blame for mistakes made by the financial sector that caused such a large deficit in the UK."

Soon after, a giant pair of underpants on top of a stick floats past. "Cuts can hurt," reads the message on the back of them. The front reads, "Be careful with your cuts."

As Britain's coalition government implements austerity measures designed to bring its budget deficit under control, it's likely strikes will become a more regular sight on streets across the UK in coming months.

But that doesn't mean a return to the kind of strike action Britain witnessed in the 1970s, according to one observer.

"In 7 years out of 10 in the 1970's there were 10 million working days lost. The current strike rate in the last decade is a tiny fraction of that," said Gerald Crompton, a Lecturer in Economic and Business History at the University of Kent.

"This strike is very rare and distinctive. Nowadays the British tend to strike against employers and here they're striking against the government to change public policy -- it's the kind of strike you'd expect to find in Greece, Italy or France," he added.

"The further back you go, the more you find heavily-unionized, skilled, manual workers who are on strike, like miners or ship-builders. But now with civil servants and teachers, we're seeing how much there has been a widening of the occupational base of those who strike."

"The government really is going for broke on the need to reduce the deficit. It's a dangerous game."

He said the austerity measures will ultimately upset people from all walks of life, including those who don't traditionally challenge the government, like the police.

Andy Wilkinson, a journalist from London, described what happened when he called the police last week to report the theft of his car.

"We can't come tonight," said the police officer who took his call.

"There have been a few firearms incidents to deal with and we don't have the resources, the Tories [Conservatives] have taken them away with all these cuts."