More than one million public sector workers went on strike in Britain Thursday over pay cuts imposed by the government. Union representatives are fighting salary freezes and other measures taken in the government's austerity program.

Strikers, who range from teachers to street sweepers and civil servants, are being organized by the Trades Union Congress with protests occurring throughout Britain including a large rally in central London. In order to lower public costs following the global economic downturn in 2008, Prime Minister David Cameron's administration froze public workers' salaries for two years in 2010, and limited raises to one percent each year since then.

The country's economy has been rebuilding since the financial crisis, but unions argue that public workers' salaries are not keeping up with rising living costs.

"This is why today's strikers deserve public support," Frances O'Grady, the general secretary of the TUC, said. "They are saying that ordinary workers should not be locked out of the recovery, and that we should all get a fair share as the economy grows again."

Despite the large turnout, Cameron and other ministers have said they believe most workers will still show up for work as usual. The prime minister has vowed to crackdown on strike laws in response to Thursday's demonstrations.

"How can it possibly be right for our children's education to be disrupted by trade unions acting in that way?" Cameron asked. "It is time to legislate and it will be in the Conservative manifesto."

"The number of working days lost to industrial action is low," O'Grady countered. "Instead of ill-thought out and unnecessary changes in the law, a better use of the prime minister's time might be to come up with ways to ensure that Britain's hard-pressed public sector workers begin to share in the economic recovery."

The prime minister's conservative party has been planning strike law reform for several years, but was unable to accomplish their goals due to liberal democrat opposition.