Half a million walk out in pay row
Hundreds of thousands of council workers mounted picket lines outside schools, libraries, museums, sports centres and refuse collection depots as they launched a 48-hour strike in a bitter dispute over pay.

Unison said it expected its 600,000 members working in local government to solidly support the walk-out, which was called in protest at a 2.45% pay offer.

General secretary Dave Prentis predicted that the stoppage would be solidly supported, with anger over pay fuelled by Tuesday's new inflation figures showing that prices are continuing to rise.

Mr Prentis said the industrial action in England, Wales and Northern Ireland would be one of the biggest since the General Strike of 1926.

The walk-out, which also involves members of Unite, will put fresh pressure on Prime Minister Gordon Brown's policy of pay restraint in the public sector.

Chancellor Alistair Darling has repeated the Government's plea for restraint but council workers said they were not prepared to accept another below-inflation pay rise.

The two sides in the dispute clashed over reserves kept in the bank by councils which Unison said should be used to increase the pay offer.

Mr Prentis said on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that efficiency savings in the past few years meant that local authorities had £3 billion of unallocated reserves and there was "no reason" why some of that should not be used on pay.

But John Ransford, of the Local Authority Employers, said on the same programme that the money was being held as a contingency reserve and it would be "crazy economics" to use it for pay. He said it was "simply not true" that there were billions of pounds sitting in bank accounts and insisted that the 2.45% was a fair and reasonable offer.

Unison said early reports showed strong support for the strike among workers across the country. Officials predicted "severe disruption" at places such as the central market in Bury because rubbish will pile up and toilets will not be cleaned.