Summer of discontent: Local government strikers challenge Brown's pay restraint policy

Summer of discontent: Local government strikers challenge Brown's pay restraint policy

The two-day action called by the two biggest unions, Unite and Unison, followed a ballot refusing to accept a 2.45% pay rise imposed by ministers. As the inflation figure rose to 3.8% it showed public sector workers - some on the minimum wage of £5.52 an hour - are facing a real pay cut this year.

Ministers, who say the country cannot afford pay rises above 1.9%, were "disappointed" that council staff went on strike after being offered a 2.45% rise.

Dave Prentis, Unison's general secretary, said: "This has been a fantastic response from our members. Local government workers have shown their anger and resentment towards this 2.45% below-inflation pay offer. The employers must heed the voice of their own workforce and get back round the negotiating table to settle this dispute."

Brendan Barber, the TUC general secretary, said: "Hundreds of thousands of low-paid people ... in local government and the civil service are reluctantly on strike this week because they are refusing to accept pay offers way below the cost of living."

But the Conservatives criticised the action. Eric Pickles, the shadow secretary for communities and local government, said: "Trade union leaders.....continued below

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Employers, who had been predicting a poor response to the strike call, said yesterday that at least 300,000 people had walked out.

According to the Local Government Association, which represents councils in England and Wales, some 611 schools were closed by the strike, adding that this was an underestimate because some regions had not returned figures.

According to the unions, the strike closed all waste recycling centres in Merseyside, leisure centres in South Tyneside, and libraries in Wolverhampton; refuse collections were cancelled in Kirklees and Wakefield, street cleaning was halted in Coventry and Barnsley, and Derry airport shut in Northern Ireland.

Later this week there will be 24-hour and 48-hour strikes by coastguards, driving examiners and Home Office staff, in a separate dispute over low pay by civil servants from the Public and Commercial Services Union. Their general secretary, Mark Serwotka, said: "The civil and public servants standing shoulder to shoulder for fair pay over the next few days aren't paid vast sums and are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. Inflation is at an 11-year high, not because of public sector wages but because of soaring food, fuel and housing costs."

Boris Johnson, mayor of London, is under pressure from the RMT union to meet his pledge of a £7.45 an hour London living wage by insisting that the companies running the London underground agree to raise their cleaners' wages from £5.52 an hour. The RMT has already staged a two-day strike and is planning further industrial action.