Europe strikes

Millions of people went on strike across Europe yesterday. In Britain up to 1.5 million local government workers struck, closing thousands of schools and disrupting travel in a row about pensions.

Workers also went on strike in Greece, France and Germany. Here are some details.

Britain: Eleven labour unions have combined to stage a 24-hour protest, the first in a series of demonstrations, which they say will be the biggest industrial action since a 1926 General Strike. Britain lost only 156,000 days last year through industrial disputes compared with 30 million in 1979. The average number in the 1970s was between six and 10 million.

At issue is the government's decision to scrap the so-called 85-year rule, under which members of the Local Government Pension Scheme can retire at 60 on a full pension if their age and years of service add up to 85 or more.

They argue the law to bring about the change is unfair as other public sector workers have had their retirement rights protected.

France: French trade unions staged a one-day national strike and tens of thousands took to the streets over a new job-law - the First Job Contract (CPE). The strike was called to try to force conservative Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin to abandon the law.

Mr de Villepin had hoped the measure would reduce youth unemployment from the current 23 per cent, but union and student leaders have said it will create a generation of "throwaway workers" because it makes it easier to dismiss young workers in a trial two-year period.

Greece: Tens of thousands of Greek bank workers went on a nation-wide 24-hour strike in protest against government pension reforms.

The strike is the latest in a year-long conflict between bank employees and the government over how to make good an estimated €5.2 billion deficit in the bank pension system ahead of planned privatisations.

Umbrella union chief Dimitris Tsoukalas said that over 70 per cent of all employees in state banks were on strike while the percentage was slightly lower for private banks.

Germany: Services union Verdi launched Germany's biggest public sector strike in more than 14 years eight weeks ago. The strikes centred around some employers' plans to extend working hours with no extra pay and cut holiday and Christmas bonuses for some state and communal workers.

Walkouts have been staged in 10 of 16 German states yesterday involving some 15,000 workers. According to Verdi, some 1.2 million people are employed at the local community level and 900,000 by the states.

The IG Metall labour union has also announced wide-ranging warning strikes - temporary walkouts - to reinforce its bid for a five per cent pay rise for the 3.4 million workers in the engineering and metal works sector.

Strikes are planned at Ford in Saarlouis and Cologne as well as in other regions and firms across Germany. In eastern Germany walkouts have started already with more than 1,000 workers at carmaker BMW in Leipzig downing tools earlier yesterday for 90 minutes.