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Most councils expect to be hit by the first stage of industrial action over government proposals to alter pension schemes for existing local government workers. Nine unions with a total of 1.5 million members are expected to take part.

In Liverpool, 120 schools will shut for the day, along with 24 libraries and 15 leisure centres. Two tunnels linking roads under the river Mersey will also face a 24-hour stoppage from tonight, as engineers down tools to support the protest against planned changes to the pension scheme.

In Shrewsbury, even burials and cremations have been suspended for the day alongside more mundane services such as refuse collection and leisure services, according to the Shrewsbury and Atcham borough council chief executive, Robin Hooper.

"The reality is that we will have probably less than 10% of our workforce," he said.

"Over the next few weeks this industrial action is set to continue until a solution has been reached."

Other councils are working hard to ensure social service delivery is not affected, though some councils such as Derbyshire, report that only "limited home help" will be available for the day.

Unison warned that tomorrow's national strike was "the beginning, not the end".

"There won't be a place in the country that will not be affected," a spokeswoman said.

"This is not an action that we take lightly but our members are very angry that this is their last resort. We expect tomorrow's strike to be solid, but it is the beginning, not the end and we will be looking at further action over the coming months."

Under government plans for public-sector pensions, only new workers in health, police, fire, education and the civil service will see their retirement age rise to 65.

Council workers are furious that they have been singled out for changes to the pensions they have been paying into for years. Tripartite talks with the deputy prime minister, John Prescott, and council bosses broke down after the government refused to budge on giving existing staff lifetime protection from the proposed changes, in line with the rest of their public-sector colleagues.

Local-government unions accept that the retirement age for new staff will rise to 65 but want half the pension savings reinvested to help existing members and retain the so-called 85-year rule, which allows those with 30 years' service to retire at 60.

Council bosses, meanwhile, insist that the current scheme is unaffordable and will prove to be too high a burden on council-tax payers in the future.

They reiterated their condemnation for the strike as they vowed to try and keep service disruption "to a minimum". But they admit tomorrow's strike will have a "major impact" on local service delivery and represents the largest walkout since the winter of discontent strikes of the 1970s, which helped to bring down the Labour government.

The chairman of the Local Government Association, Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart, said: "It is deeply disappointing that even before any decisions have been made, the unions have chosen to go down the route of industrial action.

"The changes to local-government staff pensions are both needed and necessary. Most local-government staff currently retire at 65, compared to the rest of the public sector at 60.

"However, because people are living longer this will mean that unless action is taken in the future, council tax will continue to rise.

"The key aspect of these changes is to make sure the pension scheme does not cost the council taxpayer any more money while at the same time making sure that local government continues to be an attractive place to work in.

"Local councils will do everything in their power to ensure that disruption services given to the some of the most vulnerable in society will be kept to an absolute minimum."

http://society.guardian.co.uk/localgovt/story/0,,1740826,00.html

..AND IN FRANCE ON THE SAME DAY... NATIONAL PROTEST DAY, OR PERHAPS GENERAL STRIKE AGAINST THE CPE!