How will you be affected by today's walkout of up to 1.5 million council workers - the biggest single industrial action since 1926's General Strike?

NATIONWIDE industrial action has become something of a rarity these days. The trades union movement has been in retreat ever since the failed miners' strike of the mid-eighties.

But today's walkout by 1.5 million council workers will bring back memories of an earlier time when bodies went unburied, bins weren't emptied and rubbish piled up on the streets.

A single day will not create the kind of crisis that led to the so-called winter of discontent in 1978/79, which helped bring down the Callaghan Labour Government.

But with more strikes planned in the run up to local elections in May, few people will be untouched by this dispute.

Stephen Mead, a member of Unison's national executive, said: "We feel badly let down by the Local Government Association (LGA), who have rejected a written commitment made by the Deputy Prime Minister to invest half of the savings being made by other changes to the scheme to finance a deal.

"Instead, the LGA wants to drastically cut their own contributions to the scheme and offset their massive council deficits.

"And they expect our members to pay for their mismanagement."

In North Yorkshire, schools, libraries, rubbish collections and day centres are among the services that will be hit.

But officials at both county and district council levels are working to minimise disruption to the public wherever possible.

Early indications are that the number of closures of services such as schools and libraries in the county will be limited.

The public sector unions led by Unison are holding the first of a series of one-day strikes in a battle with the Government over changes to their national pension scheme.

Fewer than 30 per cent of the county council's staff are members of Unison and they have agreed posts essential to "life and limb" will be exempt from the action.

"This will ensure that the most vulnerable people in our community are not adversely affected," said the county's executive member for corporate services, Carl Les.

The libraries in Scarborough and Harrogate will have only a reduced service while the Northallerton mobile library will be off the road for the day.

A number of social services day centres will also be closed, including the Ashlands Centre, Northallerton; 59 Newbiggin, Richmond; 68A High Street, Starbeck; Scarborough Training Centre and Cauwood, Malton.

The social services customer relations points in Scarborough and Ripon will also be closed and there will be no social services transport throughout the day.

About a third of Richmondshire District Council staff are Unison members and some services will be temporarily affected including the benefits service, which will not be in operation.

Council leader Bill Glover said: "The switchboard and community offices will be fully operational and non-union staff will work flexibly to provide cover where possible. Inevitably, some services may be temporarily affected."

In Hambleton, where 26 per cent of staff are Unison members, all council offices and facilities will remain open and phone lines will be staffed as normal.

However, refuse collections will be hit and all wagons will be off the road. Collections of green waste are being cancelled and moved forward one day. Any refuse collection workers who do not join the strike are being assigned other duties.

"We are working hard to keep the disruption to a minimum but we would ask members of the public to be patient with us," said head of people and performance, Julia Spittle.

Elsewhere, in County Durham by yesterday afternoon, 171 out of 302 schools had announced they would be closed to pupils.

Durham County Council's 38 libraries and four trailer libraries will also be closed, along with day centres for the elderly and disabled.

County Hall will be open to those staff who are working, but closed to the public for safety reasons.

Bin collections will be hit across Durham - and anyone due to have their bins emptied today will have to wait until next Tuesday with union members refusing to play catch-up over coming days in most areas.

The transport system in Tyne and Wear will be particularly hard hit by today's strike.

The entire Metro system will be closed throughout the day, including services to Newcastle Airport, although a normal service will operate from tomorrow.

The Tyne Tunnel was due to close to traffic at 11pm last night and will reopen at 11pm tonight, although it will remain open to emergency vehicles and a limited number of local bus services under police escort.

Bus and ferry services are expected to operate as normal, but anyone using their own car to get to work is warned that Newcastle's council-run multi-storey car parks will also be closed.