STRIKE action has begun around the region as the biggest public sector walkout in 30 years gets under way.

Dudley Council is reporting around 40 schools are completely closed and a similar number partially shut as teachers take action protest at planned changes to their pensions.

Civil servants from the PCS union began industrial action at 7am with an estimated 90 per cent of the 2,000 CSA and HMRC staff at The Waterfront on strike.

Speaking as he manned a picket line, PCS spokesman Tim Crumpton said: “We have got fabulous support, in Dudley the public sector is the biggest employer, nearly every family will have somebody involved and so people should understand why we are fighting for this.”

Mr Crumpton, who is also a senior member of the Labour group on Dudley Council, was scathing about calls from top Tory and Labour politicians for the one-day action to be called off.

He said: “People calling for us to go back are out of touch, one reason Labour lost the last election was they degraded public services.”

Union members from the Dudley area held a rally in Stourbridge this morning before heading off to a major demonstration in Birmingham.

Today’s national action, which is expected to involve 750,000 workers, is the first walkout in a dispute over government proposals to increase pension contributions and retirement ages.

Union chiefs are threatening more strike action if negotiators fail to find a solution.