MORE than 4,000 Bolton Council workers are on strike today - closing many schools, libraries and leisure centres.

Unison, TGWU and GMB members, ranging from caretakers to social workers, are taking industrial action for 24 hours over a pay dispute.

They want a six per cent increase or a £1,750 pay rise, but have been offered three per cent.

Local authority workers say they earn less as a proportion of average earnings than they did in the 1970s.

The average cleaner takes home around £8,886 a year, a binman £9,500 and a manual worker £10,500.

By comparison, they point to councillors' basic allowances in Bolton, which stand at £5,705, with an additional special responsibility allowance taking the highest earner up to £22,169.

However, council bosses say they cannot afford to pay the demands without cutting jobs and services or hiking up council tax by about £80 a year on the average bill.

Today is the first time council staff have taken national industrial action since the Winter of Discontent in 1979. A total of 1.2 million union members across the country are expected to go on strike.

It is also the largest strike of women workers in the UK's history and the first time manual and white collar workers in local government have joined in a common cause against the national employers.

Among the strikers are road sweepers, classroom assistants, rat catchers, binmen, social workers and white collar council officers, who all feel they are poorly paid.

Unison's branch secretary for Bolton, Pauline Dixon, said: "A typical example is home care workers - they deal with the town's most vulnerable residents during unsociable hours but could stack shelves in a supermarket for more money.

"We have made a lot of exemptions to make sure the most vulnerable do not suffer today and are trying not to let anyone down. We have been forced into this situation."

However, Bolton Council's Executive Member for Human Resources, Cllr Rosa Kay, said that the money was not there to pay six per cent.

She said: "We really can't afford to go beyond the three per cent and it is a substantial amount that the unions are asking for.

"I feel it is sad. Where one might have sympathy with the workers who are aspiring to a better deal, it's just not possible. When we look at local government pay it has fallen behind over many years but in reality you can not catch up."

Conservative spokesman for Direct Services, Cllr Stuart Lever, also said the unions are not being realistic.

He said: "We feel that the workers should be a bit more realistic in the pay claim. What they are asking for translates across the board to an average pay rise of 12 per cent. This is six times inflation.

"This could lead to massive cuts in services or a huge hike in council tax."

Some Bolton schools remain closed today as the national 24 hour strike by local government workers got under way.

Some governing bodies decided they could not open as staff, including classroom assistants, school meals supervisors, cleaners and caretakers walked out.

But teachers, instructed by the National Union of Teachers not to refuse to cross picket lines, turned up for work as usual.

Bolton Council said it could not supply a definitive list of schools which would be closing, but said it expected five out of the borough's 16 high schools not to open. St Joseph's in Horwich is not affected because pupils are already on holiday.

And it also believed most of the area's 100 primary schools will remain open.

Schools which have closed have done so because of health and safety and welfare fears for pupils caused by absent support staff.

Some of those which have opened have asked pupils to take packed lunches or have allowed children to go home early.

Residents who should have had their rubbish collected today will have to wait until next Wednesday to have their refuse taken away.

Staff working for the Greater Manchester Fire Service were also on strike.

A total of 200 people who work in administration and for the catering services at the West Command offices, on Moor Lane, and the organisation's headquarters in Swinton, were expected to be picketing today.

The industrial action will not affect firefighters responding to emergencies.