Thursday 30th June. Over 3,000 protestors marched through the Manchester city's streets today, causing widespread disruption, with thousands of school pupils across Greater Manchester kept home from school forcing parents to stay off work or scramble for childcare places.

Criminal courts ground to a halt, hundreds of Jobcentre and immigration interviews were cancelled, and roads in central Manchester suffered rolling road closures as

Protesters claimed the strike, with four unions representing teachers, lecturers and civil servants, would herald months of industrial action - with millions of strikers out on the streets unless the government backed down on public-sector pensions reforms.

Helen Andrews, a Greater Manchester spokewoman for the National Union of Teachers (NUT), warned: "This is the beginning of the fightback.

"Today's strike will be the catalyst for a deepening and widening campaign."

And Sue Bond, vice-chair of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, told members gathered in Castlefield: "Nationally we have had 750,000 on strike today to defend not just our pensions but our jobs and the services we deliver and we are proud to deliver.

All Images: © Stillshooter - 2011