None of the council or government buildings were closed today, but all were running with drastically reduced staff and most had pickets outside.

There were pickets outside Henshaw House (local council offices) near the bus station, Oldham County Court, the council car park at Queen Elizabeth Hall, and the central library. The county court stayed open, as it has done during previous industrial disputes, because the judges had turned up to run hearings. Also the security staff and court ushers, although they are members of PCS, are not in a public pension scheme as they are employed by Mitie, a private company.

At the job centre, the person on the desk told me that 120 out of 150 staff were on strike. Like the county court, their security staff are employed by a private company, in this case G4S, so they were not taking part in the strike.

At the library, only the management had turned in. All the ordinary staff, members of GMB, were on strike.

Longer report and more pictures at www.owlsotherblog.blogspot.com