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Britain faced its largest labour strike in decades Wednesday, as huge numbers of public sector workers spent the day demonstrating against planned cuts to their pensions.

Labour unions said that as many as 2 million workers were expected to take part in the walkout, but the British government disputed the numbers.

"The government is saying that the strike was a bit of a flop and only a third of public sector workers took part. I'm not sure that is the case," CTV's London Bureau Chief Tom Kennedy reported Wednesday.

What is clear is that Britain's public sector workers are not happy about proposed pension reforms that would see them work longer and pay more into the system before they can retire.

"The government wants us to work longer, pay more and at the end get less. How fair is that?" asked Eleanor Smith, president of the UNISON trade union that represents about 1 million health, education and law enforcement staff.

But the government's view is that the changes are necessary, given the fact that people are living longer.

"The government is saying that the system must be reformed, public sector pensions are far too generous, people are living much longer than they were in the past," Kennedy said.

"And they point to other governments around the world, particularly here in Europe, that are literally on the verge of bankruptcy because of overspending and large deficits."

A recent government report said that the gap between the contributions made by and payouts made to British pensioners could be as high as US$14 billion within four years.

Defending the government's stance in Parliament, Prime Minister David Cameron said that "as people live longer it's only right and only fair that you should make greater contributions."

Treasury chief George Osborne has said the government cannot back down on the pension issue, and it intends to eventually raise the age for collecting pensions to 67.

"The strike is not going to achieve anything, it's not going to change anything," Osborne said.

"It is only going to make our economy weaker and potentially cost jobs."

The pension measure is part of the British government's austerity package aimed at reigning in its C$1.5 trillion debt.

Wednesday's strike came a day after the government announced that public sector pay increases will remain at 1 per cent through 2014, despite inflation rates of about 5 per cent.

Wide range of workers takes part in walkout

The workers taking part in Wednesday's walkout included border staff, teachers, hospital workers, weather forecasters, paramedics, nuclear physicists and even some of the catering staff at the House of Commons.

Reuters correspondent Stefano Ambrogi told Â鶹ӰÊÓ Channel that the workers sought to show the government how much they disagree with the proposed pension reforms.

"The goal was basically to force the government back into negotiations and to offer more concessions over pensions," Ambrogi said in a telephone interview from the city of Birmingham.

"Because they feel that over the last eight months, they haven't got that from the government and the government in effect is trying to squeeze them both in terms of pensions and in terms of wages and in terms of public-sector cuts."

Prior to Wednesday, London's Heathrow Airport warned the public that the strike could pose problems for travellers who would have to wait much longer to be processed at the border, but the resulting delays were not as bad as anticipated.

The British government said that more staff had showed up at airports than expected, and it also said that less than one-third of all civil service staff had taken part in Wednesday's walkout.

About two-thirds of the 21,700 state-run schools were closed, while health officials said some 60,000 non-urgent operations and appointments in England had been postponed in advance of the walkout. At least 3,000 operations were delayed in Scotland.

London's ambulance service was responding only to emergency calls.

"We are now under severe pressure as a result of today's industrial action, and a significant number of our patients are waiting to be sent an ambulance response," said Jason Killens, the deputy director of operations for the London Ambulance Service.

The strike also shut down bus and rail services in Northern Ireland.

London police said 75 people were arrested during the demonstrations, which they described as "a peaceful affair."

A group of protesters stormed an office in London's West End, but that incident was unrelated to the one-day strike, police said. Twenty-one protesters were arrested.

With files from The Associated Press