His Tory shadow, Alan Duncan, accuses the Unite union that called the four-day stoppage of being "utterly irresponsible".
A study by Stephen S. Cohen, a professor at the University of California, estimated that a five-day work stoppage would cost the nation's economy $4.7 billion and that the cost of a 20-day stoppage would be $48.6 billion.
The strike -- which comes after a two-day stoppage last week, the first national strike by firefighters in 25 years -- promised to spread chaos among three million subway commuters in London as 19 of 275 stations closed on safety grounds.
Riot police clashed with striking workers (video) from Spain's Iberia airline on Monday as they began a five-day stoppage in protest at plans to sack a fifth of the workforce in a country struggling with 26% unemployment.
For all the genuine anger of public servants about their pensions, we are talking a one-day stoppage as opposed to the sort of open-ended action that used to paralyse whole sectors for months at a time.
Members of the Public and Commercial Services union will stage a 24-hour national walkout following a two-day stoppage earlier this month, which is set to disrupt courts, jobcentres, benefit offices, driving test centres, prisons and ports.
A brief boycott of The Los Angeles Times in April resulted in the one-day stoppage of 1,200 deliveries, according to Martha Goldstein, a spokeswoman for the newspaper.
The Office of Personnel Management estimated that a one-day stoppage in Washington alone would cost about $66 million, though officials said the observance for Mr. Reagan was apt to cost less because the State, Defense and Justice Departments and others associated with national security would remain open.
Some 3,900 workers took part in a one-day stoppage in Berlin and Brandenberg on May 13th.
For days, even as talks went on, Chicago had been bracing for the possibility of a teachers strike — the first since a 19-day stoppage in 1987.
He is head of chambers at Three Raymond Buildings, a set which participated in the last half-day stoppage in January.
