Unions are planning picket lines and city centre protests as part of their general strike.

GMB and Unison were among those who held regional meetings yesterday to discuss action to support the walk-out on March 28.

Members of all nine unions taking part in the strike will march through streets demanding the Government drops plans to curb public sector pensions.

GMB and Unison, whose members account for most of the 30,000 plus workers who are planning to strike, will assemble at locations in towns across Sussex and march to town halls and other important buildings where rallies will take place.

The two unions are also planning to picket all major workplaces and as many minor ones as possible.

Locations will certainly include Brighton and Hove City Council's headquarters, King's House in Grand Avenue, Hove, and Bartholomew House in Bartholomew Square, Brighton.

Guidelines were sent out to union members yesterday advising them that, apart from pregnant women, members would only be given permission to be exempt from the strike if their absence from work was likely to put lives at risk.

Alex Knutsen, Unison's Brighton and Hove branch secretary, said Brighton and Hove and Southampton would be the places in the South-East where the strike would have the most crippling effect.

He also said Brighton and Hove trade unions had a reputation for displaying solidarity, as demonstrated in the teaching assistant dispute last year. He expected many other Sussex branches of Unison to come to the city on the day of the strike to join them.

He said: "It is essential that this strike is won.

"It will have a huge impact way beyond just the pensions issue."

The unions are angry that the Government is proposing to end a so-called 85-year rule which allows council workers to retire at 60 on a full pension if their age and years of service add up to 85 years.

Councils say that costs mean the retirement age must rise to 65 for all employees.

Unions reject this and want lifetime protection of pensions for current employees.

They say it is unfair that people who signed up to pension agreements and have been making payments for years will not be entitled to the benefits they were promised.

Civil servants, teachers, police, firefighters and health workers have all been given protection for existing members over pensions and unions are furious that local authority workers are being denied equal pension rights.

A spokesman for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) said: "The Government is committed to decent and secure pensions for local government employees.

"These must be affordable, viable and fair to taxpayers, who guarantee their security.

"Any ballot in favour of strike action is entirely a matter for the trades unions.

"ODPM wants to continue holding meetings as planned, to discuss necessary reform of local government pensions with all interests, including the unions."