Peter Mullan supports the nursery nurses' cause

Mr Mullan outlined his support in Govan, Glasgow, along with the leader of the RMT rail union, Bob Crow.

The act of solidarity took place as trade union activists gathered for the first day of the annual Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) conference.

Scottish Socialist leader Tommy Sheridan also joined the protest.

Mr Mullan said he was "behind the nursery nurses' 100%" in their campaign for better pay and conditions.

The actor won top prize at the Venice Film Festival for The Magdalene Sisters, his controversial film about an Irish convent.

Pay settlement

He also acted in a string of classic Scottish movies including Braveheart, Trainspotting and My Name is Joe, for which he won the Best Actor award at Cannes.

Mr Crow, general secretary of the RMT, is due to address a Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) rally in Glasgow on Tuesday calling on unions to break from Labour.

The RMT split from Labour in February after the party insisted that the union's branches could not affiliate to the SSP.

Staff have been on all-out strike for seven weeks

Mr Sheridan joined Mr Mullan, Mr Crow and hundreds of nursery nurses at the Family Learning Centre in Govan on Monday morning.

The Scottish Socialists' leader said: "Peter is a socialist so it is only natural that he supports the strikers.

"The nursery nurses are fighting the scourge of low pay and battling for a national pay settlement.

"They deserve the support of everyone in Scotland and it is welcome that one of Scotland's leading directors and actors is joining the leader of Britain's biggest rail union in a display of solidarity."

Local deals

Nursery nurses have been on all-out strike in pursuit of a national deal that would take their pay from �13,800 to �18,000.

But council bosses at the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) have argued for local settlements, and 12 of the country's 32 local authorities have so far reached deals with the nurses.

Mr Sheridan added: "In this week of the STUC conference, surely it's about time for an all-Scottish demonstration in support of the nursery nurses organised by the STUC.

"After eight weeks on all-out strike it's the very least the nursery nurses should expect."

Speaking at the conference, Pat Rowland, Unison Scotland's treasurer, herself a striking nursery nurse, said 4,000 of her colleagues were eager to get back to work.