UCU MEMBERS were out on strike on Wednesday with historic numbers this week over stagnant pay, miserable working conditions and casualisation of academic work.
In the morning, UCU pickets were supported by other workers in solidarity including RMT members, Unite, National Education Union members as well as 6th form college teachers, among many others.
At the lunchtime national rally at King’s Cross speakers from trade unions included UCU president Jo Grady, ex-Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, RMT general secretary Mick Lynch and CWU general secretary Dave Ward.
Addressing the gathering Jo Grady of the UCU said: ‘After years of attacks on our pay, our pensions and our working conditions, our colleagues and during the pandemic – our students, the university bosses thought we wouldn’t have the strength to fight back. They thought we were too overwhelmed and too weak.
‘We have a message for them. Our union is stronger than it has ever been and that is because we are united like never before. It’s no surprise that our employers are threatening strike pay deductions just for participating in industrial action.
‘What they want to do is intimidate you into silence and intimidate this union to inaction and to make it impossible for workers to defend themselves and each other. We are not having it!
‘We’ve delivered historic action together; we are going to win this dispute together. We are not going to take a single step that splits this union. We are 70,000 members at the starting line, and we are going to have 70,000 members at that victory line.
‘During the last dispute our employers ignored us. Our pay and pensions are back in the room and this is because of your actions. On pay, it is being negotiated at this moment, and it is your action that will push it even further.
‘On pensions, we already have the employers agreeing with us that the cuts could be reversed. We have a pension scheme admitting things that we knew all along – that the money is there, and the cuts didn’t need to happen.
‘But we cannot take anything for granted. We cannot see the next few weeks as a break from this dispute. We must keep the pressure on. Inch by inch, conversation by conversation, meeting by meeting we do not stop until we win.’
Speaking on behalf of the 115,000 postal workers on strike along with the UCU members on Wednesday, Dave Ward from the CWU said: ‘I am bringing solidarity on behalf of the 115,000 postal workers who are literally fighting for their jobs, their terms and conditions and the service we provide to the public, like you.
‘It’s about service and that’s what our members live and breathe. Solidarity to the nurses, to the care workers, to the railway workers.
‘We’re fighting for our members but we’re also fighting for every working person in this country who is saying ‘‘enough is enough’’.
‘There’s a lot of you here who are a lot better educated than me.
‘Can you come with me, the next time, if we meet the CEO of Royal Mail Simon Thompson. Can you explain to him that the word modernisation does not mean that you sack postal workers and bring in other workers on less pay and worse terms and conditions.
‘At what point in history did that word come to mean that every single worker in this country must work harder and faster for less. You get burnt out and left out.’
Ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said, ‘The strike by the teachers is for the students’ futures, their colleges and for proper funding of education as well as decent pay.
‘Teachers deserve a special shout-out because you do a very stressful and taxing job. With an education system that over-stresses and over-tests our children from a very early age.
‘The tick-box exercises you’re forced into take away from the creativity of so much to do with teaching. It’s not just about pay, it’s about conditions of work, and it’s about the value we put on our education as a whole for every child.
‘We’re also here for the postal workers who are part and parcel of our community. They’re being disgracefully treated by Royal Mail chief executives.
‘They continue to pay these executives with telephone number salaries, monthly pay-outs to shareholders in dividends and bonuses and they say they can’t afford to give postal workers a decent pay rise.
‘Yes, they can. All it shows is the failure of privatisation of our public services. Our railway workers are now being attacked by outlets like The Daily Mail for allegedly ruining our Christmas.
‘It is our railway workers who run a comprehensive and safe railway system. They are not recognising the terrible conditions faced by those workers particularly those who clean the trains and the stations and carry our repair works.
‘We stand in support of all the workers that are demanding their rights – the nurses, the healthcare workers, the ambulance workers. Despite everything they say and all the anti-union laws they’re bringing in we’re still winning.
‘The industrial action we’re taking is for wages, better conditions, investment but it’s also for every starving child in this country, it’s also for the poor in this country, it’s also for those on disabilities and benefits struggling to get by and for those that are queuing up to underfunded food banks all across the country.
‘Our actions are about deciding what kind of society we want to live in. The real politics of our times is not reflected in the charades going on inside Westminster, the real politics is in the unions, is on the streets, is in the social movements.
‘Through our action we will change this society and give hope to young people for their future.’
President of UCU Janet Farrar addressed the rally: ‘This is the highest withdrawal of labour in higher education history. Every day that our members don’t go to work life-saving medical research doesn’t happen, books don’t get written, discoveries don’t get made. And let’s not forget our unsung heroes the librarians, our IT staff, our student support staff.
‘If the vice-chancellors didn’t show up to work today, do you think anyone would notice?
‘This dispute, as with all of the industrial action taking place at the minute are about choices – buildings over staff, vanity projects over students, and eye watering vice-chancellor salaries over quality education.’
The National Education Union whose members in sixth form colleges were also taking strike action on the same day, was represented by General Secretary Kevin Courtney who said: ‘Today, NEU members from 77 sixth form college – 4,000 teachers, strike along with the 70,000 UCU members.
‘This strike was the result of the best ballot result we’ve ever scored for any industrial action with 66% turnout and 89% in favour of the action.’
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch also spoke at the rally and said: ‘It’s great to see education workers and the others come together and stand up for each other and themselves because it’s clear now that we’re in a time where working people are ready for change.
‘It’s also clear that the agents of that change are the organised working class. We can not wait for somebody else to deliver for us.
‘We cannot wait for policy makers, professional politicians, the people who’ve brought us here in the first place to save us. We can’t wait for lobbies to work.
‘What’s going to work is a wave of industrial actions organised by the trade unions.
‘Everybody’s asking me why don’t you get affiliated with the Labour Party. The question I ask back is why are we shackled to the Labour Party. Where is the Front Bench? The Labour Party should be here with us now. But they’re not. There are no neutrals in this struggle.
‘We need change. We need to get rid of outsourcing, we need to bring back final salary pensions, we need proper terms and conditions, and we need a massive pay rise for every worker in this country. And we’re going to deliver it through continuous campaigns.
‘We need to stand up as an organised trade union movement on our own.’
Earlier in the day, at Imperial college striking UCU members were joined by 200 Unite staff who voted to reject the universities 3.3% pay offer.
Unite rep Trevor Strickland told News Line: ‘Imperial is a wealthy university and the 3.3% offer means a pay cut of over 8%.
‘The joint trade union’s proposal is costed at £31.5m yet the college has a surplus of £162m.’
Also on the picket line Fay Dowker, UCU member and Professor of Theoretical Physics said: ‘Today both UCU and Unite members are strike for all workers on the campus.
‘People can’t afford to live with household debts reaching a historic high.
‘A young colleague told me she can’t afford to heat her house and has not turned the heating on this year.
‘The cold slows brain action down, it’s not good for education.
‘I personally think we need a general strike and to stop all privatisation.’
