‘What do we want? Fair Pay!’ ‘When do we want it? Now!’ chanted a mass picket of over 150 PCS strikers outside the British Library near St Pancras station yesterday.
PCS rep Michael Connolly told News Line: ‘Today is a very well attended and noisy finale to a solid fortnight of strike action.
‘We look forward to sitting down with management next week to demand fair pay for everyone.
‘We’ve come together in solidarity after being so fed up with low pay.
‘Some of our members have to use food banks and some are doing more than their one job to keep up with the cost of living.
‘Instead of doing two jobs or going to food banks, some members are on benefits, universal credit.
‘The Labour Party is selling out the working class – it always has been.
‘I’d support a general strike. There was a call this morning for workers across the civil service and public sector to come out on strike together.
‘This came from several PCS members in the civil service who visited the picket line.
‘We want national bargaining for pay.’
PCS member Oladipo Olaposi said: ‘I’m striking because for two years now the government has approved a 5% pay increase for public sector workers.
The library only offered us 2.4%. The PCS negotiated with Library management and agreed to take 2.4% for one year.
‘But this year, the library is still only offering 2.4%. All this time the management and CEO were giving themselves bonuses and telling members because of the cyberattack which cost them a lot of money, we can’t have a better pay rise.
‘Our details were stolen, there were losses on both sides.
‘But we have to have decent pay. The government should support the library to overcome the problem.
‘We’ve been struggling for two years now. People have called for an all civil service strike – I’d support that.’
