At yesterday’s NUT strike rally of over 10,000 people in Parliament Square, Mark Campbell was invited to bring solidarity greetings from UCU. His was the penultimate speech, just before the Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell. You can watch it here (We have had a little trouble uploading McDonnell’s speech, but will do so asap). Mark spoke to John McDonnell and reports that we have both his and Jeremy Corbyn’s full support.
We would also like to thank everyone who stood solid with us and the other 32 universities across the country that took strike action yesterday, including those UNISON colleagues who took the day off to join us on the picket line or who took part in a photo opportunity. Over the next few days strike action will also be taken by Bangor, Cumbria, University of St Mark & St John, York St John and Lancaster
As we think everyone understands, year-on-year pay cuts, increasing workloads, continuing discrimination against female members of staff and the scandal of casualisation and zero-hours contracts constitute a direct attack on students’ education and the health of the staff who teach them.
The National Union of Students passed a motion at their conference to support all industrial action taken by staff. Just prior to our strike the new SU President and two incoming sabbatical officers publicly demonstrated their support in this picture:
Here is a small selection of pictures from our own picket line:
London Met were also part of the London Region demo at the National Union of Teachers strike rally in London: