“People are going to realise what public services really are today,” announced Alix Brodie-Wray at the University of Brighton.
The research office worker reflected that there’s a tendency to think public services are made up of “people in suits, but today they’ll see who we all are.”
Alix had never been a union member, but she decided to join UNISON about a year ago and now she thinks that are “a lot of threats at the moment, so it’s a good idea for me to have representation for the things that are coming.”
The university had picket lines organised for all the entrances to its many different sites, but when the student union advised students not to go in on the day of action, the decision was taken to close the whole university.
But Alix still turned out with her UNISON flag at 8am to give a public show of support for the strike.
“It seems like the right thing to do, and it’s good to be doing something. I’m happy to talk to members of the public about it because it’s easy to explain – basically, it’s wrong what they’re proposing,” she said.
And knowing that she’s part of the biggest strike since the 1930s gives her and her colleagues even more encouragement.
Fellow research office worker Simon Heath commented: “I couldn’t live with myself if I did nothing. I’ve never been a member of a trade union before, but now I think that you’ve just got to do what you can, and then hope that it has some effect.”
Branch secretary Carole Hanson observed that new members have been flocking to the union and she put a recent surge down to yesterday’s autumn statement.
“It’s such an ideological attack. It’s becoming clear that they just hate us. They’ve got no time for anything that can’t turn a profit,” she commented.
So do these staff feel optimistic that their action can protect their pensions? “I hope it will, but this feels like the beginning of an ongoing thing,” responded Alix, as she broke off to wave her flag and smile at a van full of waving police officers driving past.