The festive lights of Regent Street, London were still twinkling brightly against a dark sky when the pickets arrived for duty outside the University of Westminster this morning.
Support staff from three unions – UNISON, UCU and Unite, plus the EIS in Scotland – took their second day of action against a 1% pay offer. That looks even more miserly compared to the university vice chancellor’s 2% pay award this year – on a salary that is already well over £200,000 a year.
General secretary Dave Prentis was there to greet the first pickets, listen to their concerns and offer support and thanks for what they were doing.
It was a pattern that was repeated a short hop away near the Aldwych, at one of the many sites of the London School of Economics (LSE) – and at a further LSE site.
One UNISON activist had been busy setting up a stall with plenty of materials to hand out to students and tutors, as well as to the general public, who were walking past on the way to their own workplaces, curious as to what was going on.
After photographs and the chance to talk to everyone there, it was on to busy Holborn and the University of the Arts, where those on the picket line were delighted to see Dave Prentis.
Losing a day’s pay is never easy and losing a day’s pay in December is even more difficult – but activists expressed their belief in the justice of their cause and a determination to make sure the employers understood this.
In Bloomsbury, pickets stood on duty outside a Birkbeck site – they joked dryly that they’d really rather be doing something else, but that this was vital.
For Dave, it was time to head to the TUC to chair a meeting, but for UNISON’s members across the country, a day on the picket lines was only just getting underway.