Defiant strikers at Soas in central London on Monday (Picture: Jess Walsh)
Thousands of workers in higher education continued their rolling wave of strikes against rubbish pay this week.
Unison union members—IT staff, librarians, security guards and others—are striking on a range of dates at 16 institutions across England and Scotland.
They are battling an insulting 3 percent pay offer put forward by the University and Colleges Employers Association in May.
Workers are pushing for a wage increase of 2 percent above inflation.
Sandy Nicol is Unison branch secretary at Soas in central London. He spoke to Socialist Worker in a personal capacity and said, “The strikes are strongly supported. There’s anger there because of what people are facing, as a sector we’re really up against it”.
Workers have timed action to hit “welcome weeks” at universities.
At Soas workers defied attempts to hound them off the campus. Ahead of the strike bosses said workers weren’t allowed to picket on the university campus and eight private security guards patrolled the area where strikers normally gather.
However, some 30 people gathered for an early morning picket with students joining in leafletting and putting up posters. They were also banners from local UCU and Unison branches. At lunchtime on Monday, people defied bosses’ attempts to stop them picketing and rallied in support of strikers.
“Soas has always had an activist tradition,” said Sandy. “But in February students were physically evicted from an occupation, which hasn’t happened before. They’re trying to create a new normal. We have to oppose such a shift.”
Sarah Bates
Refuse workers in Newham, east London, aren’t backing down in their pay fight.
Some 130 Unite union members at the Labour-run council are battling an offer worth just £950 a year. Last week, a workers’ gate meeting voted overwhelmingly to keep up strikes and agreed an “escalation plan”.
Strikers travelled into central London to lobby the Local Government Association and City Hall. And they have begun to lobby councillors’ surgeries.
A striker told Socialist Worker, “We are still active still fighting, we’re not giving up.”
Miriam Scharf
The family of Chris Kaba have said they will not “let up” on their campaign for justice after viewing footage from the night he was shot dead by police.
The unarmed father‑to-be was stopped in south London by armed officers and suffered a fatal bullet wound to the head.
No gun was found in the vehicle the 24 year old was driving on 5 September and a homicide investigation has been launched after pressure from protesters and the family.
The family demanded to see the police bodycam footage from the evening he was stopped which they did last week.
Chris’s cousin, Jefferson Bosela said the family are still prepared to protest in their quest for answers.
He said, “There is no let up in the campaign and in our demands for justice—we are pushing for the legal process to move at full steam ahead.
“If that legal process is unduly delayed or key demands for information are being ignored the family will surely ask others to join them in non-violent protest to say it loud— ‘no justice, no peace’.”
The family also released a statement responding to “media speculation” about Chris’s alleged criminal record. “It is extremely distressing to read offensive media allegations about Chris’s past,” Jefferson said.
“We can’t see how they are relevant to the police’s decision to shoot Chris dead.”
Simon Basketter
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