UCU Strikes Back: Day 5

Today’s strike diary comes from Sally Hanford, one of our APM members in Libraries.
Rally at UP North

It’s 6am on day 5 of the strike – the alarm goes off and I think about how cold it is outside the bed – look outside to see the car covered in frost and think how many layers I’ll need to survive the four hours of picketing ahead.

Showing off the new UCU beanies.

We start at 7.30am – its cold and dark as I approach West Entrance expecting to be the first there but as usual two students are already there. These two have been at every picket at West staying from 7.30 to 11.30 despite being bitter cold. Why? They realise that future generations will suffer the consequences of inaction now. Thanks to these two for the tips for how to survive without getting frozen to the core. The hot water bottle in the backpack worked wonders today and the hot drinks provided by Unison were very welcome.  Thank you ! 

A welcome pool of sunshine.

I work in the libraries (learning technologies) supporting staff in the Faculty of Arts. It’s great to see members of the Faculty on the picket line as the morning progresses. Folk from Physics join us along with representation from elsewhere in Science. Today we’re planning a rally at North Entrance and we all move on up Derby Road thankful for the chance to get moving and warm up a bit!

Solidarity beneath the trees.

After a sing along (Solidarity Forever) and rousing speech from Matt  a bunch of us head over to Jubilee Derby Road entrance for full on musical action (with trumpet and tambourine!) where Pete, Mary, Howard, Sharon and co are doing it in style with tables of food and a fire to keep us warm. We finish with a rendition of Bella Ciao and head off to warm up and recharge our batteries for next week.

Party at Jubilee.

If you haven’t joined us yet on the picket line please do come along to your nearest uni entrance. Remember (in the words of Joe Hill)  ‘it all amounts to nothing if together we don’t stand’.

The first week draws to a close.