Day 5: All the Weather for International Solidarity Day

We had a great turnout for Day Five, which we marked as International Solidarity Day. There were some fabulous banners and placards, and we made the most of a few delightfully sunny moments to assemble for a round of invigorating chants:

We had an inspiring teachout – “Patients Not Passports” – on the history of migrant charges in the NHS and the ongoing battle against point-of-care charges (and indeed, “built-in” immigrant charges).

Many thanks to Laura Schwartz and Roberta Bivins (History) for providing some useful and interesting context as well as clear actions we can take to support a truly free and universal NHS.

We also benefited from an excellent teachout on multilingualism from Richard Smith and Carolin Debray, colleagues in Applied Linguistics, in which the impressive range of languages spoken by UCU members was on display.

Finally, many thanks to Film and Television Studies for adopting today’s picket, and for bringing along morale-boosting small comrades (with two legs and four):

We’re back at work Thursday and Friday, but don’t forget to keep those warm clothes ready for a four-day walkout next week, starting with a 10am-1pm picket on Monday.

Solidarity forever!

Day 3: Listen to that wind…!

 

The weather wasn’t our friend last week and it wasn’t today! We really put the tent and our brand-new PA system through their paces when a particularly anti-union gust caused a little chaos. Still, we had a solid and energetic crowd of picketers and supporters (as always, it’s so wonderful to see students out on the line asking questions and showing solidarity).  Special thanks to Hispanic and French Studies for holding down the fort, and to Carrie Benjamin for emcee’ing the Social Strike Game.

Day 3 Pickets

Braving the wind and rain, a hardy group returns from the roundabout for some feel-good chanting:

Day 3 Pickets action

And Warwick was proudly represented at the UCEA negotiation picket too! Hope you folks were drier than we were:

Warwick UCU in London

See you all on the line tomorrow. We’re picketing car parks from 8-10 and reuniting at the Interchange from 10-11. Meet up at the Interchange at 8 before we head out to various locations. Dress warmly and bring all your positive energy to help get colleagues to join the strike.

Solidarity forever!