Steve Score, Leicester Socialist Party
Support staff at Ash Field special school in Leicester have achieved a huge victory. The above-inflation deal increases pay for some of the lowest-paid classroom-based support staff by between 18% and 25%, when added to the nationally agreed increase of £1,925.
The academy had been paying significantly less than support staff in local authority schools get for doing the same job. So, Unison members took 43 days of strike action over six months, with big, energetic picket lines involving the majority of members.
Workers on the picket lines explained to the Socialist that they do a highly skilled job, but they struggle to survive on low pay. They faced all the usual arguments from management that their claim could not be afforded by the school, but their determination has proved management wrong.
