Bristol Socialist Party members
Workers’ growing impatience with real-terms pay cuts and poor terms and conditions were shown in Bristol as three separate strikes took place. Socialist Party members and Bristol Trades Council delegates visited the pickets to offer support and solidarity.
National Education Union (NEU) members were on their second week of action at Learning Partnership West, a privately run school that takes children who’ve been excluded from mainstream education. Their demands include union recognition, parity of terms and conditions between staff, and opposition to unsafe and unsuitable premises which have no outside green space.
A majority of striking classroom teachers and support staff were on the picket line. Several expressed their frustration that they’d been forced into taking action by an intransigent management. The workers didn’t want to impact their pupils, but were clear that winning their demands would be in the interests of staff and students alike.
NEU members were also out at Hanham Woods school, an academy. A dedicated group of workers who, when management didn’t implement what was agreed after strikes in September, reballoted and took to the picket line again.
60 housing workers in Unite, working for Green-LibDem Bristol City Council, also took to the picket lines, striking against a proposed move away from the nationally negotiated ‘red book’ and onto an inferior set of terms and conditions.
One rep explained how winning the union’s claim would benefit all the workers there but especially those on the lowest pay, and that solidarity from across the workforce is their strongest weapon. A practical example of that was shown when strikers managed to convince workers from the Bristol Waste Company not to cross their picket line.
More strikes may be the music of the future as workers continue to suffer a cost-of-living crisis. The National Shop Stewards Network conference, bringing together rank-and-file activists from several unions, will be an important part of preparing the movement for the struggles of the future and there was a lot of interest in attending from across the Bristol strikes.
