‘We have to stay and fight!’
Unite strikers at Forest School in London were out again this week (2-6 November) after management refused to engage in discussion to scrap the 13.5% attack on workers’ pay. This is the start of two weeks of action following a previous week by low-paid cleaning and catering staff at the £10,000 per term, per student, fee-paying school.
Tessa Warrington spoke to the strikers:
“The main thing is that we’re not asking for more money. We are just fighting to keep what we have. Most of us couldn’t survive losing £3-400 from our monthly wages. It’s outrageous.
“The warden (the head of the school) is making us out to be greedy and acting to the parents as though the strikers are intimidating their kids. This is a woman who earns £300,000 a year! The truth is that management are the ones intimidating us. Some of our members have gone back to work because they have been scared into thinking they could lose their jobs.
“I’ve been looking for other work myself but there’s hardly anything out there. That’s why we have to fight and win here, and why our colleagues should come back out and join us! A few of the teachers have said that they support us – they went out on strike a few years ago over their pensions. I think they feel intimidated by the warden as well.
“The school is trying to find ways to keep us fearful and divided, but we’re not about to give in to bullying. And the kids are so supportive. They smile as they pass the picket line on their way into school and chant ‘Unite! Unite! We stand up and we fight!’”
The strike fund is now live online for anyone who wants to support this important dispute. An injury to one is an injury to all, working-class unity is the way to fight back.
- Donate to the strike fund: UNITE 1/1228 Branch; 60−83−01, 33207980; Reference: ‘Forest School’
- Messages of support should be sent to kevin.parslow@unitetheunion.org
