Running Time: 10 min 14 secs
Over 40,000 striking workers were on the London NEU march on February 1, as university lecturers, civil servants and railworkers joined education workers on the biggest day of action so far in the growing wave of UK strike action – with more huge marches in towns and cities all over the country.
Like nurses, ambulance workers, postal workers and many more key workers currently in dispute, education workers are fighting to protect the service they provide – a service that is on the verge of collapse because of a 23% real terms pay cut since 2010 and a chronic lack of funding.
Despite their love of the job, many are being forced to leave because of the unbearable pressures they face and the lack of resources to properly educate the children they care so much about. The situation is particularly serious in working-class, multi-cultural areas like Waltham Forest in North East London, which – as you can see in the video – had huge pickets yesterday with loads of support staff joining the picket lines.
Other striking workers shared similar stories of services starved of funding and workers using food banks while the bosses rake in huge salaries. As a railworker says: “They’re coming for all of us, so we have to stand firm, stand together, and smash the Government.”
