Seconds out - Round two

Day two of strike action today and if management thought support would wane hopefully they got a shock. Better attended than the first picket everyone I spoke to was upbeat about our prospects. We had had a renewed offer from management yesterday but the advice from the EiS branch committee was that, while it recognised someof the issues we had raised, it was still trying to get us to sell out essential conditions. In fact they advised that and estimated 80% of staff would be on detrimental conditions and that the increased face to face time in the offer could mean up to 50 FTE posts needing to go in an already over-stretched lecturing staff.

As I said though people were upbeat and the atmosphere was good. It was helped by the many passing drivers honking in support and even more so by the many students and support staff colleagues giving vocal messages of support along with food and hot drinks for those on the picket lines. Clearly a great number of them are behind us.

We have another strike day tomorrow then a week hopefully of fruitful negotiations during the february break. With luck a deal can be struck during that time, if not then after the February week we go to three days a week out, which is far from ideal but certainly everyone I spoke to was steeled for that eventuality.