Rally in Westminster Central Hall from 2pm
Speakers included
- Sally Hunt UCU General Secretary
- John McDonnell MP (Shadow Chancellor)
- Angela Rayner MP (Shadow Secretary of State for Education)
- Gordon Marsden MP (Shadow Minister for HE, FE and Skills)
- Frances O’Grady TUC General Secretary
- Sean Wallis UCU NEC and convenor of HE Convention
- Shakira Martin NUS President
- Elisa Benn Grenfell College campaign
- Jo Galloway UNISON Head of HE, London
- Chris Williamson MP
- Ian Hodson BFAWU President
- Kevin Courtney NEU General Secretary
- Khadeja Ali City & Islington HPL
- Nadia Sayed QMW student, Stand Up to Racism
- Sean Vernell UCU NEC, FE national negotiator
- …and many striking workers from across the union
Education is under a massive attack. Tuition fees for university have gone through the roof and colleges are in frantic competition with each other to recruit students.
Now the employers want to wreck the pensions of Higher Education staff. Workers ranging from senior academics to postgraduate teaching assistants have begun a programme of an initial 14 days of strike action, closing 61 universities across the UK. We have seen massive pickets on our campuses, and the overwhelming support of students.
This demonstration and rally took place on the last day in the first wave of the university pension strikes.
16 colleges of Further Education were on strike in London on the same day in defence of their pay and conditions. This was their first day of a two days of strike as part of an escalating strike campaign. Further Education has lost 15,000 jobs, one million adult education places and lecturers have seen their wages cut by 21% since 2009.
We welcome delegations and support from outside London and from across the student and trade union movement. You can get in touch by email or by leaving a comment on our website.
A delegation from UCU’s sister trade union in Germany are coming over especially to join us. If you care about the future of education and scientific research in the UK, join us too.
Demo route
UCU London Region 