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AUT, said: The largest Civil Service strike month. 100,000 civil servants went on strike. More ballots are underway and it looks likely that thousands more will take strike action. There is no doubt that the action is popular with civil servants. Their union, the PCS, gained 5000 new members in the weeks before the strike took place.
Talking about the strike by university staff Sue Blackwell, press officer of Birmingham
"Industrial action tends to polarise people. We have had a handful of resignations, but at least twice as many new members. And I have been astounded at the enthusiasm with which members have volunteered for picket duty. "People I have never heard of, let alone seen in a union meeting, are keen to stand in the cold and argue with their colleagues that they should not come in to work!"
University staff and the civil servants were striking over very similar issues.
Both have seen their jobs slide down the pay league. Privatisation, performance related pay and Treasury con. trol of pay awards have been real kicks in the teeth to trade unionists.
Across the public sector union members have to make sure that their campaigns for decent pay awards continue. Fighting unions gain members: the figures from unions as different as the RMT, the AUT and the PCS show that when they fight, people join them. Let's keep on fighting!