In Kirklees, West Yorkshire, which has the highest-density of union membership in England, turn-out has far exceeded the expectations of Unison branch leaders.
Huddersfield is “like a ghost town”, according to people on the ground, with 80 schools closed plus libraries and other public buildings – as reported in the
Huddersfield Daily Examiner.
Members feel bitter and aggrieved at low pay increases and inconsistency of equal pay claims to the extent that even care home workers and domiciliary care staff who have been declared exempt from industrial action are still striking.
Even though that may have meant putting vulnerable people at risk, the 9,500 branch members, including 2,000 social care staff, simply decided enough was enough.
“I’ve never seen a strike with so much support from the members,” said Paul Holmes, secretary of the Unison branch in Kirklees.
“There is a bitter feeling on the picket lines today. People are suffering, and even the care workers who have been asked to stay and work have gone on strike. Ten years ago they would have said ‘I don’t care what the union’s doing, I’m going to look after the service users’.
“But people feel so badly treated that they’re not listening to well-paid managers who say they shouldn’t go on strike because they’re leaving vulnerable people in the lurch. That argument doesn’t wash any more.
“For example we have had 200 more home care staff joining us in the last five years. They are among the third of our members who are paid less than £6.50 an hour, and they’re being hit hard by the rising cost of food, petrol and mortgages.”