FREEZING ROOMS and corridors, rubbish and filth piled up, over a hundred schools and colleges taking on NUPE.
Unlike Liverpool's council, mile across the Mersey, Wirral Tories going along with rate-capping and cuts services. Unwilling to Lake une Leachers NALGO white collar workers. the Tories tried to make £3½ million cuts in the pay and conditions of 4000 low-paid — mainly women - • workers Cleaners canteen workers were to be sacked andrehired on 1l-month contracts, with less 1-nour. WOrK Del week and no bonus payments.
would have them no holiday pay, no emolovers' national liability, would have reduced their already low pay to dole Caretakers' overtime be WCiC LU cancelled and their work loads increased to include painting, repalrs cleaning, thus putting orner workers on tne doie. Assistant caretakers were to be sacked and replaced by 'volunteer' pensioners paid a pittance out of petty cash. NUPE meeting of MOas voted overwhelmingly to strike, with 2000 education workers coming out on 28 January Within few days schools were closed and the pupils sent home. Typically the Tories thought that low-paid women workers would not stay out on But there was hardiv anv scabbing - the strike remained solid.
Ninety-five per cent of the pickets, at every school and college, were women.
As the women galnea idence, a typical comment Was. ago, striking and fighting for your job was sullic thing I read about in the papers. Now I know what it really means to trade unionist.
'But it's still different for us. We're expected to be on me picker nie ana still get the tea ready for the family. There's something wrong with By the end of the first week. LIC council collapsed and withdrew all the attacks NUPE members. But the Tories will not stand up to the government councils are doing: they Lry make cuts elsewhere NUPE are calling on the other counci manual, white collar teaching unions to join in a iomt shon cewards' com mittee of the sort that successfully defended council workers in Liverpool before callic power there. If the Tories come back for more cuts thited trade union front. facing
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closed, 40,000 pupils and students sent home. This was the price Wirral's back-woods Tories paid for