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University support staff vow to ‘keep making noise’ as strike restarts
University of Bristol support staff are returning to the picket line for three days of strikes.
Undeterred by April showers, scores of strikers huddled together at the Wills Memorial Building on Tuesday.
Adding to five days of picketing held in February and March, employees are walking out to protest against a 1.4 per cent pay offer.
Aniqah Rawat is on strike over pay and working conditions – photo: Sam McEvans
Aniqah Rawat, a 28-year-old assistant accountant, said: “I’m on strike because I don’t want to have to be stressed about keeping a roof over my head. My pay should allow me to afford to live in this beautiful city.
“We are the people that make this place work and deserve to be recognised. We’ll keep making noise until they decide to come out and talk to us.”
Striking support staff at the University of Bristol gathered outside the Wills Memorial Building – photo: Sam McEvans
Unison says the offer is a real-terms pay cut of 3.4 per cent, factoring in an inflation rate of 4.8 per cent from July 2025.
Ninety-five per cent of union members voted to reject the offer, set for 2025-2026 by the Universities & Colleges Employers Association (UCEA).
The trade union says that staff salaries have fallen behind the cost of living over the past decade, with no pay award matching inflation since 2008.
In Bristol, private rents rose to an average of £1,891 in February 2026, an annual increase of 7.4 per cent – according to the Office for National Statistics.
Multiple picketers told Bristol24/7 that this is making it increasingly difficult for their colleagues to live and work in the city.
Nathan Street wants to see a Bristol pay weighting – photo: Sam McEvans
Nathan Street, a research integrity officer, said that factors like housing costs are making staff “poorer in real terms”.
The 40-year-old has worked for the university for almost a decade and says that the level of dissatisfaction and anger is at an all-time high.
He said: “We want national pay bargaining because we want the whole sector to rise up together. But at the same time, there are acute differences between cities.
“We’re also pushing for a Bristol weighting, like in Oxford. That’s also a city with very high rents and it’s an institution that Bristol aspires to be like. It’s a shame they can’t replicate those sorts of measures.”
The UCEA said that its “full and final pay offer” is restricted by the sector’s unprecedented pressures.
In a statement issued at the time of the offer, UCEA chief executive Raj Jethwa said: “In these circumstances the pay uplift clearly does not reflect the true value employers place on staff.
“However, the only prudent option open to employers, to try to protect students and staff, is this pay offer.”
Staff waving rattles at a picket line outside the Arts & Social Sciences Library on Tyndale Avenue – photo: Sam McEvans
Main photo: Sam McEvans
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