MUCH of the local newspaper coverage of the strike of October 31, 2013, and of the forthcoming strike due on December 3 puts an emphasis on the role in the strike of the lecturers and of their Union, the UCU. Typically this emphasis takes shape in the quoting of a UCU representative, with little or no input by a representative from Unison or Unite.

This reporting doesn’t really reflect that the strike is as much about the University’s administrative and support staff – including many of the lowest-paid workers in the University – as it is about the academic staff. We are talking here about workers including maintenance staff, cleaning staff and porters.

The Unison branch here in Oxford is in touch with the Oxford Mail, but unfortunately the resulting coverage seems not to carry so much the case we are making, nor indeed the case Unite is making.

We are most keen to maintain the show of unity between the three unions, and we hope that the Oxford Mail can more fully reflect that the strike is being conducted equally by all three unions. No one union has more of an interest in this strike action than either of the other two.

JONATHAN RILEY, Communications Officer, Unison Oxford University and Colleges Branch, Oxford