If you’re on strike this week, why not leave an out of office message that’s something like this?
“Thank you for your email. Unfortunately, I won’t be at work on Thursday, Friday and Monday because I’m a member of UNISON, taking strike action as part of a campaign for university workers to be paid properly. Our pay has fallen dramatically, and the pay rise imposed on us all in August represents a massive real-terms pay cut.
We don’t want to strike, but we can’t continue to work more for less, and our branch voted overwhelmingly in favour of taking action. Just like rail workers, postal and telecoms workers, we’re not prepared to put up with pay cuts which make us thousands of pounds worse off.
Working people at universities and elsewhere need to stick together and fight back against more austerity, and poverty for millions. We demand a properly funded education system with a properly paid workforce.
If you’re not in a union, please make sure you join one.”
Obviously, please don’t put anything rude or abusive. This is a serious campaign which respectfully but forcefully demands a better pay deal for all university workers.