UNIVERSITY staff made trade-union history today when directly employed academics and privatised support workers took strike action together with joint picket lines.

University College London (UCL) is in dispute with academic staff who are members of the University and College Union (UCU), and with outsourced cleaners, porters and security officers, who are members of the Industrial Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) union.

The jobs of more than 300 ancillary staff have been transferred to profiteering privateers Sodexo and Axis, which have attacked wages, sick pay, holidays and working conditions.