What do you do when you are working for an institution that does not recognise how indispensable you are to its success? You go on strike and give them a rude awakening.

This is the answer that hundreds of Cambridge University workers belonging to the union Unite have decided to give, going on strike in April and continuing through to May. They have certainly shown how important they are, with the University’s Fitzwilliam Museum and Whipple Museum having to close, and the University Library being forced into reduced service.

Students should not see these strikes as just background noise as they walk past picket lines on their way to lectures. Right now, the staff who work so hard to make our experience here so brilliant – from the ever-helpful library staff to the cleaners who pull our kitchens back from the brink – are fighting for their right to a decent living. Nothing will boost the workers’ morale more than knowing that the students they assist every day support their struggle. This is why I am writing this, to show just how much is at stake for these workers and why we the students need to back them.

“Students should not think that workers have decided to opt for the most disruptive method possible for the sake of it”

It becomes clear why these strikes are so needed by just looking at how expensive it is to live in Cambridge today. The University’s offer of a 1.4% pay rise simply is not enough to ensure that many of our staff are even able to continue to live in the city. In fact, 1.4% would be a real-terms pay cut. So, unless a significantly improved deal is offered, it may not be long until staff will simply have to leave their jobs as they move out to more affordable parts of the country, leaving Cambridge University with shortages to fill.

This is not an inevitable problem either. A university as rich as Cambridge should be able to find the money to give its support workers enough to afford the decent living they deserve. Oxford University has already shown how it can be done, introducing a weighting of £1,500 per year for its staff in 2024 and increasing it to £1,730 in 2025. It is about time Cambridge followed their lead and showed the same commitment to making sure that our workers can afford the decent living they deserve.

“We can all do our bit, even if it is as small as saying hi to staff on the picket line and giving your support”

Students also should not think that workers have decided to opt for the most disruptive method possible for the sake of it. Often in the UK, we mistakenly assume that going on strike is the automatic go-to of unions when they face confrontation. But this ignores all the effort that goes into negotiating beforehand. After all, workers are not paid for days when they go on strike. Industrial action is therefore the last resort, and the fact that workers’ fight for fair pay has gotten to this stage is more proof of the University’s dangerous stubbornness than Unite being disruptively trigger happy.

So what are students’ roles in all this? As with most industrial action that occurs in the education sector, there is the risk that opponents of the strike will use student welfare as an emotive weapon to undermine workers. Strikers may be framed as unjustly disrupting the lives of innocent students by putting a strain on library services or other means. This is why student support for the strikes is so important for stopping attempts to delegitimise the fight of workers for the right to a good living.

Fortunately, key elements of the Cambridge student community have already shown their support. The Cambridge Student Union has declared their support for striking workers and has committed to continuing to push the University to do better for its workers and to cooperate with Unite. We have also seen visible support from students. I was proud to stand with fellow members of the Cambridge Labour Club and other students on May Day as we joined staff for a rally on King’s Parade. But we can all do our bit, even if it is as small as saying hi to staff on the picket line and giving your support instead of walking past them as if they are not there.

These workers are the blood that keeps this University alive. Now, it is up to us to give something back and stand with them in their time of need.