Strike day 1: well done on a massive show of strength, get ready for day 2

I have been visiting picket lines and talking to hundreds of members in Leeds and Chester today, and tomorrow I will be visiting Northampton. Despite the cold weather and the ongoing health and safety risks, the numbers of you on picket lines have been as high as I have ever seen - and there were plenty of supportive students there as well. This comes on the back of student unions all over the UK voting to formally support the industrial action.

I can also report that we have experienced a major spike in the number of new members joining UCU, with thousands joining since our ballot results were announced earlier this month.

In between picket line visits this morning I spoke to BBC News, Sky News and the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 (listen from 2:39:18) about the action you are taking and why it is so urgent.

On the Today programme, the comments by the vice-chancellor who spoke after me were out of touch and deeply misleading. He suggested that casually employed staff want to be on zero hours contracts and he continued to parrot Universities UK's recently debunked misinformation about the size of employers' cuts to USS pensions.

We are winning the argument in the press and with students. But industrial action isn't just about winning arguments, it's about power. Let's dig deep and make the next two days of action even harder hitting than today. The more staff withdraw their labour, the more power we have to force employers back to the negotiating table during the vacation and finally get serious offers out of them in these disputes.

To keep up with what's happening over the next two days, follow UCU on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and post your support with the hashtags #OneOfUsAllOfUs and #UCUstrike.

If your branch is on strike and you can't make it to a picket line for health and safety or any other reasons, don't forget to observe the 'digital picket' by not posting about your work on social media.

Finally, if you have colleagues who get emails to their work address and aren't checking their inbox, let them know they can find all of my email updates to members here.

Best wishes for day two.

Jo Grady
UCU general secretary