Why We’re Going On Strike


Mark Serwotka, PSC General SecretaryON
5 November, thousands of civil servants in the PCS union will be striking
against Blair and Brown’s plans to cut over 100,000 jobs and in defence of
pensions and sick pay.
Announcing the strike ballot result Mark Serwotka, PCS general
secretary said:

"Members have voted to take a stand for public services. It is a
stand which says they won’t tolerate the government’s slash and burn
approach to public services, services that everybody relies on from
cradle to the grave.

"The people going on strike on 5 November aren’t faceless
bureaucrats, but people providing essential services that are
consistently taken for granted. They are people who face massive
uncertainty about their jobs and the prospect of having to work five
more years to receive their pension.

"When the government and Tories are engaged in a bidding war of
who can cut the most, Britain’s civil servants will be saying on 5
November that you can’t embark along the path of crude cuts without it
damaging services.

"We welcome the fact that the government is beginning to talk.
However, we still need to sit down and talk about how we can improve
public services without the threat of compulsory redundancies,
compulsory transfers and such arbitrary job cuts. It is time the
government realised that decent public services need people to deliver
them and we urge them to think again."

It is clear that the government is testing the water with the civil
servants for a wholesale assault to dismantle the public sector and
privatise services. That’s why workers in the public and private sector
should stand shoulder to shoulder with striking civil servants.

  • Support the civil servants strike on 5 November
  • For a one-day public strike in defence of jobs, pensions and
    public services.

Ballot results

113,087 votes cast

72,780 voted ‘yes’ (65%)

40,142 voted ‘no’ (35%)

Turnout 42%.


Defend Vital Services

WHO’S GOING to make sure our children are educated in a properly
funded, accountable, quality education system when 31% of those men and
women in the Department of Education and Skills (DfES) responsible for
delivering the education agenda are being cut?

That’s the question posed by Marion Lloyd, Group Vice-President in
the DfES for the Public and Commercial Services Union
(PCS).

Marion Lloyd, Group Vice-President in the DfES for the Public and Commercial Services UnionThe
PCS have consistently pointed out that the Labour government’s "slash
and burn" attitude towards civil servants, where they aim to cut more
than 100,000 civil service jobs, will impede its ability to deliver its
national agenda.

The Tomlinson Reforms puts forward a huge agenda for reform requiring
skilled civil service workers in the DfES to do the job they are trained
to do. Apparently, the Department will publish a White Paper in January,
exploring the proposals’ viability and the steps to be taken in the short
and long term.

Marion said:

"Tomlinson and the government might want to radically overhaul
the curriculum and qualification system for 14 to 19 year olds but this
is a massive piece of work done by the very people that the government
are determined to axe.

"Education is allegedly at the top of their agenda and civil
servants are vital to delivering that agenda. It makes you wonder who’s
going to develop any White Paper when they propose to cut us by a
massive 31%.

"The government should reconsider their proposals and properly
resource our department to allow us to do the job we’re employed to
do."


BRAVO PCS! Teachers are with you in fighting to keep your vitally
important jobs. Reject any suggestion (as in the Gershon Review) that
displaced civil servants could take up teacher assistant jobs – and be
used to undermine teachers’ jobs!

Linda Taaffe, National Union of Teachers (NUT) NEC (personal
capacity)

CIVIL SERVANTS have already received messages of support from the
Fire Brigades Union whose members recently fought against attacks on their
own working conditions and the services they provide.