Katrine Williams, Candidate for PCS National Executive Committee, personal capacity
Alongside the election of the National Executive Committee and Group Executive Committees, additional important elections will take place in civil service union PCS from 5-14 May.
These elections are for positions which are crucial to the union’s democracy, and holding the leadership and union officialdom accountable to branches and members. These elections are by block (branch) vote and are online.
The elections are being contested by a full slate of candidates supported by the Broad Left Network (BLN) in which Socialist Party members play a leading role.
The union has three elected Member Trustees who oversee the union’s elections and finances. Socialist Party member Dave Bartlett is the BLN candidate. His election would give BLN supporters a 2:1 majority.
Democracy
There are five elected National Standing Orders Committee (NSOC) members. The NSOC prepares the annual delegate conference agenda. The Left Unity grouping, which controls the union’s leadership, currently has a 3:2 majority on this body. Winning the two positions up for election this year would give a 4:1 majority for BLN-supported committee members.
This matters because for a number of years the NSOC has been seen as too much influenced by the Left Unity leadership in drawing up the conference agenda. This was clear last year, when a number of trans rights motions opposed by Left Unity were kept off the agenda by the NSOC.
Again this year, the just-published provisional 2026 conference agenda omits a number of trans motions, and omits or marks as ‘out of order’ a number of motions which question who runs the union.
Conference delegates will challenge these undemocratic manoeuvres and Socialist Party members will play a leading role in defending union democracy at the conference.
The two BLN members currently in a minority on the NSOC have argued for a conference agenda which reflects the needs and priorities of branches and members. They support the right of the conference to debate and decide policy on all issues.
A number of other important positions are up for election, including the union’s editorial board and delegations to TUC (Trades Union Congress) conferences.
Branch secretaries will receive ballot papers by email on 5 May, to return by 12 noon 14 May.
- See ‘PCS national and group executive elections’ for the list of BLN-supported candidates for the National Executive Committee and programme they are standing on
- And see bln.org.uk for the slates for the DWP and HMRC group elections
