Katrine Williams, PCS member
The civil service union PCS national strike ballot on pay and jobs has started. Ballot papers are to be returned no later than 7 November.
Socialist Party members in PCS are working flat out to get members to vote. The Tory anti-union laws require a 50% turnout, so it is vital members vote if the threshold is to be reached.
Socialist Party members are campaigning for a massive ‘yes’ vote for strike action. This would bring PCS into the field, with other unions already taking action, and those with ballots planned, and put the union in a position to win its demands on pay and jobs.
After years of government pay restrictions, PCS members’ wages, in real terms, are worth 20% less than a decade ago. With current RPI inflation at 12.3%, and the huge hike in energy prices, it is impossible to make ends meet.
The cost-of-living crisis is only part of the story of misery endured by PCS members. The Tories have announced a 91,000 cut in civil service jobs. If left unchallenged, this will decimate local services and impose intolerable work pressures on already overworked staff.
Truss’ mini-budget will provide no relief to PCS members. The Resolution Foundation ‘think tank’ says someone making £1 million will gain £52,000 a year, while someone earning around £20,000 will be £157 better off. So yet more misery for PCS members, while the cap is taken off bankers’ bonuses!
We have to fight
The inescapable fact is: if we are to get more than this year’s government-imposed pay limit of 2%, we will have to fight for it. We need all members to use their vote and to vote ‘yes’. We need the union’s leadership to implement, immediately following the ballot, a programme of action to win the union’s claim for 10% and to defeat the attack on jobs.
And we need to coordinate our action as much as possible with other unions. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) must take a lead in coordinating the fight on the cost-of-living crisis and opposing the Tories’ further anti-union strike restrictions. That’s why many PCS members will be joining the pre-TUC congress Action Summit called by the National Shop Stewards Network on Sunday 16 October.
- The National Shop Stewards Network pre-TUC congress Action Summit on Sunday 16 October in Brighton – a hybrid event – couldn’t be at a more important time. Socialist Party members will be there alongside other workers, strikers and young people, to keep the pressure up on the TUC to act. All strike together! If the Tories attempt to implement their new anti-trade union plans, they should be met with a 24-hour general strike.
We say:
- All strike together for a real pay rise! The Trades Union Congress (TUC) must step up and organise to coordinate action
- If the Tories try to implement their new anti-trade union plans, they must be met with a 24-hour general strike
- The TUC should launch an appeal to build a massive strike fund to assist those unions on the front line
- Kick out the Tories
- Starmer’s New Labour doesn’t speak for us: fight for a new working-class party
- Nationalise rail, mail, energy and utilities under democratic working-class control and management, with compensation only on the basis of proven need Take the wealth off the super-rich. For a socialist alternative to capitalism’s poverty and crisis
