David Semple, secretary, PCS branch secretary, Wigan, personal capacity
On 1 February, 100,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, representing civil servants and workers on privatised government contracts, will be on strike. This is the first national action to be called by the union’s leadership after 126 bargaining areas beat the Tory anti-strike turnout threshold on 7 November.
PCS members have a lot to be angry about. Across the UK civil service, which answers to the Westminster government, the Cabinet Office imposed a 2% cap on pay rises, with an additional 1% available where departments could demonstrate that this addressed “specific priorities”. Some departments worked with PCS to maximise the amounts, others did not.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the largest government department, was among the most regressive in how it allocated even this amount of money.
For the year 2022-2023, senior civil servants will receive bonuses of £7,500 or more. Meanwhile, the lowest-paid grades in DWP, administrative assistants (AAs) and administrative officers (AOs), are so poorly paid that both will receive an automatic pay rise in April due to the fact that their wages will fall below the new national minimum wage, £10.42 per hour!
Anger
Tens of thousands of staff across the UK civil service have to claim a state benefit, Universal Credit, to top up their wages, so dire is the pay situation. AO grades in DWP are the workers who ensure people receive their pensions and benefits, like Universal Credit, and who answer the vast majority of telephone calls. This is a highly skilled role.
By forcing down pay to the point at which it meets the national minimum wage, the government is making a clear statement about how little it values the work these staff undertake. They are justifiably angry, all the more so because across the civil service – and not just at AO grade but at all grades – workloads have rocketed as jobs are cut.
When 100,000 civil servants take strike action on 1 February, this anger will be made manifest. Branches across the union are preparing mass pickets, they are working with the other striking unions – including the National Education Union, University and College Union, and rail unions Aslef and RMT – to organise rallies in towns and cities across the UK. Members will finally have an opportunity to hit back nationwide.
This opportunity would have come a lot sooner if the PCS National Executive Committee (NEC) had shown a bit of courage. Despite the best turnout in the union’s history, in a national strike ballot (56% voting, 86.2% voting ‘yes’), the NEC majority faction – known as PCS ‘Left Unity’ – shied away from calling national action for three months.
In place of national action, the NEC called a series of smaller, targeted actions in the Border Force, DVLA, Rural Payments Agency, Highways Agency, and across fewer than ten sites in the DWP. Targeted action, involving paid strike action over extended periods, can have a role to play in bringing the government back to the table, but it is not enough on its own.
Broad Left Network
Socialist Party members, working alongside fellow socialists in the PCS Broad Left Network (BLN), have been calling for national strike action since the ballot result was announced. The potential to unify members behind a strong campaign in which everyone had a direct role to play was an opportunity the NEC squandered.
This was one of a series of errors, including the failure to include ‘action short of strike action’ in the national ballot, as well as the bungled launch of a mandatory levy of £3 or £5 per month (depending on whether members earn more or less than £24,000 per year). Reps across PCS have been working hard to reinforce members’ belief that we can win and to fully support the levy.
To put the industrial campaign into perspective, the railway workers in the RMT have taken 19 days of unpaid national strike action, to oppose pay cuts, job losses and attacks on their working conditions. The railway companies and Network Rail have only been able to hold out because the government has pledged to cover all of their losses, a total in the hundreds of millions of pounds.
National strike action
The civil service is central to the government’s ability to run the country. Substantial action can force a retreat – but we need to prepare members for the necessary scale of action, which goes beyond isolated national action supplemented by targeted action.
An immediate, serious campaign of escalating PCS national action, rolling geographical action (where different parts of the country go out in sequence, one after the other), and targeted action all have a role to play.
Victory is possible all the quicker if those unions preparing for, or now taking, action work together. Across all of the unions, including in PCS, Socialist Party members are making the case for coordinated action – after 1 February, we are arguing for all unions with live ballots to strike together on Budget Day, 15 March – and for the preparation of a 24-hour general strike, to demonstrate the unbreakable determination of workers in this battle with the bosses.
Leadership elections
1 February will put mass coordinated strike action on the agenda but the campaign for it has to be maintained. It is vital that broad lefts are built across the trade unions to bring activists together to fight for it, and in PCS the BLN is continuing to put forward the strategy members need.
In PCS, elections to the NEC begin in April and we will be backing Broad Left Network candidates with a proven track record of campaigning.
Immediately, however, the road to serious coordinated action lies through making 1 February as big and as loud as possible.
Let the government tremble at the sound of our strike!
A message of solidarity from Marion Lloyd, chair of the BLN
“I will be out on 1 February and on the picket line. l will also be calling on the PCS leadership to escalate the action in support of our campaign for a 10% pay increase and in defence of jobs and services.
“Our national strike on 1 February has to be a stepping stone to further all-member national action – as much as is possible with other unions.
“It’s important we show the government we are serious about our pay demands. But the strikes will also send a warning to the government that we will not take lying down any attempt to impose further anti-union strike laws. We have had enough.
“The Broad Left Network, the PCS socialist rank and file group, fully supports the 1 February strike. On behalf of BLN I send a message of solidarity and support to all strikers and especially PCS members.”
Civil servant – why we’re striking: “Pay is so low we have no choice”
Katrine Williams, PCS member
27,000 members in the largest government department, the Department for Work and Pensions, are paid so badly they’ll get a pay rise when the ‘living’ wage goes up in April.
We have no choice but to unite with all workers across the public sector to fight on pay.
As well as our pay being held down, workloads and pressure are going up, as we are expected to do much more with less.
