PCS Broad Left Network members

On 28 April, the civil service union PCS will take its third day of national strike action since we won our mandate on 7 November 2022.

The Treasury only funded a 2% pay rise for 2022-23. Some employers may have topped this up, but even with this, we have had a sharp pay cut this year. This follows on from the pay freeze in 2021-22. We want the union’s demand for 10%, and we want an inflation-proof pay rise for 2023-24.

Tory anti-union laws require a reballot, which opened on 20 March. Vote ‘yes’ to halt civil service pay cuts, to defend our pensions, and fight to save jobs and services.

The national action on 1 February and 15 March was extremely well supported across the union. While of course we welcome the calling of the 28 April strike, it is not sufficient on its own and should be part of a real fighting strategy with a programme of escalated action. Further, PCS should be discussing with other unions with live strike mandates, such as the NEU, to coordinate with them, as it did on 1 February and 15 March.

But the current Left Unity leadership – standing in the upcoming national elections in the ‘Democracy Alliance’ along with the PCS Democrats – has gone all-in on a strategy of selective, targeted action. Small parts of the union’s membership are asked to take long periods of strike action, and paid strike pay, in the hope of maximising disruption to the government.

This has not been enough to shift the government. We can do better than scraps from the Tory table. We need a national executive that fights with a serious national strategy.

The Broad Left Network (BLN) has, from the beginning, demanded national strike action, where all members strike together, and for the union’s campaign funds to be used in support of members who cannot afford to strike, in addition to targeted action.

We have also argued for a ballot to enable the union to call action short of strikes, for example an overtime ban, to support and maximise the effectiveness of strikes.

Vote ‘yes’ in the reballot, then vote for a leadership that can win the campaign.

The BLN is standing on a joint slate with the Independent Left group.

Vote Marion Lloyd for PCS President.

The full list of BLN NEC candidates can be seen here:  ‘Unified left to fight PCS national elections’