Vote Marion Lloyd for president and for a fighting leadership on the NEC and groups
Members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) are voting in national and group elections.
Socialist Party member Marion Lloyd and supporters of the PCS Broad Left Network (BLN), in which the Socialist Party participates, are standing alongside a range of activists from across the union, campaigning to change PCS into a fighting, democratic union.
Members will already have received ballot papers for the national PCS president and National Executive Committee (NEC) elections. These need to be posted by 7 May at the latest, to ensure they are counted by the closing date of 9 May.
Vote for Marion Lloyd for national president, and a full list of candidates standing for change on the NEC.
See socialistparty.org.uk/PCScandidates2024 and read ‘PCS elections: Choose a fighting democratic union’ at socialistparty.org.uk for more about the national elections.
Group Executive Committee elections open on 25 April via email. The BLN supports full slates of candidates in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Revenue and Customs (HMRC) Groups.
DWP: Low pay and staff shortages
PCS member in DWP
DWP staff are on the frontline after 14 years of austerity. Our wages are worth around two-thirds of what they were 13 years ago, our lowest grades are on minimum wage, and an increasing number of staff have to claim the benefits they administer in order to pay their rent.
We are 30,000 people understaffed, meaning every staff member needs to do the work of 1.25 people. Jobcentre staff regularly see 100 claimants each per week. Telephony workers take call after call and admin staff are drowning in backlogs, meaning we bear the brunt of anger and despair of claimants at a benefits system which seldom gives enough to even scrape by on.
In this horrific climate, our union needs a strong, determined, serious leadership at both national and group level. The current leadership is not up to the task. We need to elect the candidates supported by the Broad Left Network for a fighting, democratic union.
Last year, in the pay battle, on receipt of a one-off non-consolidated £1,500 from the Tories, the Left Unity-led national leadership cancelled strikes, cancelled reballots, and cancelled the union’s strike levy which funded targeted strike action. They did nothing to move forward the national campaign from September to February, while members suffered inflation and overwork. They did all this after telling members to “vote yes to continue the campaign”.
Staffing
On staffing, they waited nearly two years after agreement at PCS conference to launch a campaign, which consisted of a dossier about the effects of understaffing, and a members’ meeting where they put forward no proposals. BLN supporters put forward a motion to the DWP Group Executive Committee (GEC) with a plan to take the first steps of a serious campaign, but the Left Unity leadership of the GEC refused to hear it.
When the GMB union balloted security guards in DWP offices, BLN members put forward a motion to extend solidarity to these workers and to place demands on DWP to keep our members safe in the event of guard strikes. Again, it was not heard at the GEC.
This DWP and national leadership have let us down. We need change!
DWP election – Presidential candidate kept off ballot paper
Statement by the Broad Left Network
Bev Laidlaw, standing for DWP president, has been excluded from the Group Executive Committee ballot paper.
Supported by both the BLN and Independent Left, and part of the slate of candidates standing to transform PCS into a fighting union, she has challenged this decision.
But in the absence of any proper procedure, and true to the undemocratic nature of the current leadership, her appeal has been denied. The current leadership remain determined to ensure that their candidate is elected unopposed.
It is now crucial that everyone of us who wants change in our union, who is serious about winning on pay and wants democratic, accountable leaders, redoubles our efforts to vote for and campaign for the ‘change’ candidates in both our Group elections and the national elections.
Please vote for these BLN-supported candidates in the DWP election
Group Vice Presidents:
Heemskerk, Rachel; Menezes-Jackson, Vijay; Williams, Katrine
Group Assistant Secretaries:
Brown, Ian; Fearn, Jill; Lawton, Reece; Marks, Chris; Power, Declan; Thompson, George; Tweedale Saorsa-Amatheia
Group Treasurer:
Scott, Emma
Group Organiser:
Greb, Michele
Group Journal Editor:
Thomas, Sarah
GEC Members:
Brown, Ian; Fearn, Jill; Hamer, Peter; Heemskerk, Rachel; Ilesanmi, Yemisi; Jouanny, Steve; Lawton, Reece; Loy, Alan; Marks, Chris; Menezes-Jackson, Vijay; Pollard, Jenny; Power, Declan; Thompson, George; Toomer, Catherine; Williams, Katrine
HMRC: Poor pay, annualised hours and attacks on flexible working
PCS member in HMRC
HMRC knows our pay is poor. Prices have risen but civil service pay has stagnated. The 2023-24 ‘offer’ for HMRC members was a pro-rata payment of £1,500 and a pay rise for some of just 4.26% – often not even consolidated. Even the lower CPI measure of inflation for June 2023 was still running at 6.4%, from a peak in October 2022 of 11.1%.
Every AA and AO grade worker – making up more than a quarter of HMRC staff – is on minimum wage. The AO grade is now a revolving door as people look to other employment, such as supermarkets, for better pay. Many HMRC members now choose retirement at 60 because pensions are going up faster than pay. The situation is unsustainable: no wonder HMRC’s performance is falling.
Yet the HMRC management response to this crisis has been risible. They have introduced annualised hours, with a pittance for giving up hard-won terms. They have invited staff to sell their annual leave to balance household budgets. They are forcing staff into workplaces more frequently, with the associated commuting costs.
We can’t afford HMRC’s ‘offers’.
The current PCS union leadership has failed to deliver for HMRC members. When the Tory government conceded to the one-off payment of £1,500, the current PCS leadership blinked and cancelled all action. Members in HMRC still had a live ballot mandate. A small win was the time to press for more. We’ve lost months of momentum due to their approach.
With so much at stake, HMRC members need a PCS leadership that has confidence in members to fight, a strategy to win, and the commitment to lead the fightback. It’s time for change.
Socialist Party members in the Broad Left Network are standing with other socialists to provide the leadership that PCS HMRC Group members need. Please vote for Marion Lloyd for PCS national president and BLN-supported candidates for the NEC, and for the BLN-supported candidates standing for HMRC Group Executive Committee.
Please vote for these BLN-supported candidates in the HMRC election
Group President:
Wesley, Hector
Deputy President:
Dever, Tracy
Treasurer:
O’Donnell, Andy
Deputy Group Secretary:
Davidson, John
Assistant Group Secretaries:
Benton, Linda; Criddle, Gemma; Dever, Tracy; Smith, Adam; Smith, John; Virtue, John; Young, Bobby
GEC members:
Benton, Linda; McCleary, Fiona; Crumpton, Tim; Davies, Jaime; Doyle, Nick; Hansford, Dave; Ismail, Amjad; Lynch, John; Mellis, Martyn ; Mort, Cerys ; Paul, Robin; Poole, Heather; Price, Darren; Rosser, Jon-Paul; Stratful, Jane; Watts, Gill; Virtue, John; Young, Bobby
Heathrow Border Force strike
More than 300 PCS members working for Border Force at Heathrow airport will be taking four days of strike action from 29 April to 2 May.
The action is against plans to introduce new rosters that would see 250 forced out of their jobs at passport control.
Marion Lloyd and Broad Left Network supporters stand in solidarity with these workers.
