Vote Marion Lloyd for PCS president and the team of candidates for change in the national and group elections
PCS member
Activists in the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) are campaigning in the leadership elections to change PCS into a genuinely fighting, democratic union.
Supporters of the PCS Broad Left Network (BLN), in which the Socialist Party participates, are standing alongside a wide range of activists from across the union.
Members are currently voting in a national pay ballot, the Tories have just threatened to cut 70,000 jobs, and we face a general election.
PCS conference in May should be an opportunity to plan a fightback: placing clear demands on Keir Starmer to commit now to a 10% pay rise and real steps towards pay restoration, and to end cuts and privatisation in the civil service, and gearing up for action to press for those demands.
But to achieve that, we need a fighting leadership.
The current leadership is in the hands of the ‘Democracy Alliance’, which includes the ‘Left Unity’ grouping. Their election leaflet brazenly adopts the slogan of the candidates standing against them, declaring they are “for a fighting and democratic PCS”.
But everywhere we go, members tell us they feel badly let down. We have constant conversations with members who say they are about to leave the union.
Members in smaller sectors feel that the national union isn’t interested in their issues. Reps who are victimised feel unsupported.
Many are increasingly angry at the outcome of the 2023 strikes. The leadership wasted three months after massive ‘yes’ votes before calling any national action, then when the government offered a one-off £1,500, they cancelled the strikes, reballots and strike levy. In the summer, members voted to “continue the campaign” but there’s been no campaigning since.
Vote ‘yes’ in the pay ballot and vote for a leadership that is up to the challenges we face.
- Vote Marion Lloyd for PCS president and the candidates for change for the National Executive Committee (NEC) and DWP and HMRC Group Executive Committees. See the full list of candidates at socialistparty.org.uk/PCScandidates2024
- Return president and NEC ballot papers in the post by 7 May to be counted by the closing date of 9 May. The online elections for Groups close on 16 May.
Marion Lloyd responds to Tory threat of more civil service job cuts
PCS members and their families will be furious at the threat to 70,000 civil service jobs made by Grant Shapps. This is a cynical attempt by the Tories to attack our hardworking members to justify increasing defence spending. We, along with all other workers, kept things going under Covid.
Another reason to get rid of this Tory government after 14 nightmare years for working people!
PCS must respond firmly, including a demand that Labour immediately commits to ruling out such an outrageous job cull in the event of them winning the general election.
