Civil service cuts are coming: prepare for the fight!

Socialist Party members in PCS

It is clear after six months whose side Keir Starmer is on, and it’s not ours. His Labour government has already signalled its intention to cut thousands of civil service jobs.

The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), which organises civil servants and outsourced workers, must gear up for the fight now.

The union’s National Executive Committee (NEC) elections in April, the first in PCS under Starmer’s government, will be a crucial step. There is no room for complacency: only a determined, socialist leadership, with a proven socialist president at the helm, can lead this fight.

Build the struggle to stop civil service job cuts

5% cuts to government departments, on top of the 2% already demanded in the autumn Budget. 5,600 jobs to go in the Ministry of Defence, redundancies in the Department of Transport, plus another 10,000 job cuts. Cuts that will have a devastating impact on PCS members, including the knock-on impacts to those in devolved governments and in outsourced government contracts, including Mitie, Interserve, ISS and G4S.

Announcements were made over Christmas by the Cabinet Office, posing further threats to already-eroded pensions.

PCS must put down a marker of resistance now, or this will be the first, not the last, set of cuts this government inflicts on hard-working civil servants.

The Labour government openly said that the 5% pay remit for the civil service last year, along with similar pay awards in other sectors, was set in order to avoid more strikes. It was an improvement on years of pay freezes and pay restraint, but did not repair the damage done by rampant inflation and a decade of austerity. And now the talk of pay awards of less than 3% in the NHS and schools is a warning of what’s to come for the civil service. 

It is vital for members’ jobs, pay and pensions that we win a fighting PCS leadership in the upcoming elections – one that doesn’t cover up for this austerity government but fights for members. 

What has happened since the last union elections in May 2024 shows the importance of this year’s elections. 

Members rejected the previous NEC majority in favour of a fighting leadership

In the 2024 national elections, members ousted the previous ‘Left Unity’ leadership from their NEC majority. Together with a grouping called the PCS Democrats, Left Unity had been in power for over 20 years. During that time their fighting spirit has deteriorated, shown by the lack of a serious fight on pay over the last two years, despite the determination of members.

A new left majority was elected, with 19 to 16 seats on the NEC. Supporters of the PCS Broad Left Network (BLN), including Socialist Party members, were among those elected, alongside other left activists, in a ‘coalition for change’.

The election was won by campaigning on issues that matter to members, including serious preparation for national action, and for union democracy:

• a 10% pay increase and £15-an-hour minimum wage, working towards restoration of pay lost under austerity
• defence of jobs, pensions and redundancy compensation payments
• extension of members’ control and elections

This campaigning approach was supported by the union’s annual conference, which rejected the outgoing Left Unity leadership’s defeatist strategy (see ‘After PCS conference the new left executive must get to work’ at socialistparty.org.uk).

President and general secretary hijack PCS democracy

Although the left won a decisive NEC majority, this did not include the presidency, which was retained by Left Unity member Martin Cavanagh. He, together with Left Unity member Fran Heathcote, who won the election for general secretary in 2023 by fewer than 800 votes, have consistently blocked the new leadership’s mandate.

Cavanagh has effectively run the NEC by presidential decree, challengeable only by a two-thirds majority vote, which the new executive does not have. This has been his go-to means of denying motions and decisions by the new executive.

At the first meeting of the new executive, which took place in June during the general election, the new left majority argued that the mandate for strike action won in areas covering over 22,000 members should be exercised, to send a warning to whatever government was elected that PCS remained serious about winning on pay. This was vetoed by the president.

And, instead of preparing the ground for a campaign to win more on pay, Fran Heathcote welcomed the 5% pay remit! Efforts by the NEC majority to instruct the general secretary to pursue the demands agreed by PCS conference were repeatedly blocked by Cavanagh and Heathcote.

Attempts to wreck campaigns

At every NEC meeting, Heathcote and Cavanagh have stood in the way of a relaunch of our campaign on pay, jobs and pensions.

The previous NEC, that was ousted in May, had implemented a strike levy, to support members taking paid action on behalf of the whole membership. The NEC majority has, on three separate occasions, attempted to implement a review of this levy, to protect the lowest-paid members, but recognising that if we are serious about a campaign to protect pay, jobs and pensions, we must build up our strike fund. Cavanagh and Heathcote have done everything they can to obstruct this.

Then in December, the general secretary told the NEC that the union’s fighting fund was overspent – but demanded the end of the levy entirely.

This came two weeks before Cavanagh and Heathcote were due to meet with the Cabinet Office about pay – a meeting from which the NEC majority were excluded by the president and general secretary. Imagine the signal sent to the employer – cancelling the levy immediately before talks! Therefore no campaign, letting the employer off the hook!

Who runs the union? Calls for special delegate conference dismissed

Faced with repeated obstruction, the NEC majority invoked its right under the union rules (SR 6.6) to call a Special Delegate Conference (SDC). That would enable members to debate relaunching the national campaign and address the vital question of who runs the union. But calling an SDC was blocked!

Branches representing thousands of members have sent motions to the general secretary demanding an SDC. In a move that beggars belief, branch motions have been dismissed as simply ‘correspondence’, requiring no action. This contempt of Cavanagh and Heathcote for the union’s rules and democracy will not be lost on branches and reps.

The tremendous response by activists to the call for an SDC is a warning to Cavanagh, Heathcote and the union officialdom.

End the paralysis – elect a fighting left majority!

A state of semi-paralysis exists at the top of the union. This is not just an affront to our democratic traditions but directly weakens the ability of the union to face the challenges ahead.

Socialist Party members warned that Starmer’s government will not be worker-friendly. Anti-union laws – including 50% turnout thresholds in ballots – will operate long beyond what could be achieved by emergency legislation to abolish them, and reforms will be watered down without the hot breath of the trade unions on the government’s neck.

The scrapping of pensioners’ winter fuel payments, retention of the two-child benefit cap, rejection of the WASPI women’s demands, and public expenditure cuts, all bear out our view.

We must prepare our members for a fight on pay, jobs and conditions. PCS must organise at the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and with other unions for coordinated action across the public sector. If our union puts up a serious fight it can inspire others across the trade union movement. Socialist Party members also want a serious discussion on political strategy – to strengthen our industrial fight with a political voice.

Elect a socialist PCS president to lead a fighting, democratic PCS!

The elections for the president and NEC this spring are the opportunity for members of our union to win the fighting, socialist leadership they deserve. Branch AGMs begin from 16 January and nominations are open till 6 March. Socialist Party and BLN members are discussing with others who also want a fighting union to again put forward a united slate of candidates. Get involved in this campaign and prepare for battle against the coming cuts!