Zakk Brown, PCS rep, personal capacity
The PCS civil servants union, with its left majority National Executive Committee, is going to the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in September armed with a motion to campaign for the trade union movement to pile pressure onto Andy Burham’s Labour government.
The appointment of Burnham as the new prime minister and leader of the Labour Party, while giving Labour a temporary bump in the polls, does not mean anything unless there is a real fight for policies which meet the needs of workers and working-class communities still struggling with the cost-of-living crisis.
The motion PCS will move aims to rally the broader TUC movement behind holding Burnham’s feet to the fire with action to back up demands.
This will be done through calling on the government to launch sustained public investment. PCS-commissioned research has confirmed that public investment acts as an engine for growth and more than pays for itself through outcomes such as reduced reliance on Universal Credit to subsidise low wages and high housing costs.
PCS also calls on the TUC to demand the new prime minister reopens talks on public sector pay for 2026-27.
The motion demands a trade union-led national demonstration this autumn for investment into public services and against austerity.
And that public sector unions unite on a national pay campaign, taking coordinated industrial action where needed.
This motion will be the focus of a lobby of the TUC by the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN), engaging with the other unions in the TUC and helping build support for the PCS motion to pressure the government to deliver for workers.
We have an opportunity to pressure the Burnham government. But it is clear that the Labour leadership is more concerned with ‘fiscal rules’, appeasing the bosses than protecting the interests of workers. The Socialist Party says the trade unions should debate what kind of political representation we need, and begin to form their own political vehicle for the working class.
