An emergency National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), which organises workers in the civil service and on government contracts, took place on 19 August. The NEC instructed the general secretary to get on with building a national campaign and national ballot for action – a campaign agreed three months previously but still not implemented.
We carry here an edited version of an article by the PCS Broad Left Network.
The PCS conference in May voted for a serious campaign capable of winning on jobs, pay, pensions and the huge number of other issues facing PCS members day-in, day-out. That campaign needs to be built by the NEC, if there is no satisfactory movement from the employer in meeting our demands.
There has been no movement. A new prime minister has not meant a new direction. The 3.5% pay remit, potentially condemning our lowest-paid grades to the minimum wage forever, goes nowhere near meeting our claim for 10%. Jobs are at risk, with members taking matters into their own hands in disputes across the union, striking to protect jobs and conditions. Thousands of pensions are still not being paid, condemning many to severe hardship, while the [Labour government] Cabinet Office refuses to bring this service back in-house. In fact, the private profiteer, Capita, has been awarded more work!
Andy Burnham has created lots of ‘soundbites’ but little else. If we are to make progress, it is vital that we build a campaign across PCS. The left majority of the NEC remains determined to build this campaign.
But the saga to do so has been going on since 29 May. This was when the first meeting of the new NEC took place, with the specific intention of moving quickly to put the plans in place to launch a campaign, as agreed only the week before at our conference.
Unfortunately, at this stage, equally clear has been the determination of the PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote and her ‘Democracy Alliance/Left Unity’ allies to frustrate and block any national campaign.
This determination was on show immediately after the close of conference, when the general secretary published her article lauding the 3.5% civil service pay remit as “above inflation”. Setting aside that the general secretary was using the government’s CPI measure of inflation not the RPI measure used by trade unions, this publication bypassed the NEC in a way that up until now has been exceedingly rare. It is now common.
Nothing was published telling members that the priority of PCS is to build a campaign to win on the issues that matter to them most – jobs, pay, pensions and conditions.
On 11 June, there was the general secretary’s infamous walkout of the NEC. At the NEC on 15-16 July, further recommendations were agreed to put the necessary steps in place to build the campaign. But the delaying tactics continued, with information not forthcoming and still no sign of any publicity to the activist layer or members.
Get on with it!
At the emergency NEC on 19 August, the NEC instructed the general secretary to get on with it.
A motion put by Broad Left Network (BLN) member Fiona Brittle laid out some clear and high-profile methods of raising the visibility of the campaign, and some urgent communications for members and activists, including on the crucial question of finance and paying for the cost of a serious campaign of industrial action.
This motion passed, despite Democracy Alliance/Left Unity members voting against it. Crucially, it also instructed the general secretary to prepare for a statutory ballot to be launched on 30 September, with the final decision to be made at the NEC meeting on 8-9 September.
It is clear that the NEC minority and the general secretary are hoping that because some areas, including the DWP [the biggest group of PCS members], have not started delegated pay talks they will be excluded from any national response. Likewise for those areas in a multi-year deal.
This is a nonsense, not least because the campaign includes jobs, pensions and conditions. But also because we already know that the pay remit of 3.5% will not remove thousands from the horror of low pay. A ballot during pay talks, agitated by reports from the frontline of negotiations, would easily achieve membership buy-in.
When the September 2022 pay and jobs ballot was launched, the mandate was designed to last through to Spring 2023 so as to overlap the period when the government would make decisions about the pay remit. At that time, multiple groups had not concluded delegated pay talks, but went for it anyway.
That is exactly the current situation.
BLN members are absolutely committed to the launch of a campaign, to the faithful discharge of conference policy, and to pushing against what is an unstable government predisposed to do us no favours unless it really has to.
The general secretary should respect conference policy and work tirelessly to implement it and stop blocking progress. We hope that all reps will campaign vigorously to build support and win the vote. To not do so will give strength to the employer.
PCS has a history of being a fighting, democratic union, whose proud traditions defended pensions, established and defended the civil service compensation scheme, and which can now play a crucial role in fighting the cost-of-living crisis. Let’s re-win those traditions and build the campaign to win. If you agree, we urge you to join the Broad Left Network.
- For the full article, and to join the BLN, go to bln.org.uk
- The BLN is a network of left activists in the PCS, in which Socialist Party members participate. The BLN is part of a ‘coalition for change’ alongside other activists in the union, which currently holds a majority of seats on the PCS NEC
