FOR THE first time in British history, a parliament was closed by industrial action when the Welsh Assembly was shut down and its plenary session cancelled by PCS members’ strike action.
In Cardiff Katrine Williams, chair of the PCS in Wales told Dave Reid: “We had a marvellous turnout on the picket lines with very few members going into work. Gus O’Donnell’s (Head of Civil Service) second letter to civil servants angered so many people that some of them joined the union so they could go on strike.
“In the Department for Work and Pensions we had an even better turnout than previously on picket lines. The cutbacks are biting now and members can see the effects. The government talk about 10,000 jobs going in Wales. This government’s decimation of civil service jobs is like the Tories’ jobs cuts in Welsh industry in the 1980s.”
PCS picket lines were everywhere throughout Swansea. In the DVLA 200 new members joined PCS in recent weeks. At Land Registry, Liz Evans, PCS branch secretary said: “270 jobs would be lost if they close the High Street office. They say there will be no compulsory redundancies but no-one believes it”.
At a lively lunchtime rally two Socialist Party members spoke on the platform. PCS NEC member John McInally and Rob Williams from Visteon shop stewards committee both got a rousing response to speeches showing that militant union action can win victories and that PCS members have to build on this successful strike.
