Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/1031/28773
From The Socialist newspaper, 27 February 2019
PCS union: help us win the elections and pay campaign
The election process for civil servants' union PCS is underway.
Socialist Party member Chris Baugh is the candidate of Left Unity - the union's broad left -for assistant general secretary. He needs 15 nominations to stand for re-election.
Regrettably, some in Left Unity - Socialist View and the Socialist Workers' Party (SWP), are refusing to recommend and campaign for Chris. This is despite a clear obligation to do so under Left Unity rules.
Opposition to Chris was decisively defeated at the National Gallery branch annual general meeting. SWP member Candy Udwin declared her support for Lynn Henderson, a PCS full-time official, who has never been a Left Unity member.
Knowing she could not win support for Henderson, she proposed that the branch make no nomination. Elected branch officials argued for Chris, who supported the National Gallery strike and led negotiations to settle the dispute - which included Candy Udwin's reinstatement.
Members backed Chris Baugh 31 votes to one.
There is clear evidence of widespread support for Chris, with nominations from all areas of the union.
Alongside PCS elections, the union is launching its pay campaign. A statutory strike ballot will run from 18 March to 29 April.
The ballot is in support of the union's pay demands of a 10% raise with £2,400 underpinning and restoration of national bargaining on pay and employment conditions.
We urge all Left Unity members to nominate Chris Baugh for assistant general secretary, and the Democracy Alliance national executive committee slate, before nominations close on 7 March.
Union branch annual general meetings can nominate now. We must unite to maximise the vote for the whole Left Unity slate in the elections which start on 16 April, and secure a threshold-busting vote in the pay ballot.
Marion Lloyd, PCS national executive committee (personal capacity)
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In The Socialist 27 February 2019:
What we think
From anger to action to save Honda plant
Socialist Party feature
Defending the city that dared to fight
Council cuts
Kirklees: Labour and Green councillors refuse to fight the cuts
Leicester: cuts passed in record time - use the £100m reserves!
Worcestershire: save the nine libraries
Socialist Party news and analysis
Kick out austerity politicians
Socialist change, not climate change!
Blairite traitor Ian Austin - byelection now!
Cuts councils massage homelessness figures
US: "Launch a mass, working-class fightback"
Workplace news and analysis
Supermarket giants merger: protect jobs and fight price hikes
Birmingham Bin workers and home carers strike on same day
University and College Union: anti-union laws frustrate strike ballot again
Manchester posties strike against bullying
PCS union: help us win the elections and pay campaign
South East Unison annual general meeting votes for no-cuts budgets
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
E-subscribe to the Socialist today!
Tommy Robinson BBC demo: socialist fightback needed to undermine far right
Nottingham Labour Corbyn rally
PCS union branch opposes cuts to women's services
International Women's Day meetings and other events
Five years on - and still no justice for Zane
Opinion
Non-fiction: 'Unhealthy Profits: PFI in the NHS'
Art exhibition: 'Unobtania' by Peter Robson
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