PCS union: help us win the elections and pay campaign

PCS strikers picketing Acas offices in Leeds, 11.5.18, photo Iain Dalton (Click to enlarge)

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)

Read more and the full slate at chrisbaughpcs.wordpress.com

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Finance appeal

The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.

The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.

The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.

The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.