PCS union: Uniting the left around a leadership that can win for members

PCS members on strike at BEIS, photo Helen Pattison (Click to enlarge)

Katrine Williams, vice-president PCS DWP group (personal capacity)

The 2020 national elections of the PCS, a union of civil servants and private sector workers on government contracts, are at a key stage. Branches throughout the union are meeting to agree nominations for president and national executive committee. The closing date for submitting nominations is 5 March.

Contesting these elections will be the newly formed Broad Left Network (BLN). Socialist Party members are on the list of BLN-supported candidates. These include Marion Lloyd for national president, David Semple for national vice-president and Katrine Williams for national executive committee. The full list can be found at pcsbln.wordpress.com.

At its inaugural meeting on 18 January, the BLN agreed its programme. This covers the union's campaigns on pay, pensions, redundancy rights, tax justice, social security, equality, mental health, climate change and other issues.

Improving the union's record of organising and recruiting members, better training for reps, defending facility time and ensuring our members in the private sector are fully supported have also been identified as key issues for the BLN.

Underpinning all of this is union democracy and accountability. The trend in the union has been the development of a siege mentality by the current leadership.

The collapse of coordinated strike action across the public sector unions after the magnificent two million-strong pensions strike on 30 November 2011, and attacks on facility time and the end of check-off, have led the current leadership to move towards centralisation, and a full-time officer-directed model of organisation divorced from and unaccountable to reps and members.

A fundamental shift is required in how the union operates. For this reason we are calling on all PCS branches to nominate BLN-supported candidates for president and national executive committee in this year's elections.

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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.