Another week in PCS, another litany of obstructions under the President and General Secretary of the union, Martin Cavanagh and Fran Heathcote and their faction PCS Left Unity (LU).
LU Cost Privatised Members Three Days of Strike Action in DWP G4S
The left-led Senior Officers Committee, with a voting majority comprised of Hector Wesley, Bev Laidlaw and Dave Semple from the PCS majority left, voted in favour of strike action on the DWP G4S contract, so that members could join GMB members striking on the same contract beginning on 17 June and continuing intermittently for weeks yet to come.
A PCS Left Unity member responsible for issuing the correct notice to the employer failed to do so, meaning that strike action had to be pulled from 1-3 July, and only because majority left reps intervened to put pressure on the General Secretary and on the national President, was strike action saved for 4-7 July.
Although this was put down to “human error” by Left Unity supporters in the higher echelons of the union’s senior management, it is indicative of the continuing and massive failure over years on the part of once-dominant faction PCS Left Unity to exercise democratic oversight over the operations of the union. Notices of strike action, for example, are not copied to the elected senior officers of PCS.
Every attempt to wield democratic oversight, as in recent instances where dispute settlements have been reported to the National Disputes Committee, has been met with argument, delay and refusal to reply to correspondence.
The union’s National Executive Committee (NEC) is led by the majority left,
comprised of Broad Left Network, Independent Left and independent socialists, 19 seats compared to Left Unity’s 16 seats, key offices are still held by Left Unity
supporters, including DWP Group President, PCS National President and General Secretary. The latter posts also sit on key committees such as the Senior Officers Committee and the National Disputes Committee.
These top posts are being used to block at every turn the ordinary democratic
operations of the union and the exercise of democratic oversight.
LU Blocks Any National Campaign Action
The majority left have tried at every turn to get the national campaign on to the
agenda of the NEC and its related bodies. Collectively, we demanded of the national president that this feature on the first NEC after conference, held on 4 June. This was denied.
National Vice President Dave Semple wrote to the General Secretary and National President to demand that the leverage information that they were gathering – without reference to or discussion with the NEC or the National Disputes Committee – be shared. This email has not even received a reply from either.
A submission from Dave Lunn, on behalf of the PCS Land Registry Group, which
broke the 50% participation threshold in the strike ballot that took place until May 2024, has also gone unanswered.
National Vice President Hector Wesley has written to the General Secretary to
convene a Campaigns and Comms committee meeting. This has been blocked by
the General Secretary, further frustrating any attempt to mobilise the union for action.
On virtually every matter, similar barriers are being thrown up. The implication is that the President, the General Secretary and their unelected supporters in the union’s most senior management layers believe they can simply prevent the left from exercising power by ignoring requests until it is too late – a perception reinforced by the decision by the National President to radically reduce the number of NEC meetings.
Misuse of Members’ Money to Organise a Cabal of the Right?
Reps across PCS who have any connection to the paid full-time structures of PCS have long been hearing rumours of major changes to the staffing structure of the union, including promotions undertaken without any advertisement internally or externally within PCS. None of these have been brought to the NEC.
A further recent round of this seems to have taken place. Three NEC members have written to the General Secretary demanding an explanation of what has been undertaken, including the creation, without NEC approval, of a new band of staff, 6A. This sits at the top of the union, earns tens of thousands of pounds more per year than average PCS members earn, and has been filled by two unelected individuals that supported Fran Heathcote’s campaign for General Secretary in 2023.
No explanation of this has been offered by the General Secretary, and no reason has been given why the elected committees of the union were not consulted, given that under the union’s rules, FTOs are appointed by the NEC, and on the basis of procedures that require approval by the NEC (see Supplementary Rules 8.1 and 8.3).
Full Time Officers are employed directly by PCS to do a difficult job and they deserve respect. More than one Full Time Officer, with no connection to any faction in PCS, has openly decried the way in which the union’s senior management is utterly unaccountable to any elected body and the favouritism and factionalism they believe is displayed when promotions inside the union’s full-time apparatus become available.
This must be investigated.
The NEC left majority has also heard rumours of a massive overspend on staffing in PCS, contrary to PCS Conference instructions that the cost of staffing should be capped at one third of the union’s income. Our intention is to investigate this and to report the truth back to branches and reps across PCS.
LU Backbiting Never Stops
As many reps across the union will know, from the revelations published by Hector Wesley and Tracey Hylton, then both members of PCS Left Unity, and amongst the most senior black union reps in PCS, the bullying culture within Left Unity is rife – and can spill over to equality matters.
LU have published a scurrilous article attempting to take issue with the NEC
appointments to the union’s delegation to TUC Conference, due to meet in Brighton this coming September.
The delegation consists of six members elected by Annual Delegate Conference, six members appointed by the NEC and the President and General Secretary. The six appointed by the NEC included Hector Wesley, Fiona Brittle, Marion Lloyd, Bev Laidlaw, John Moloney and Ellie Clarke.
This appointed group of socialist union reps includes black, LGBT+ and disabled
members of the NEC, it includes a DWP representative, and it is a majority-women delegation.
LU’s scurrilous attack is on the basis that Angela Grant, DWP Group President, was not included, nor was Jackie Green, a national Vice President and LGBT+ member. Angela Grant was the person at the centre of complaints made by black reps, and by her own admission made the infamous “we don’t do black for black’s sake” comment to Hector Wesley and Tracey Hylton, both black reps.
Angela Grant and Jackie Green have both repeatedly been on the wrong side of
Conference policy when debating LGBT+ issues. Both have been censured as part of the NEC majority of past years, for what Conference has obviously considered their poor approach to LGBT+ rights. Why would they be given the opportunity to take these views, manifestly opposed by PCS Conference, to the TUC?
The leadership of LU does not respect the union’s Annual Delegate Conference – as evidenced by Fran Heathcote’s performance in the chair of Conference in 2023, when she deliberately conspired to invite unnecessary speakers into a debate, in order to filibuster (i.e. talk so long that the next debate falls due to time) a motion on LGBT+ TUC matters.
The new majority left leadership is different.
Broad Left Network will continue to fight for the voice of reps, branches, groups and Conference itself to be at the heart of PCS. We will continue to push against the bureaucratic barriers being erected against the democratically elected leadership of the union – and we urge all reps across PCS to join us, to build this fight into a tidal wave that neither the right-wing rump nor the next government can withstand.
PCS Broad Left Network 