Month: Oct 2021

Broad Left Network: fighting for permanent jobs and reductions to excessive workloads in DWP

Members across DWP have noticed the faltering approach of the union’s leadership in DWP to safety, to pay, to the enormous pressure of work facing staff and even to climate change.

The Group Executive Committee (GEC) – the body supposed to lead the union in the DWP – was elected earlier this year. PCS Broad Left Network candidates – socialist union reps – stood in those elections and some were elected. The job of the GEC is to build serious campaigns on issues that matter to members in DWP. Unfortunately, it is doing no such thing, and Broad Left Network members feel it is important to explain to all reps in the union why this is the case.

Left Unity ducks debate – October GEC

Ahead of the GEC meeting which took place on October 20^th and 21^st, Broad Left Network supporters from across DWP met to discuss what needs to be done. Reps worked together to produce motions which Jill Fearn and Craig Worswick, as GEC members, proposed to the rest of the Group Executive Committee. These motions addressed key questions facing members in the next period: pay, the £20-a-week UC cut, tax hikes and the Autumn Budget due on 27^th October; the COP26 climate conference happening in Glasgow and the significant strike wave that has developed there, which we should give support to; safety in the context of Covid-19 and the fight for permanent jobs for the more than 10,000 temporary staff in DWP.

Instead of debating these motions, chair Martin Cavanagh ruled that they are all covered by policy from Group Conference and refused to accept them for debate. This is a flagrant lie since some of the issues identified, like solidarity with striking transport and council workers in Glasgow were not an issue at the time of the Conference which took place in June. It is also wildly hypocritical, as any old dross from Left Unity Group Officers is routinely accepted on to the agenda, regardless of how late in the day GEC papers are submitted. The Left Unity GEC wanted to duck debate.

Broad Left Network GEC members were not simply going to let it go at that, however. Despite a series of personal attacks on BLN-supporting GEC members whenever they spoke, our comrades continued to put forward our ideas, in the hope of getting some movement from the totally inert Group leadership.

Staffing and Safety: the fight for permanent jobs and safe working conditions

The GEC were presented with just a verbal report on staffing, with little to explain how the GEC or branches can prepare for action to secure the jobs of the thousands of temporary staff currently employed by DWP. BLN reps put forward the need to identify where Fixed Term Appointment staff are based, to target union leaflets and other material to recruit them into the union and to link this battle over permanent jobs to the massive pressure on Jobcentre and other staff. It is in all our interests that these staff be made permanent. Basic work to build his campaign has simply not been done by the Group Executive Committee.

As a direct result of the failures of the Left Unity GEC, union density in DWP has decreased. At angry meetings in different branches, members of the union have indicated they want to fight on the question of their workloads and many temporary staff have enthusiastically joined the union where a lead has been given by active local reps. This failure to recruit the rest of them belongs to pathetically inadequate steps taken by the Left Unity-led GEC. As a result of the GEC’s abdication of leadership, thousands of members in Jobcentres have been forced back into the office, despite many still having concerns about safety.

Let us not forget that it took more than two months for the GEC to publish to branches the information about turnout in the consultative ballot that took place this earlier this year. No campaign meetings took place, to include the branches which crossed or achieved near to the 50% turnout threshold required to be able to take legal strike action. The cynical use, by the Left Unity GEC, of this consultative ballot as an electoral gimmick, on which to show how “militant” they all are, is contemptible, given how meekly they submit to the DWP senior management.

Pay in DWP: DWP staff claiming UC get a kicking from Tories, GEC does nothing

At the previous GEC in July, the current leadership committed themselves to “pressing” our demands. At the most recent GEC, the leadership again kicked the can down the road, promising members’ meetings in November and December of this year. While we wholeheartedly support any attempt to mobilise members on the question of pay, the problem with the GEC approach this year is the same as the problem with the approaches for the last several years. They hold meetings to try and get members angry, they do not put forward a clear plan and when members do not immediately leap to join the barricades, they blame members for the lack of a fight back.

This year could be different, if approached seriously. On top of frozen pay for 2021, a proportion of DWP staff who are very low paid and who claim Universal Credit have had the additional cut of £20 per week from their UC. Added to this are the increases in taxation proposed by the government and the rapidly rising cost of living. Energy costs are likely to increase by hundreds of pounds per year – potentially equivalent to a 1 or 2% wage cut for members. Instead of placidly relying upon members to email in stories of how hard up they are – which was the big idea for October – the GEC could get out to every branch and win the support of reps for a clear strategy to fight back on pay and all the related issues.

Instead, Left Unity members of the GEC chose to blame branches for not “buying in” to their ideas. It would help if the union leadership did not talk like management. This idea, that the lack of movement on pay is the fault of branches, is ridiculous. In other areas, such as health and local government, workers are moving towards consultative and statutory ballots. As mentioned above in the context of Glasgow and COP 26, transport workers are also preparing for serious disputes on pay, staffing and working conditions. There is a mood to fight. Yet the GEC continues to rehash the same empty rhetoric.

The motions proposed by the BLN supporters at the DWP GEC called on the Group Officers to present their plan for how to fight and win on pay “using all means necessary,” which is the wording of the motion passed at Group Conference this year. It was pointed out to the Left Unity members of the GEC that “all means necessary” does not mean boring DWP senior management to death with endless surveys of union members that do not move one single jot in the direction of a real campaign.

We also proposed going well beyond the timid approach of the GEC on Universal Credit. We urged the GEC to organise public meetings and to seek involvement and cooperation from key union branches such as Unite Community (for the unemployed) and Unison Local Government (who represent social workers and housing officers who have first-hand experience of the devastating consequences of Tory austerity). Ultimately, we would want to pull in the rest of the trade union movement, especially the unions representing the lowest paid, like USDAW, which is often slow to support campaigns. The anger in working class communities over this cut is palpable – a visible campaign could energise the members and reps of every union that gets involved.

Thanks to Martin Cavanagh’s ruling, and the refusal of the Left Unity majority to challenge this, the GEC managed to avoid even taking a position on these issues.

COP 26 in Glasgow: full solidarity to the Glasgow strikers

BLN reps also called for full support to be given to the strikes developing in Glasgow, during the period of the international climate change conference, COP26. Low paid janitors, cleaners, rail, and bus workers are planning strike action to fight cuts to pay and cuts to public services. Leading MSPs, members of the Scottish Parliament, have attacked unions for standing up for their members and tried to argue that strike action during COP26 threatens negotiations on climate change.

We believe it is important to give full support to these workers. In many of these sectors, especially transport, strike action is resulting from years of failure by the Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council, under both Labour and SNP/Green administrations. One of the key issues being debated by the bosses at COP26 is how to make workers’ pay for the transition to a zero-carbon economy. Disputes like this allow the trade unions to outline the socialist alternative to capitalist attacks on workers.

This would include renationalising public transport, investing not in private profits but in maximum environmental efficiency, to reduce reliance on cars and carbon emissions. This would be part of a major strategy of industrial investment and repurposing, to produce infrastructure necessary for the green economy, from renewable energy to home insulation. This is the real meaning of a “just” transition. The capitalist class, not workers, must pay. Jobs and wages must be defended.

In respect of the railways, the Scottish Government want Abellio-owned ScotRail to do their dirty work, cutting 1,000 jobs and 100,000 train journeys, before their franchise ends. So, it is vital to explain to all six million trade unionists what is going on, what our proposed solutions are and to mobilise them for the major climate change demonstration in Glasgow on November 6^th, 2021.

It is scandalous that Left Unity would refuse to debate a motion offering solidarity to striking workers. Given the time taken up by the Group President, who instead of chairing the meetings tends to speak at length on every dot and comma of the agenda, it seems ridiculous that such an important issue was kept off the agenda. Also kept off the agenda – in breach of Group Conference policy – is the issue of climate change, which Conference demanded be set as a standing item. Branches need to be aware of how badly the union is being led. We call on all branches in DWP to join us, to build a real socialist leadership.

If we fight, we can win.

If you are interested in discussing any of our ideas, get in touch. Join the Broad Left Network and fight for a democratic, campaigning union with socialist policies that can win for members.

Hi, please click the following link for our latest GEC report from the DWP –

Everyone thinks the music of their generation was best – I’d of course say ours definitely was! 

We had the benefits of the hang over from the big bands and the Sinatra years of Swing of our parents, as well as the Rock ‘n’ Roll era, the Blues, the Jazz, the Beatles, and the Stones (and the rest). And not just the best music – we had the best of post war housing and the birth of the NHS.

 In the Sixties everything seemed to be on the up for ordinary people.

In the following decades we experienced massive strides in technological developments, including IT and medicine. The first heart transplant, the contraceptive pill – better detection, better prevention, eradication of diseases etc. 

Yet, with all these miraculous advancements, for our generation and particularly for the younger generations that follow things are now going from worse to worse. Why?

The answer is the profit based economic system is failing us. Capitalism is not fit for purpose. 

Covid and Climate Change are graphic illustrations of the systems failings. The short-sightedness of Capitalists who put their profits way above everything else, including the future of the planet.

 I just want to focus on the deterioration of our NHS and in particular the medical profession’s attitude to women’s and to men’s health.

It was bonfire night 2008 and I was coming round after a hysterectomy, which I had been resisting for several years hoping nature would ‘run its course’ without intervention. I was 53. In the world of profit my childbearing purpose was spent, and I was expendable. 

I still had the words of my old GP ringing in my ears from when I first raised problems in my mid 30’s – “what do you expect at your age?”! But in terms of life expectancy 53 is barely middle aged, and I was still in need and deserving of a quality of life. 

In 2008 I was still working and was very fortunate in having a very understanding and supportive team and mangers. Although my experience was good, I understood for many other women it wasn’t and still isn’t the case, and I wrote an article at that time for our Branch Magazine. It was prompted by something I’d read by a woman who experienced very poor treatment by a less than understanding boss. 

So why am I focussing on this now and has anything changed?

For far too long the ‘Menopause’ has been little discussed. If it is talked about at all it is usually with a sense of ridicule around hot flushes and ‘ doolally ‘ women who are scatter-brained and forgetful. My own daughters are now approaching ‘that age’ and approaching what is called the perimenopause. This is the very start of hormonal changes, which can be very gradual and very long. I am learning, through their experiences that twenty or so years on from my own nothing much has changed. Too many women and too many medical professionals know and understand too little

Symptoms that are typical for many (peri)menopausal women are misdiagnosed. Too many are sent away with anti-depressants when HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) is a much more appropriate, effective, and safer way to address the issues. So much for the developments and advancement I spoke of earlier!

Puberty alongside sex education has long been part of the school curriculum, but not the menopause. It is therefore not surprising that bosses and mangers (of whatever gender) have little or no understanding. More alarming is the absence of training in the medical profession – Only 42% of medical students study the subject and the menopause is not a compulsory element of a medical degree!

It is important that women and their partners have a clear understanding of this period in our lives and that workplaces have suitable policies in place to support and not vilify women. Government Departments often run courses on health and equality issues and Menopause needs to feature in those programmes.

This link to a Webinar The Menopause Explained is an excellent insight, dispersing the myths about HRT  that sadly some GP’s still cling on to.

And what about Men’s Health? I think it fair to say that men get a bit of a raw deal when it comes to preventative medicine. Women have been encouraged to have regular cervical smear tests and breast screening for many years. These have proved vital in early detections of cancer and opportunities for treatment that has saved countless lives. But Prostate Health and regular screening for men is non-existent. In fact, many men experience difficulties in persuading there GP to send them for a PSA test, even when there are compelling reasons. I recently heard of a GP telling a patient they are “not allowed” to offer a PSA Test and will only give it if requested. Too many still refuse.

A PSA test measures the amount of Prostate Specific Antigens in the blood. While this test alone is not a definitive detector of Prostate Cancer, regular testing will provide information and an opportunity for early detection, – and early detection is key. Prostate cancer is not itself life threatening. It is failed detection that allows the cancer to spread throughout the body and that is the problem. Early detection can save men from the spread of cancer, save them from more serious and unpleasant treatments such as chemotherapy, and ultimately save lives. Men are said to be notoriously bad at seeking medical advice – let’s make that a myth too!

We are currently fighting to retain our National Health Service and to reclaim it from private hands. Many are unaware of how much of the service is now subcontracted and in the hands of the likes of Virgin. As capitalism chips away at all that is good and prevents all those advances from being used for the benefits of all and not the profits of the few, we have a battle on our hands.

Menopause and Prostate Cancer awareness are just two health awareness issues we need to take up in the workplace and actively campaigned on through the unions, not least our own.

Please read our attached leaflet on why members should vote Yes/ Yes in the DVLA Ballot