Month: Nov 2022

At a meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) on 18^th November, the current leadership of the union laid out the gaping hole where a strategy should be, for the battle with the government on pay, pensions, redundancy rights, terms and conditions and jobs. This is despite the incredible vote for strike action, delivered on 7^th November by the sweat of local reps and members, signalling that it is time to take on this crisis-riddled government.

In a subsequent email to all members, and at a press conference following the NEC, the General Secretary declared that “targeted action” had been agreed in the Home Office, Department for Transport and Department for Food and Rural Affairs.

“Targeted” action means that union members taking strike action will receive strike pay, with the idea being that the tens of thousands not taking strike action would pay into a levy at a rate of £3 or £5 per month, beginning in the new year, to fund sustained action.

Fiona Brittle, an NEC member and BLN supporter, proposed national action at the meeting on 10^th, and again at the meeting on 18^th. Fiona has repeatedly called for all-members action before Christmas. Aside from the other unions taking joint action in November, there is a chance to unite Scottish unions for strike action ahead of the December 15^th budget day.

Determined national action, supplemented by other kinds of action, is crucial. A high-profile launch to the strike campaign, with national action on 30^th November followed up with selective and targeted action heading up to Christmas would have built the kind of momentum a serious campaign is going to need.

The NEC explicitly voted against national action on the 10^th, and then to “keep it under review” on 18^th November. At the most recent meeting, some NEC members tried belatedly to jump on the call for national action – including representatives from the Socialist Workers Party – but only once any potential for united action in November had already passed by.

NEC strategy lacks seriousness

Members across PCS will be furious that they are not being brought out on strike, despite having delivered the largest vote for strike action in PCS history. The failure to call national action across the civil service lets employers off the hook. Departmental chiefs across Whitehall, who have been meeting for weeks to put in place contingency plans, will breathe an almighty sigh of relief.

The failure to call national action across the Civil Service also opens the door for de-mobilisation, undoing the magnificent work of unions reps and members since our ballot began on September 26^th.

PCS’ national leadership have also seriously erred. By not serving notice of national action immediately following the last NEC meeting on 10^th November, the leadership – supported by the so-called Independent Left representative on the NEC – prevented PCS being able to join in with 200,000 postal and university workers striking at the end of November.

Worse, by announcing the specific areas likely to be affected by action so far in advance of any strikes, the NEC has allowed the employer in those areas to prepare, minimising the impact and undermining the point of the strikes.

The General Secretary, in his rush to conciliate the Establishment (and probably to get invited on Question Time), has forgotten that the 14-day notice period of strike action that we are obliged to submit to employers by the anti-union legislation is not a matter of courtesy. Giving employers notice of strike action is a weapon for bosses against the workers going on strike. Why the leaders of the union would give lots of additional notice to the employer, well beyond what is required, is baffling.

No strike action in two biggest civil service departments

Meanwhile, in areas where employers now know union members are not going to go on strike, the employers have stepped up the rhetoric of “we’re all in this together”, attempting to undermine morale and dull the consciousness of members in those areas. This includes the largest group in the union, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

In DWP, working conditions have been steadily deteriorating since the pandemic. After an initial rush of thousands recruited, there has been a steady exodus of staff. Pressure on staff has been piling up, especially in Jobcentres, where caseloads are increasing. Service Centres, already under pressure, will face additional telephony work in 2023.

Based on the current strategy there is no answer to give to DWP staff, and the thousands of others across the union, who want to be taken out on strike, who want to fight back against the position in which their employer is putting them. Nor is there a much better answer for HM Revenue and Customs members who got so close to the 50% turnout threshold; the NEC shows no sense of urgency in re-balloting them.

Lastly, still no consideration has been given to the need for the option of action short of strikes to be added in a future ballot of all PCS members. The General Secretary declared that this question being left off the recent national ballot was not accidental – but this betrays the incompetence of the leadership and their lack of understanding of how to fight.

Across multiple key departments, massive use of overtime has been all that is keeping the lights on. Leaving these areas untouched by strike action indefinitely gives the employer months or longer to get their house in order. This means that strike action, when or if it does come, in the name of escalating the battle, is ineffective.

This is a worst-case scenario for members, being left out of strikes until there is a less favourable time to hit the employer where it hurts: right in the backlogs.

National action is necessary: a determined fight can win.

So-called “Left Unity” NEC members in the debate yesterday openly attacked the idea of national action as “sacrifice without gain”. The leadership of the union did the Daily Mail’s job for it, talking up how terrible it would be if any child was denied Christmas presents because members were having to take national strike action.

The cowardice of the NEC should be plain for every rep to see; it is certainly visible to the author of this piece, writing while huddled in a blanket because the heating is too expensive to use just now, kept warm mostly by rage at the betrayal of the massive strike vote we delivered barely three weeks ago.

Sacrifice is needed to get the job done. Hundreds of thousands of railway workers and postal workers have spent countless frigid mornings picketing their workplaces, on unpaid strike because the employers are trying to hold down wages despite spiraling prices, especially energy bills. The Civil Service is facing precisely this kind of attack – with more to come if we do not mount determined resistance now.

The debate is not about sacrifice or not, it’s about sacrifice now through strikes and loss of pay (with hardship funds used to ensure no one is put in real difficulty) or sacrifice for the rest of our working lives, with endless pay cuts (like the 8% real terms cut this year), cuts to redundancy rights, cuts to jobs, cuts to pensions and cuts to public services.

National action can have a massive impact both on members and on the employers. For members, it galvanises. Pickets at Whitehall Departments would be standing in sight of workers picketing the other Departments. Confidence rises with the numbers showing up. Mass discussions happen on the picket lines. Of this, no doubt, the NEC is terrified.

Sustained national action puts enormous pressure on the various Departments, and it prevents them being able to play one group of staff off against another. It also yields victories. Though UCU, representing university workers, are striking again, their sustained action in 2018 forced a major retreat by employers in swingeing cuts to university pensions.

Comments from timid sheep on the NEC notwithstanding, national strike action is not “sacrifice without gain”. It must, must, must be a key part of the strategy to win against vicious and determined employers. Apart from token comments from the General Secretary about coordinated action with other unions, there is nothing to suggest this is the case right now.

NEC mishandling the levy of members not on strike

As noted at the top of this piece, following the NEC of 18^th November, the General Secretary announced that there would be a levy of members not on strike, beginning in 2023. The idea is that this would fund strike pay for the smaller areas being taken out on strike.

Almost as soon as this was announced, there was a backlash from members and reps. A unilateral decision to impose a £3 or £5 charge to members, without even the pretence of seeking to build support and understanding of the strategy and why this is necessary, is arrogant and will alienate a section of members.

When the NEC have been questioned about this by rank-and-file members, their responses sound like answers senior Civil Service managers would give, haughty and defensive, rather than sounding like defenders of and campaigners for workers, trying to build democratic legitimacy for a decision that will be resented by some members.

The NEC shied away from a mass strategy to bolster legitimacy for the levy not least because it would mean answering hard questions on what the strategy is, in front of the reps of the union – questions that the average nodding donkey “Left Unity” NEC member is not well-equipped to answer.

Victory needs a fighting, democratic leadership

Broad Left Network supporters have previously published our views on the outlines of a strategy that we believe would work. The cornerstone of this would be national action, supplemented by selective action, rolling action and targeted action.

Our disagreement with the “Left Unity” NEC strategy is tactical, but their determination to dodge national strike action completely elevates this to an existential question because they are setting us up to lose a vital battle.

Branches led by Broad Left activists were amongst those that secured the largest percentage turnouts in the entire union. We worked tirelessly with every branch we could – regardless of its political colour – to ensure a major turnout in the recent ballot. Our lone voice on the NEC has also bravely fought for a credible national strategy despite the abuse hurled at her – and the silence of other supposed “lefts” who routinely back up the current leadership.

This is the kind of leadership the union is not getting from the current NEC. We call on all reps who want to build a fighting, democratic union with a socialist programme that could win for members to join with us – to join the Broad Left Network – and unite to build a massive national campaign across every single area of the union, not one left behind. Solidarity to all.

At a meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) on 18^th November, the current leadership of the union laid out the gaping hole where a strategy should be, for the battle with the government on pay, pensions, redundancy rights, terms and conditions and jobs. This is despite the incredible vote for strike action, delivered on 7^th November by the sweat of local reps and members, signalling that it is time to take on this crisis-riddled government.

In a subsequent email to all members, and at a press conference following the NEC, the General Secretary declared that “targeted action” had been agreed in the Home Office, Department for Transport and Department for Food and Rural Affairs.

“Targeted” action means that union members taking strike action will receive strike pay, with the idea being that the tens of thousands not taking strike action would pay into a levy at a rate of £3 or £5 per month, beginning in the new year, to fund sustained action.

Fiona Brittle, an NEC member and BLN supporter, proposed national action at the meeting on 10^th, and again at the meeting on 18^th. Fiona has repeatedly called for all-members action before Christmas. Aside from the other unions taking joint action in November, there is a chance to unite Scottish unions for strike action ahead of the December 15^th budget day.

Determined national action, supplemented by other kinds of action, is crucial. A high-profile launch to the strike campaign, with national action on 30^th November followed up with selective and targeted action heading up to Christmas would have built the kind of momentum a serious campaign is going to need.

The NEC explicitly voted against national action on the 10^th, and then to “keep it under review” on 18^th November. At the most recent meeting, some NEC members tried belatedly to jump on the call for national action – including representatives from the Socialist Workers Party – but only once any potential for united action in November had already passed by.

NEC strategy lacks seriousness

Members across PCS will be furious that they are not being brought out on strike, despite having delivered the largest vote for strike action in PCS history. The failure to call national action across the civil service lets employers off the hook. Departmental chiefs across Whitehall, who have been meeting for weeks to put in place contingency plans, will breathe an almighty sigh of relief.

The failure to call national action across the Civil Service also opens the door for de-mobilisation, undoing the magnificent work of unions reps and members since our ballot began on September 26^th.

PCS’ national leadership have also seriously erred. By not serving notice of national action immediately following the last NEC meeting on 10^th November, the leadership – supported by the so-called Independent Left representative on the NEC – prevented PCS being able to join in with 200,000 postal and university workers striking at the end of November.

Worse, by announcing the specific areas likely to be affected by action so far in advance of any strikes, the NEC has allowed the employer in those areas to prepare, minimising the impact and undermining the point of the strikes.

The General Secretary, in his rush to conciliate the Establishment (and probably to get invited on Question Time), has forgotten that the 14-day notice period of strike action that we are obliged to submit to employers by the anti-union legislation is not a matter of courtesy. Giving employers notice of strike action is a weapon for bosses against the workers going on strike. Why the leaders of the union would give lots of additional notice to the employer, well beyond what is required, is baffling.

No strike action in two biggest civil service departments

Meanwhile, in areas where employers now know union members are not going to go on strike, the employers have stepped up the rhetoric of “we’re all in this together”, attempting to undermine morale and dull the consciousness of members in those areas. This includes the largest group in the union, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

In DWP, working conditions have been steadily deteriorating since the pandemic. After an initial rush of thousands recruited, there has been a steady exodus of staff. Pressure on staff has been piling up, especially in Jobcentres, where caseloads are increasing. Service Centres, already under pressure, will face additional telephony work in 2023.

Based on the current strategy there is no answer to give to DWP staff, and the thousands of others across the union, who want to be taken out on strike, who want to fight back against the position in which their employer is putting them. Nor is there a much better answer for HM Revenue and Customs members who got so close to the 50% turnout threshold; the NEC shows no sense of urgency in re-balloting them.

Lastly, still no consideration has been given to the need for the option of action short of strikes to be added in a future ballot of all PCS members. The General Secretary declared that this question being left off the recent national ballot was not accidental – but this betrays the incompetence of the leadership and their lack of understanding of how to fight.

Across multiple key departments, massive use of overtime has been all that is keeping the lights on. Leaving these areas untouched by strike action indefinitely gives the employer months or longer to get their house in order. This means that strike action, when or if it does come, in the name of escalating the battle, is ineffective.

This is a worst-case scenario for members, being left out of strikes until there is a less favourable time to hit the employer where it hurts: right in the backlogs.

National action is necessary: a determined fight can win.

So-called “Left Unity” NEC members in the debate yesterday openly attacked the idea of national action as “sacrifice without gain”. The leadership of the union did the Daily Mail’s job for it, talking up how terrible it would be if any child was denied Christmas presents because members were having to take national strike action.

The cowardice of the NEC should be plain for every rep to see; it is certainly visible to the author of this piece, writing while huddled in a blanket because the heating is too expensive to use just now, kept warm mostly by rage at the betrayal of the massive strike vote we delivered barely three weeks ago.

Sacrifice is needed to get the job done. Hundreds of thousands of railway workers and postal workers have spent countless frigid mornings picketing their workplaces, on unpaid strike because the employers are trying to hold down wages despite spiralling prices, especially energy bills. The Civil Service is facing precisely this kind of attack – with more to come if we do not mount determined resistance now.

The debate is not about sacrifice or not, it’s about sacrifice now through strikes and loss of pay (with hardship funds used to ensure no one is put in real difficulty) or sacrifice for the rest of our working lives, with endless pay cuts (like the 8% real terms cut this year), cuts to redundancy rights, cuts to jobs, cuts to pensions and cuts to public services.

National action can have a massive impact both on members and on the employers. For members, it galvanises. Pickets at Whitehall Departments would be standing in sight of workers picketing the other Departments. Confidence rises with the numbers showing up. Mass discussions happen on the picket lines. Of this, no doubt, the NEC is terrified.

Sustained national action puts enormous pressure on the various Departments, and it prevents them being able to play one group of staff off against another. It also yields victories. Though UCU, representing university workers, are striking again, their sustained action in 2018 forced a major retreat by employers in swingeing cuts to university pensions.

Comments from timid sheep on the NEC notwithstanding, national strike action is not “sacrifice without gain”. It must, must, must be a key part of the strategy to win against vicious and determined employers. Apart from token comments from the General Secretary about coordinated action with other unions, there is nothing to suggest this is the case right now.

NEC mishandling the levy of members not on strike

As noted at the top of this piece, following the NEC of 18^th November, the General Secretary announced that there would be a levy of members not on strike, beginning in 2023. The idea is that this would fund strike pay for the smaller areas being taken out on strike.

Almost as soon as this was announced, there was a backlash from members and reps. A unilateral decision to impose a £3 or £5 charge to members, without even the pretence of seeking to build support and understanding of the strategy and why this is necessary, is arrogant and will alienate a section of members.

When the NEC have been questioned about this by rank-and-file members, their responses sound like answers senior Civil Service managers would give, haughty and defensive, rather than sounding like defenders of and campaigners for workers, trying to build democratic legitimacy for a decision that will be resented by some members.

The NEC shied away from a mass strategy to bolster legitimacy for the levy not least because it would mean answering hard questions on what the strategy is, in front of the reps of the union – questions that the average nodding donkey “Left Unity” NEC member is not well-equipped to answer.

Victory needs a fighting, democratic leadership

Broad Left Network supporters have previously published our views on the outlines of a strategy that we believe would work. The cornerstone of this would be national action, supplemented by selective action, rolling action and targeted action.

Our disagreement with the “Left Unity” NEC strategy is tactical, but their determination to dodge national strike action completely elevates this to an existential question because they are setting us up to lose a vital battle.

Branches led by Broad Left activists were amongst those that secured the largest percentage turnouts in the entire union. We worked tirelessly with every branch we could – regardless of its political colour – to ensure a major turnout in the recent ballot. Our lone voice on the NEC has also bravely fought for a credible national strategy despite the abuse hurled at her – and the silence of other supposed “lefts” who routinely back up the current leadership.

This is the kind of leadership the union is not getting from the current NEC. We call on all reps who want to build a fighting, democratic union with a socialist programme that could win for members to join with us – to join the Broad Left Network – and unite to build a massive national campaign across every single area of the union, not one left behind. Solidarity to all.

At lunchtime on the  10th November, members of the union were told that their strike ballot, which had run from 26th September until 7th November, had crossed the 50% turnout threshold. Almost a hundred thousand members in both UK and devolved government areas have achieved a mandate for strike action.

A brilliant victory which makes it ever more galling for members in HMRC where members voted with their feet (84.4%) for strike action but failed to reach the anti union law threshold of 50% (47.37% of HMRC members voted) – even more galling because in the last statutory ballot HMRC members beat the threshold but were unable to act because the current national leadership (dominated by Left Unity) has spent years dogmatically opposing a ballot held employer by employer (disaggregated). It’s a shame to think, that if they had listened then we could have been in a much healthier position now given the magnificent results, won on the back of the hard work of reps and members. So while many parts of PCS are celebrating their ballot successes – and rightly so – the R&C Group face disappointment.

Reps and members have worked tirelessly to achieve that vote and with the huge numbers voting  for strike action, the employer should not feel it is off the hook. This is an excellent basis to build and we welcome the NEC decision to re-ballot in R&C Group – but this must be quick and decisive – we must learn the lessons and win that ballot.

Strong and determined leadership required at National and Group levels

R&C Group must intervene early and support branches and workplaces – too little, too late is not good enough – as must the national leadership. Members details should have been updated years ago and if the national union had done its job properly, this would already be part and parcel of the day to day work undertaken locally. No leaflets created a barrier and wasted time, causing locally planned activities to go awry. If the national union has properly engaged with reps locally and at branch level all this could have been prevented.

But it is clear that the current leaderships at both group and national level are content that the union is being run by a centralised team of bureaucrats who have little or no desire to talk to those of us on the ground about what is required. We must recognise the negative role of the Left Unity majority on the NEC. They pressed Conference to delay holding a ballot until September, halting the momentum being built since the indicative ballot earlier in 2022.

Build a strategy capable of winning

The Left Unity-led NEC must set out their strategy to win the national campaign. Now is not the time to blink and it is crucial that whilst we demand talks, notice is served to the employer to bring out on strike the 126 areas who achieved a mandate for action, linking in the strike action with other unions to take place on the 30th November. This will build the confidence of R&C Group members and help us win a re-ballot. It is astonishing that this approach, put forward by the BLN on the NEC, was voted down including by those on the NEC from R&C Group.

Where was the second question – a vote to take action short of a strike such as a work to rule and overtime ban? Left Unity forgot this and this means an important part of our overall strategy is missing before we’ve even started. This must be rectified in the re-ballot.

But the Left Unity-led R&C GEC must also take responsibility. The GEC has a top down approach to organising, bargaining and campaigning. This was especially apparent when it came to Pay and Contract Reform (PACR). Branches were excluded from having a say in what was being negotiated or the recommendation put to members. A minority of branches that came out against the offer were deliberately side lined so that the case against the offer wasn’t made.

This undemocratic attitude isn’t unique to PACR. Despite Group Conference policy being for a Business Trade Union Side to be set up in each business area, there are GEC members that want to avoid having meetings with branches, let alone having a rep attend their meetings with HMRC. The result is a steady de-skilling of reps. Combine this with the loss of a layer of experienced reps due to Building Our Future office closures, and the result is a reduced number of reps with the experience of organising members.

Reps deserve better support. The GEC failed in its obligations – organising meetings were turned into talking shops, meetings held with Mark Serwotka were no more than a facile call to arms. Reps want practical information, not rhetoric, they want the resources to do their job and support from their ‘leaders’. These issues must be resolved in the re-ballot.

Pay and Contract Reform not a barrier to winning

Some activists in R&C Group are already blaming PACR for the Group’s failure to breach the 50% threshold this time. Members of the Broad Left Network opposed the offer that was put by HMRC to PCS. We campaigned for a ‘no’ vote due to the divisive nature of the offer and that it was concession bargaining. We’ve continued to fight the problems created by PACR for many members, especially those in Customer Services Group. As has been highlighted above, we acknowledge the likelihood that PACR is having a detrimental impact on reps too.

However we don’t accept the argument that the result of this latest ballot was a result of PACR. The turnout for R&C Group in the 2019 aggregate statutory ballot was around 50.1%. The reduction in turnout from 2019 to 2022 was around 2.7%. There’s only anecdotal evidence to attribute this to PACR – especially as the increases under this deal nowhere near compensate members for the current energy costs and crisis in living costs produced by a 12.6% increase in prices.

More importantly, the argument that PACR caused R&C Group to lose the ballot is defeatist and dangerous. It suggests that the members will never again vote in the numbers required and that the Group will be unable to win a re-ballot. We reject any defeatist attitude – the Group and National leadership must unite members and bring them with us to win. If they can’t do that then they must step aside.

Organising to win the re-ballot and win in offices

Branches have already learned many positive lessons from the recent ballot. As a new layer of organisers come forward and feel the disappointing sting of this ballot, they can grow and make PCS stronger. The experience of R&C Cumbernauld shows PCS can engage with vast numbers of members and encourage them to use their vote. A number of larger branches, such as Leeds, Merseyside, Stratford and West Mercia, breached the 50% threshold.

Branches need the resources to do the job to help them get the job done. The branch and the workplace is where the vote will be won – it is branch reps who members know and trust and go to, it is branch reps that have the strongest connection to members and the greatest likelihood of getting members to vote. The Union leadership needs to play its part by supporting and enthusing the local reps to do this in preparation for the re-ballot.  The wider union can play its part as a supplement to branch activity, but it not as a substitute.

Branches should be encouraged to consider their results, to draw up a campaign plan and to ensure regular communicating and reporting back to the branch of progress against the plan. Then reps need to systematically contact every member to encourage them to vote. Extra resources should be identified by the union where required – used to supplement the work of local reps and branches, not parachuted in over their heads. These are ABCs of organising, but it would be reckless to assume they will just happen.

R&C members of BLN believe the GEC must call an urgent meeting of reps across the group. Bring everyone together to go through what support is there and use the reps who put good systems in place that succeeded in getting the vote out to talk about how they did it and encourage others to think about similar methods. There also needs to be a focus on what preparation reps can do right now to make the re-ballot easier, such as members meetings, branch communications, branch mapping, rechecking personal data. If R&C Group waits until January 2023 to start the work then the current momentum will be lost, just at happened over the summer.

A re-ballot also gives the opportunity for correct the NEC’s tactical error of having just one question on the ballot paper. Reps were already asking about action short of a strike before the ballot even opened.

But many of the problems arise at levels above the branch. There are too many people standing for NEC and GEC positions that are complacent. They are happy to let a damaging status quo carry on. This is why the Broad Left Network stands for elected positions. We argue for change at the rank and file level and stand for election to make that change a reality. If you agree with us, if you want to see changes to PCS to make us the combative and leading trade union that brought about the public sector strike on 30th November 2011, join us today and stand with us.

At lunchtime on the  10^th November, members of the union were told that their strike ballot, which had run from 26^th September until 7^th November, had crossed the 50% turnout threshold. Almost a hundred thousand members in both UK and devolved government areas have achieved a mandate for strike action.

A resounding 86.2% of members voted YES for strike action, covering 126 different employers. This is a massive vote against the UK government’s plans to cut pay, to cut jobs, to cut offices and to attack public services and the terms and conditions of staff who deliver these services, as well as against the insufficient approaches of devolved governments.

This is testament to the phenomenal work put in by rank-and-file union reps and members across the UK. Despite many barriers being placed in their way by the National Executive Committee, reps spent hours contacting every single member in their branches, and sometimes in other branches too, to make sure everyone voted in the ballot.

Prepare for major strikes – including national, all-members action

It is within the authority of the NEC to agree to write to the Departments and the Cabinet Office, to announce dates for action. The anti-union laws mean that a union has to give 14 days of notice of strike action. It is crucial that the union leadership moves quickly to capitalise on this magnificent vote and to put the employer(s) under immediate pressure to concede our demands. BLN supporters proposed exactly this at the NEC meeting which took place on the same day as the ballot result was announced. We proposed that the union should write and demand immediate talks and simultaneously serve notice for action to take place across all 126 employers and preferably on 30 November to coincide with the CWU and UCU. Astonishingly, beyond demanding talks, the NEC has decided not to do this, but to reconvene later in November to discuss how and when to call action.

Major coordinated action has already been announced by other unions, including 115,000 in the Communication Workers Union and 70,000 in the University and Colleges Union, for late November. In London, this would allow striking Whitehall-focused Departments to link up with the major demonstration planned by UCU, raising confidence in a key area for us.

For the NEC to agree merely to write to the Cabinet Office, rather than immediately serve notice of action, shows weakness and allows the Government to play for time.

Broad Left Network supporters, including on the NEC continue to argue in favour of an initial two-day strike of all areas with a legal mandate for action, joining up with those unions calling action towards the end of November. If we were to move now, it could convince other unions, such as the Royal College of Nursing, which also voted for action, to join in.

The disruption caused by two days of action taken together by all areas can then be built on, including by taking out different sectors and different areas on a rolling basis, linking up when there is industrial logic to do so, such as geographic proximity or common areas of work. Enough areas have voted for action that we have sufficient muscle to fight hard.

Instead, the NEC are downplaying the potential role of sustained all-members action, in favour of small-scale targeted action, which can be supported with strike pay. We disagree. Members want national action covering all areas with a mandate to strike, in addition to other kinds of action, to exert maximum pressure on the government.

Re-ballots and action short of strike

Even though the civil service areas with a mandate for action number around 100,000, there are big areas which do not currently have a mandate. HM Revenue and Customs, for example, did not break the 50% turnout threshold requirement, although it was only very narrowly missed.

In contrast to the view of the NEC, we must consider all areas which did not break the threshold for a re-ballot, not just HMRC.

We must also consider whether and when to ballot all areas for action short of a strike. Due to the incompetence of the NEC, a question on action short of a strike was not included in the recent ballot, so members are not able to undertake an overtime ban or a work to rule in any area, despite the major leverage this could provide.

The NEC, at their meeting this morning, did not consider this, and as announced in the Facebook Live meeting last Thursday, they are not now intending to meet until 18^th November 

Re-building a Fighting, Democratic PCS

Members have given the NEC an enormous mandate to prepare the union for a massive fight that could improve our pay, secure our pensions, protect our terms and conditions and defend our jobs and offices. If the current NEC is not up to this task, they should step aside for a campaigning, socialist NEC that is more attuned to the needs of members.

Major strike action offers the opportunity for a new leadership to step forward. For years now Broad Left areas have been in the forefront of securing yes votes in ballots, and building high turnout. Broad Left Network reps have been the people proposing the serious strategies to win for members. Now we will be the reps who can mobilise members for the most determined strike action.

We want all reps, who are fighting in the trenches for their members, to step up, ditch this failed leadership – unite with us and finally vote for a leadership with the backbone, grit and determination to win.