Within hours of the conclusion of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of 14 February, memes, a video from the General Secretary and an all-members email had gone out proclaiming the ‘Good News’, that the union’s strike levy had been scrapped.
All Broad Left Network supporters present at the NEC voted against the termination of the levy, as did two independent socialists, believing that the levy continued to be necessary if we were serious about winning a good deal for members on pay and conditions like hybrid working, and on reversing job cuts, in 2025.
The levy was originally introduced by the previous NEC, which was dominated by the mis-named ‘Left Unity’ grouping. General Secretary Fran Heathcote and national president Martin Cavanagh are members of LU. They have blocked the decision of the incoming NEC, where the left coalition has a majority, at its meeting last July to review the levy with an immediate reduction for the lowest paid members.
In reality, this is not good news at all. January and February’s NEC meetings demonstrate with stark clarity that Heathcote, Cavanagh and their rump of supporters have no plan to fight in 2025. Worse, they have now telegraphed this message to a hostile set of employers – be it the New Labour government of Starmer and Reeves, Westminster departments, agencies or devolved areas.
Inaction by Cavanagh and Heathcote after January NEC
At the preceding NEC meeting, on 15 January, the General Secretary, Fran Heathcote, put forward a paper with zero recommendations. It merely reported on discussions with the Cabinet Office. Nothing in that report of discussions represents a significant step forward and so Broad Left Network supporters put forward the need to prepare for and build the necessary campaign to win on pay, jobs and our working environment.
That such a campaign is needed should be beyond doubt. Job cuts are proceeding in Westminster departments, a major dispute of outsourced staff against their behemoth employers continues to rage despite Angela Rayner’s promise of the most insourcing government for a generation. There is little movement on pay anywhere.
Since the GS’s January paper did not recommend anything, there was no excuse to rule the motion out. The BLN-proposed, Majority Left-backed motion, passed. President Martin Cavanagh and his supporters praised themselves for being willing to support the motion and promptly began acting like they had proposed it themselves.
From there, everything went immediately off the rails.
Only one instruction in the motion – for NEC Liaison Officers (NECLOs) go out and consult every area – was actioned. The others, of production of materials etc, of the very basic steps to put the union on a war footing, have been ignored.
Despite the NEC agreeing basic steps in January, nothing has been done to start the process of readying PCS for a pivotal next few months, in which, amongst other things, the Cabinet Office will publish the Civil Service Pay Remit for 2025/26. Reeves is already on record indicating that pay rises will be 2.8%, about half of last year’s inadequate offer. Inflation stands at 3%. Inaction is not accidental: it is obstruction by President Cavanagh and General Secretary Heathcote.
Majority left coalition meets in February to discuss NECLO feedback
There are 8 Broad Left Network supporters, 4 independent socialists and 7 Independent Left supporters on the union’s NEC this year. Many are NECLOs for different parts of the union. These NEC members, collectively called the Left Majority, met together to discuss the feedback from these areas.
We concluded that much more work had to be done by the union’s elected leadership to give our reps and members confidence that a struggle could win. Steps must be taken to win support across the union’s membership for our key demands. But the basic elements of the kind of campaign including the necessary strike action that could win must also be outlined.
These basic elements include national all-members strike action, supplemented by paid targeted strikes aimed at specific areas. This would put enormous pressure on the ordinary functioning of the government. Such an approach is not new, but it is expensive, requiring millions of pounds to ensure that members asked to go on strike are not failing to cover bills, rent, food etc.
Campaign-building motion written and proposed to February NEC
On this basis a motion – which is reprinted here – was proposed to the NEC. This set out what steps needed to be taken to build a campaign now, rather than simply wait and hope, as Cavanagh and Heathcote seem to be doing, based on their zero substantive proposals on a campaign to either January or February NECs.
The motion also included two vital elements.
Firstly, as we have been proposing since the July NEC, that the levy should immediately be reduced for the lowest paid PCS members and reviewed with a view to putting in place something more permanent and across the whole union. Part of this would include an analysis to identify how much we need to collect to make any paid action effective and sustainable.
Two: that steps be taken urgently to ensure every branch can contact its own members. This reflects a pressing demand from branches that have been trying like hell to recruit, retain and organise members across PCS.
When the NEC convened on 14 Feb, Cavanagh, as President, vetoed the motion.
Wrecking tactics like this have been continuous from the President and General Secretary since the first NEC meeting of the electoral year in June 2024. Having wrecked the national campaign in 2023 by settling for the £1500 one-time payment, when they should have pressed for more, their constant tactics are delay and derailing left proposals.
Independent Left act to end the levy
Immediately following the decision to veto the motion, and a challenge to that decision – which was passed by the NEC but did not achieve the required 2/3rds majority – Independent Left members demanded that a vote be taken to revisit the question of suspending the union’s strike levy.
IL are an integral part of the majority left coalition which defeated Cavanagh and Heathcote’s Left Unity in the May 2024 union elections, and which is standing again in the forthcoming elections. On the question of the levy, we do not agree with their decision to seek the end of the levy and believe it to be shortsighted.
A mistake has been made by IL in our view. But that aside, the key question that needs to be addressed is what does the union need to win a decisive victory for members in the battle on pay, pensions, jobs, and working conditions like hybrid? And if paid action is to form part of that campaign, the thorny issue of how will this be funded? It is in recognition of this that the BLN proposed a reduce and review in the July meeting. We do still need a levy.
This can be demonstrated concretely in figures, based on the amount spent in the targeted strike wave of 2022-2023, and comparing that to the amounts available to the union now. We choose not to reproduce exact figures as this is a public forum, but we do not have the same resources as we had at the end of 2022, ready for the strike wave ahead. A levy makes up the difference and more.
There is also significant paid action taking place by our outsourced members as well as other disputes across the union. The union’s fighting fund is in overdraft, yet the General Secretary and National President dishonestly argue that this is somehow separate.
Unfortunately, IL’s mistake gave Cavanagh, Heathcote and their Left Unity coterie sufficient votes to terminate the levy – without having to answer the question, what way forward to a serious campaign on the issues that matter to members in 2025? And how will we fund it? This is a question that Heathcote and Cavanagh cannot answer, given the confusion their disinformation and poor leadership have wrought in PCS.
Basic unity of the real PCS left remains intact
BLN will continue to make the case for a coherent strategy that can win the support of thousands of PCS reps across all bargaining units, and behind which can be mobilised hundreds of thousands of civil servants, outsourced workers and workers in arm’s length bodies.
While we may differ with IL on some of the tactics and how they might be funded, we remain absolutely united in our belief that we must build the necessary campaign to win and to do that requires the removal of Cavanagh and Heathcote, their Left Unity nodding donkeys and their blocking tactics.
It is for this reason that the Majority Left Coalition is putting forward Marion Lloyd for President and a united slate of left candidates to lead the union and build this campaign. It is for this reason that we urge all comrades to get involved in building the broadest challenge and the broadest base for re-establishing a fighting, democratic PCS.
PCS Broad Left Network 