Virtually every part of the UK civil service is currently faced with redundancies and office closures. The Cabinet Office, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, the Department for Business and Trade and others have already launched exit schemes to cut thousands of jobs across the civil service. The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) is probably unique, however, in having launched an exit scheme, and then had to revisit it to cut more jobs.

Plans launched by Keir Starmer, Wes Streeting and the Labour government seek to reorganise the NHS, involve a bonfire of jobs, which could in the end cost as much as £1bn across NHS England and DHSC. Both have been given permission to overspend on existing NHS budgets, not to improve services, but to pay for contract terminations. Meanwhile some of the cuts take aim at bodies like the Integrated Care Boards, with cuts of up to 50%, the third reorganisation in a decade of how the NHS ensures services are available to patients.

Eight months on from the Starmer/Streeting announcement that NHS England would be dissolved and folded in to the DHSC, senior leaders still cannot outline a new structure, nor can they show how a restructure and job cuts to the value of hundreds of millions will improve healthcare for millions or take the pressure off hardpressed civil servants and healthcare workers. The sole concrete accomplishment seems to have been the creation of yet more executive “leadership” posts on salaries of up to £210,000!

So far, PCS’ public comments, the largest union for civil servants and the largest union in DHSC, has been limited to terse articles referencing consultation with the union, without criticising yet another attack on the NHS.

What a difference a decade makes: where is the PCS alternative?

BLN has repeatedly argued that – contrary to the existing leadership of the union’s National Executive Committee, under Fran Heathcote and Martin Cavanagh – the current Labour government is no friend of workers, and that their plans are not aimed at fixing the welfare state, fixing the NHS, fixing the cost of living crisis, fixing public services and the rest. They proved within weeks, with the attack on Winter Fuel Allowance, that they serve big business.

Our approach must be to ready the union’s members for battle across the UK civil service, across devolved areas (who will be impacted by cuts through Barnet Formula consequentials as well as by choices of their devolved administrations) and across the private sector. The recent thumping victory of the YES vote to retain the union’s political fund points in one of the directions, which we called for across our branches and regions.

A decade ago, under the 2010-2015 coalition government and its swingeing cuts, eviscerating civil service jobs, PCS was at the forefront of creating the “PCS Alternative”, a pamphlet built from the lived experience of our members, that showed the harm that would be done by the government’s attacks and posed an alternative to austerity cuts. In individual areas from Aviation to Scottish Social Security, we involved tens of thousands of members in a massive political debate on everything from benefit sanctions to decarbonisation, from tax justice to energy democracy.

Starmer’s Labour government, after 18 months in power, is getting off very lightly from the current leadership of PCS. Very little member-facing work is being done to connect the government’s anti-worker policies, and their attacks on the civil service and the NHS, to the lived experience of our union’s members. Of rising prices, of job cuts, of a recession by stealth for working people. This could be a crucial part of mobilising members to fight in their own defence. 

The illusion must be decisively broken that we either suck up whatever Labour dish out to us, or we wake up with Nigel Farage as Prime Minister. The truth is quite the reverse. 

If the trade unions do not act and function as a pole of attraction, we are guaranteed to see a massive backlash against Labour, including votes for Reform. A new PCS Alternative, this time to Labour’s austerity, and a serious political strategy that focuses upon preparing the union to stand and support candidates in elections who will stand up for our members and for our public services, are crucial weapons in the fight with a vicious Labour government. The current PCS leadership are letting us sleepwalk into that fight.

Political strategy and industrial strategy are linked

A revamped political strategy, one that begins from the perspective of what is being done to our members’ jobs, to the public services they deliver and to their communities, would be a huge step. The positive response this would receive from tens of thousands of union members would give the lie to the argument, put forward repeatedly by Cavanagh and Heathcote at the NEC, that there is no mood to fight.

Most recently the deliberate Heathcote/Cavanagh demobilisation of the union can be seen in Members’ Briefing MB-01-25, which essentially pronounced dead the union’s national campaign on pay, jobs and hybrid. This campaign was endorsed and demanded by the union’s annual delegate conference in May, based on a motion written by BLN supporters and carried through many branches AND the NEC, which for one year (May ‘24 to May ‘25) was held by the majority left coalition, although most of the things we actually sought to do were vetoed by Cavanagh as President.

We simply do not believe that there is no mood to fight. 

There is confusion. Members are deeply worried. There has been no leadership from the union’s National Executive Committee for years, especially since they shut down the strike wave in June 2023. It was this betrayal which brought a majority-left NEC to office in May 2024. There was still little leadership on display as any time momentum began to build, the President, Cavanagh, simply vetoed the next steps, and no side had a two-thirds majority to override him. And the below-inflation pay awards and job cuts keep on coming.

Cavanagh and Heathcote, whose control of the NEC is absolute, have worked through the union’s full time officers and National Disputes Committee to block moves towards action in areas such as the Department for Education and HM Revenue and Customs, further creating the illusion of an ebb in the mood of members to struggle. This is openly echoed by the supporters of Cavanagh and Heathcote on the NEC, especially in areas such as DHSC, Ministry of Justice and the Home Office, who talk down the willingness of members to fight.

In the DWP, which is the biggest PCS Group, the leadership has been pushed into action on pay by the pressure of reps and members. In a consultative ballot,  80.5% voted for strike action on a 52.3% turnout. After considerable delay a statutory strike ballot will start 5 January to force management to re-open negotiations on the already imposed 2025 pay settlement – aimed not at challenging the overall amount but to secure more money for the lowest paid grades, which does of course beg the question as to why the PCS leadership are not embarking on a national ballot to increase the pay pot. An opportunity wasted. Despite the limited nature of the pay demands, the disregarding of the 2025 DWP Conference motion A1 on pay, and the fact that many other important issues – such as office closures and hybrid working – are not included, we shall be working for a massive yes vote in this ballot.

In reality, it is the responsibility of trade union leaders to lead. If we understand that a fight is the only way to defend members and to stop the flood of job cuts, of office closures and – we anticipate – yet more real-terms pay cuts, then it is our responsibility to prepare for that fight and to give members the confidence that they can fight and they can win. We need to relearn the techniques of years gone by.

Clear briefings of reps laying out the steps to a significant strike campaign, including demands that will resonate with members. 

Meetings that seek to mobilise this crucial rep layer of the union. 

A strategy to coordinate disputes that are already live, and there seem to be plenty just now. 

A strategy to be able to ballot for and call massively disruptive strike action and to pay for targeted strike action, to force the government to move. 

Well-written materials that put forward the needed arguments as to why we need to fight and how we can win, as we called for and actually got agreed at the NEC in January 2025 – with not a single leaflet being produced afterwards to start the process of readying members.

These lessons seem to have been lost. Given the enormous pressure on our members, there is scope to change all this in very short order. All it takes is an NEC decision. Except for motions proposed by BLN supporters and allies in the Independent Left, this kind of about turn is not anywhere on the NEC agenda, including in the meeting just yesterday of Wednesday 19 November. “Campaign” papers from the General Secretary propose nothing, they are for noting only.

As BLN supporters across PCS prepare for our annual conference this December, we call on all those who want a fighting, democratic union to come to our conference to discuss with us how we coordinate across existing disputes, how we escalate disputes to win them, and how we bring the vast majority of other PCS members into these fights – on pay, on jobs, on hybrid working, on office closures and plenty else that matters to all of us. We urge you to join the Broad Left Network and help us to build the fight back against Labour austerity.

It’s been nearly five months since PCS members instructed the NEC via motion A383 to build a campaign on the widest possible basis to fight for better pay and pensions, job security, and working conditions. If there was insufficient progress towards members’ demands, the NEC were instructed to move to a ballot for industrial action in mid-September. 

At the NEC on October 23^rd, General Secretary Fran Heathcote tabled a paper which recommended that the NEC agree PCS “will not be moving to action at this stage.” Instead, the General Secretary simply recommended that PCS:

• “Continues to engage in talks” 
• issues a branch briefing to highlight “some of the positive outcomes in the delegated pay round” and advising members of the “consultation” on pay and NEC decision
• issues a members briefing to say that we will not be moving to action at this stage, will continue to speak to the Cabinet Office, and will “keep the position under review in light of any progress in negotiations and changes to our organisational position.

Her reasoning for this, now sadly very familiar, is to allege members have “limited appetite for action”. This view was based on their three “structure tests”, their view from a hastily arranged activist forum and “ballot-ready” schools in late August and pay meetings which branches were asked to call from mid-August to mid-September. 

All this was far too late considering the mandate was to ballot members in September and run during a peak leave period. Conference adjourned on 23^rd May so this lacklustre eleventh-hour gesture towards organising, following three months of complete silence, cannot be considered a reliable gauge of members’ desire and need for a fight on pay. 

BLN NEC members strongly opposed this passive approach and abandonment of the national campaign. The paper contains no plans to build the campaign required, to mobilise members and build the necessary industrial campaign to see off the threats to job and pay levels from the Tories and now Labour. Our organising position is utterly within our control – and yet according to Fran Heathcote the best we can do is wait and see if it magically improves. 

Make no mistake – this is Left Unity giving up the fight on the national campaign without achieving members’ demands, as they have done many times before. 

Failure to launch the campaign

The NEC Left Unity/Democracy Alliance majority, led by President Martin Cavanagh and General Secretary Fran Heathcote, has refused since May 2025 to build for and deliver any campaign to win on pay, jobs, pensions and conditions, in line with union policy. Rather than implement the necessary steps, including preparations for a statutory ballot, to improve the pay remit set by the UK Government (3.25% plus 0.5% to address low pay), they sent departmental negotiators immediately into delegated talks to “see what they can get”. It is blindingly obvious that a pay remit set at under 4% is not anywhere near our 10% claim or an £18/hour minimum wage. 

No remit increase means money available to employers to fund pay rises will not change – anything over 3.75% (even if this were permitted), would be funded by more budget cuts. That means job cuts, higher workloads, and/or selling off terms and conditions. A coordinated campaign, including preparation to ballot for strikes, is the only chance to force the government to increase the pay remit. 

Only one area in the whole union, the office for nuclear regulation, has increased pay bill to more than 5% but even that is only half our 10% claim. Inflation is running at CPI(Housing) rate of 4.1%. When BLN NEC members raised this Fran Heathcote, scoffed and said that “the government uses CPI” and some of these deals beat that – cold comfort for members who will be paying prices for essential groceries which are rising at 5.4% for Quarter 3 of 2025. 

PCS’s demand has always been to use RPI inflation as a benchmark, because it is a more realistic measure of price rises. The GS either doesn’t understand the significance of this, or her salary is now so high that she no longer feels any of the pressure familiar to PCS members. 

Time for more than just talks

NEC member Fiona Brittle moved a motion which censured the NEC for failure to deliver a pay campaign and set out the steps necessary to build the campaign on pay. See motion attached. 

For months, the General Secretary’s papers have shown that talks with the Cabinet Office have produced no commitments from the employer to increase the remit. The employer has simply “recognised” that the Civil Service pay bargaining could be improved in future, without any commitment to do that. However, the GS continues to give platitudes that even talking to the government is a win over the previous Tory government, and a whole two hours has been set aside for their next meeting. However, there remains no indication that they will produce anything different than they have for the last 6 months.

Pleasantries and warm words from the employer without concrete commitments mean nothing. When asked by BLN NEC members whether it had been made clear that without an increase to the 2025/26 pay remit we would seek to enter a dispute, Fran Heathcote sarcastically said “what do you want me to say, no we’ve sat there and done nothing?”. Notably, that doesn’t answer the question and certainly isn’t a yes. 

In moving the motion, the BLN asked for answers as to how anything contained in her paper would concretely move us towards winning on pay, jobs and conditions and prepare members for a successful ballot. Given that we know we must have one or leave members to face real terms pay cuts, how does her plan to “do nothing”, develop the mood and build confidence. We are not researchers conducting a neutral study, we are a trade union and have a particular objective; we want our members geared up, willing and ready to strike to defend and improve their pay and job security. 

Heathcote’s response to this was to once again blame members, and that many areas of PCS not covered by the Cabinet Office pay remit have “already settled for less than 10%”. So, there is it – the General Secretary is not particularly interested in achieving members demands (which she repeatedly calls “aspirations”), but rather a race to the bottom. 

Left Unity believe members “aren’t angry” about pay!

NEC members from the Left Unity and PCS Democrats (together known as the Democracy Alliance) “wish (ed) it hadn’t taken this long but (members) aren’t angry about 3%”, and that “everyone wants a pay rise, but members are not willing to do anything about it.”

This rhetoric is as insulting as it is wrong. It fits into a now-familiar pattern from the General Secretary and President of refusing to build a campaign, ‘testing the mood’ at the last moment after months of silence, declaring members have ‘no appetite to fight’, and abandoning the campaign. This argument goes back many years and was the same used by former General Secretary Mark Serwotka when running down the 2022/23 campaign to force acceptance of the non-consolidated £1500. No wonder members are discouraged – their trade union consistently signals to them that we aren’t up to the task of challenging the government, and even when we do get a successful mandate to strike, we will jump at any small improvement offered to return to industrial peace. 

The Broad Left Network believes that members are prepared to fight. Ballots taking place right across the union demonstrate this.  It is evidenced by the 2022/2023 ballot results and the numerous successful ballots run this year in PCS – Ofgem, Met Police, FM workers, Land Registry, MyCSP, British Library to name just a few. The General Secretary’s assertion that members don’t understand the link between their anger on pay and the need to fight is wrong – members understand that completely, but they have no faith that their union will wage that necessary war against the UK government. 

Elect a new, socialist leadership for PCS

It has been clear for a long time that the Democracy Alliance leadership of Left Unity and PCS Democrats do not have the political will or ability to stand up to the employer. They have watched the value of our pay continue to erode and threats to our jobs increase, without any resistance. Shockingly, they know this. Last year Cavanagh blocked any motions that disagreed with the General Secretary, because his faction was in a minority. This year, Groups and other executive committees writing to the General Secretary to express disagreement with her direction have received boilerplate responses saying it’s not their constitutional role to hold the NEC to account. They have also rejected efforts and requests from some Groups such as Department for Education, and HMRC to press forward with their own challenges to the Cabinet Office pay remit, on the basis that it would “undermine the national campaign”, which the General Secretary now seeks to cancel.

Who runs this union? Who makes the decisions about what we fight on? Heathcote believes it is her and a select few who agree with her. The Broad Left Network disagree – it is PCS members. Cavanagh and the NEC majority this year were elected on a turnout of 6.4%, showing how disenchanted members are with the same old inaction and lack of transparency from their leadership.

PCS members who want to fight the government on pay rather than simply thank them for meeting with us at all must unite to elect a different, socialist leadership for our union. 

Join the BLN, help us to transform this union into a fighting campaigning body capable of winning for members.