Author: pcsbln

I was privileged to chair our BLN Conference on Saturday (14th January). The conference was a great success with activists from all parts of the union discussing the important issues facing our members. The discussion was great and really demonstrated the serious attitude and commitment of the BLN membership and also the wider periphery who attended.

National Campaign 

First up on the agenda was the union’s campaign on pay and jobs against the background of a government pay limit of 2-3% and the cost of living crisis faced by our members. The conference made clear BLN support for a national campaign on pay and jobs. It applauded PCS members striking and sacrificing on behalf of all of us but disappointed that national action uniting all those areas who had won the mandate and co-ordinated action with other unions had barely featured in the union’s strategy and demonstrated a lack of understanding about what is required to win.

The conference sent solidarity to all workers across the movement, committed to do everything possible to encourage members to support the levy, to support those areas re-balloting and to work tirelessly to ensure that the 1^{st of} February was a huge success.

However, escalation is needed, and conference agreed BLN will call/campaign to include:

• Immediate and continuing all-members national strike action – preferably when we can but not exclusively alongside other unions – to maximise pressure on the employer.
• Selective strikes supported by a levy consented to by members.
• Immediate re-ballot of all those groups of members who failed to secure a strike mandate.
• Immediate further ballot for action short of strikes to support the pressure of all-members national strikes and to increase the effectiveness of the targeted action.

Under the Tory anti-union laws our ballot mandate runs out on 7 May. Conference agreed BLN should argue for a fresh ballot beginning no later than 7 April if our campaign demands are not met by then.

Conference agreed that the national campaign needs to be under the democratic control of the union’s members and for this purpose BLN should argue for a special conference in mid-March to review the progress of the dispute and determine what strategy is needed to win.

Tory Anti-Union Legislation 

The Tories are planning further attacks on our right to strike with legislation giving them the power to impose minimum service levels and removing the already limited protection from dismissal for workers judged not to have complied. The conference agreed to continue to campaign for the repeal of all Tory anti-union legislation and that the TUC should “prepare for the maximum co-ordinated industrial action, up to and including a 24 hour general strike if the Tory Government moves to implement new anti-union laws and restrictions”.

NEC Report 

Fiona Brittle is currently playing a fantastic role as the lone BLN supporter on the National Executive Committee. Fiona’s report to the conference concentrated on the national campaign and in particular her consistent efforts to persuade the Executive to take the fight to the government with a bold strike strategy the major part of which would involve all member national action. She meets, she said, with repeated rejection, but would not be deterred from putting forward a strategy which put us in the best possible position to win our demands on pay, jobs, pensions, and the compensation scheme.

BLN Secretary Report 

Alan Dennis, BLN Secretary, reported on the work of the BLN Steering Committee over the preceding twelve months which he said had contributed to the BLN becoming a major force in the union and to it being seen as the left opposition to the current leadership. Alan identified a major challenge for the BLN in the period ahead of challenging and changing the top down approach of the current leadership and democratising the working of the union.

Guest Speaker-Sheila Caffrey (NEU)

I was really pleased to welcome Sheila to our conference. Sheila is an NEU Executive Committee member and supporter of the left group Education Solidarity. Sheila expressed the hope that the NEU statutory strike ballot (NB: which is now has and we will all join up on the 1^st February) would give them a mandate for action and that PCS and NEU would shortly be sharing picket lines. She explained that support for the left had grown in the NEU based on an approach expressed in their slogan – “Lead from the front and build from below “. Sheila thanked us for the opportunity to address the conference and suggested we should more regularly link up left groups across the unions.

Conference Motions 

A number of motions were discussed which have determined BLN policy and which BLN supporters will take to their Branch Annual General Meetings for discussion. These included: Covid – the threat has not gone away and the union needs to act collectively. On tax justice the enormous tax gap from evasion which if collected would fund a fair health and benefits system. A bigger and better union by linking organising and bargaining. PCS digitalneeds to be designed around the needs of branches and members. Proper access to members mobile and email addresses for lay reps is vital to build the union and coordinate action. Need to rebuild the Proud structures in the union. What we need to do and campaign for to ensure trans equality. No to privatisation /outsourcing. Need for a better health service fully resourced free from privatisation and outsourcing. Need an Anti- Austerity Charter.

BEIS Group – NEC Impose New Constitution 

A motion rejecting the imposition of an unagreed constitution by the Left Unity led NEC was agreed. This has no precedent in the twenty year plus history of PCS and takes our union back to the undemocratic practices of the old CPSA right wing. Conference agreed full support to BEIS Group.

Regional Committee Structures-Consultation

The conference noted that the NEC were consulting on the union’s regional committee structure and urged BLN supporters to respond by the 20th January deadline making the case for properly funded and democratically controlled regional committees.

Election candidates agreed

The conference agreed the composition of the BLN Steering Committee for the twelve months ahead and the candidates that BLN will support in the 2023 PCS elections.

That’s It

In bringing our conference to a conclusion it seemed right to emphasise the critical role we will play individually and collectively in the period ahead securing our national campaign demands and a fairer, better – socialist – society for all workers and their families. 

If you read this report and are not yet a BLN member, please consider joining us.

If you would like to join the Broad Left Network, please fill in the form below and post it to – “PCS BLN, 11 Carr Road, Sheffield S6 2WY”

BLN Membership FormDOWNLOAD

The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill (the Bill) is a piece of legislation which simplifies and demedicalises the process by which trans men and women in Scotland can obtain legal gender recognition via a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC), which allows them to change the sex marker on their birth certificate.

Legal gender recognition is an existing right which has been available since 2004, and the Bill does not change the effect of a GRC or introduce new rights for trans people, it simply allows them to change their legal gender on the basis of self-determination. This means the applicant giving a solemn and serious statutory declaration (a common legally binding mechanism similar to an affidavit) to a solicitor or justice of the peace that they intend to live in their “acquired gender” for the rest of their lives and have already done so for a minimum time period. It does not, as opponents have tried to claim, allow just anyone to declare that they are a different gender

The current system for obtaining a GRC is totally unfit for purpose, and fails to provide many trans people with access to the right of legal gender recognition. It involves a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, a minimum two-year waiting period (though in reality this can be more like 3-5 years given waiting times for accessing gender identity healthcare to receive a diagnosis) and requires a person to make an application to a Gender Recognition Panel – a UK tribunal comprised of lawyers and doctors who never meet the applicant, and who pass judgment on a person’s identity without any right of appeal. This has been described as invasive, demeaning, onerous and dehumanising by trans rights groups, and is significantly outdated in comparison to international best practice (self-determination) as outlined by multiple bodies including the UN and the World Health Organisation, who haven’t recognised gender dysphoria as a mental disorder since 2019.

The Scottish parliament passed the Bill with over a two-thirds majority, and with cross-party support from members of every political party in the chamber. This followed six years of public consultation and numerous Parliamentary evidence sessions, making it one of the most consulted-on pieces of legislation in the history of the Scottish Parliament. It does not affect reserved legislation such as the Equality Act 2010, which still applies precisely as it does under the current system. Indeed a Labour amendment was accepted and placed on the face of the Bill which states that for the avoidance of doubt, the Bill does not modify Equality Act.

Single-sex services catering to women have the option under the Equality Act to exclude trans women (with or without a GRC) from women’s services on a case-by-case basis if to do so would be a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. The Bill does not change this, and organisations would still be able to use those exclusions. It is worth noting however that Rape Crisis Scotland, Women’s Aid and Engender all gave evidence in strong support of the Bill, and gave the view that it would not make any change to their already inclusive policies – no one in Scotland has to show a birth certificate to access a rape crisis centre or a hospital ward, and never has.

Despite all this diligence and care, and the obvious will of the Scottish people, the UK Tory government has chosen to use section 35 of the Scotland Act 1998 to veto the Bill by blocking it from being submitted for Royal Assent and thereby preventing it becoming Scots law. This unprecedented and undemocratic action is one of the most serious constitutional issues to have arisen since devolution, and has provoked outrage. At the very least it makes a mockery of the concept of devolved government if the UK Parliament can veto any bill they do not like, even if it is wholly in relation to matters devolved to the Scottish Parliament.

Many commentators have said that this overriding of the Scottish Parliament’s authority signals an absolute guarantee of Scotland gaining independence. So why would the Tories risk something which they have vehemently opposed (most notably by refusing to allow a second independence referendum) in order to veto a very short Bill which introduces measures comparable to those already in place in multiple jurisdictions including Norway, Belgium, the Republic of Ireland, Malta, India and some states in the USA? Especially when there is no evidence at all from these countries to show that using a self-determination model for legal gender recognition causes any increase in risks to women or girls, and simply allows trans people to live, marry and be buried with dignity in their affirmed gender.

The answer is clear:

The Tory Government has managed to produce a huge economic and social crisis where many workers are on strike just so they can heat their homes, put food on the table, and clothe their families. The use of food banks has rocketed, excess hospital deaths are at more than 500 per week, and essential care services are falling apart increasing pressure on an already failing NHS service. The NHS is not failing through bad management within the service, but through chronic under-funding and a disastrous management of the economy by this Tory government. At the same time huge tax breaks have been given to private schools, energy companies, and city bankers meaning the rich are getting richer while the hard working British citizen is struggling with an energy crisis and a cost of living gap too huge to bridge.

Amidst all this economic carnage, what better than a manufactured culture war against a tiny misunderstood minority using the false flag battle cry of anti-woke and protection of women and children? The compliant right-wing media headlines will once more focus public attention away from the economy and onto this constructed constitutional crisis and the ongoing demonisation of trans and non-binary people.

We must not be fooled by this tactic of distraction. Self-ID for trans and non-binary people is accepted best practice and demonstrates no increased dangers when it has been introduced elsewhere around the world. Indeed, the Scottish Parliament’s Bill was only a first step on the path to properly enshrining the rights of trans people and is hardly world-leading; the Bill made no provision for legal gender recognition of non-binary people, which is absolutely vital to ensure all people are able to live in dignity as their authentic selves, and must be urgently demanded of both nation’s governments by the labour movement.

The Broad Left Network and the wider PCS union are absolutely clear in their support for trans rights, as is demonstrated year on year by our support for trans inclusive policies at Annual Delegate Conference. Recent attempts by “gender critical” groups to weaken support for our trans comrades within our trade unions and wider society must be rooted out and rejected. Questions about the validity of trans lives have been allowed to drive a wedge into society under the guise of “legitimate concerns”, and we can now see the fruits of that in the disgusting and transphobic so-called debate around the Bill.

Trans lives are not up for debate. Trans people are valid, they are welcome, and they are deserving of the same rights as anybody else. As one trans person who told Scottish Parliament the heartbreaking story of not being able to marry their partner before they died due to the failures of the current system put it: “Reforms are badly needed…it would have allowed me just to be ordinary, which is all we ever wanted.”

The blame for any constitutional crisis must be laid squarely at the door of the UK Tory Government, and we must keep up pressure to remove them from office just as soon as possible for their utterly destructive and inhumane handling of the British economy which has put so many hard-working people into poverty. We must never forget that it is they who have led us to the place where children are going hungry, people are dying needlessly, pensioners are freezing in their own homes, and workers cannot earn enough to cover basic bills when working full-time.

At the same time, the Tories’ friends in big business are making obscene record profits for themselves and their share-holders. This is the same Government who slash public spending, thereby beggaring the very services that provide the healthcare and support for women that they so desperately and dishonestly claim to champion as they stick the boot into trans people. This is where truly legitimate concerns should be focused – on the consequences of successive austerity governments and parties on local authorities, starving our public services, facilities and amenities, causing the poverty and deficiencies that serve to fuel the fire of this debate.

The right wing used the same arguments against equal marriage and the repeal of section 28 as they are using today against gender recognition. Reject it, and reject the hate-filled austerity politics inherent in the functioning of capitalism.

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.

“A week is a long time in politics” – a well-trodden phrase – but currently it seems as though an hour is. It speaks volumes about the chaos in the government that this article has been through multiple versions in a matter of days as events have unfolded.. Not small changes, but significant amendments. It began when the Truss government conducted a mini budget on 23rd September 2022, just 17 days after Liz Truss became the Tory Party leader and UK Prime Minister. Except what was announced wasn’t mini and could barely even be described as a budget. Ordinarily a budget would suggest some kind of number crunching. The then Chancellor, Kwarteng didn’t even bother to put his plan to the Office for Budget Responsibility before announcing it.

The last 12 years of Tory rule saw an increasing tax burden. Despite the growing tax revenues, public sector spending as a whole fell. Even ‘protected’ areas like the NHS saw spending fall in real terms as any increases failed to keep pace with inflation. If tax revenues were going up but public spending fell, where did the money go? It went to paying for the national debt created to prop up the banks after their speculation crashed the world economy in 2008.

The mini budget as originally set out would have created a £45 billion a year hole in UK government finances to plug. That’s the equivalent of around half of the NHS budget. The government was going to plug this hole by borrowing, at a time when interest rates are generally going up, to restrict inflation. The borrowing costs would add more pressure to public finances, and that’s just year 1. The plan itself was predicated on growing the economy to the extent that tax revenues would increase to completely replace the missing £45 billion. If that assumption failed to happen then the mini budget will create a permanent hole in public finances to be filled by yet more borrowing and by yet more public sector spending cuts.

The Tory orthodoxy of 12 years was to “balance the books” by slashing public services, with the poorest in society feeling the consequences of those decisions. Unsurprisingly the UK economy stagnated with an ever growing proportion of people struggling to make ends meet. In that backdrop the COVID lockdowns and government financial interventions were a blessing for some. It meant increased benefits, guaranteed income, a reduction in costs like commuting, secured tenancies as landlords couldn’t evict tenants. It gave the public an inkling of what life could be like under Socialism.

Lockdowns may have helped some of the poorest, but it was the rich that really gained from COVID. Contracts were awarded to Tory cronies in yet another transfer of public money to private capital. The bill for COVID soon mounted up and there was no doubt who the Tories would target to pay the bill. Sure enough workers were told to pay more tax to fund adequate medical and social care. Benefit claimants were once again targeted for cuts. As the cost of living rose, workers were told not to ask for too much money in pay rises in case they stoked the already high inflation that they had not caused. But many trade unions are organising and mobilising a worker fightback. We aren’t prepared to pay for another crisis of capitalism.

When austerity was launched in 2008, it was the public sector trade unions that led the fight back. Unions such as the PCS and NUT took strike action in 2010 culminating in a public sector wide strike on 30 November 2011. It was a mobilisation not seen for decades and it should have been the start of something bigger. Instead right wing trade union leaders made back room deals to undermine further coordinated action and the movement was taken apart. A few unions tried to continue the fight but they were isolated and they eventually conceded. This defeat informed the mood of the trade union movement for nearly a decade. Every attack on workers was met with words and no appetite for action. Even left wing trade union leaderships fell into defeatist attitudes. They instead pinned their hopes on a Labour government – which was a doubtful strategy even during the short lived Corbyn leadership.

In 2022 there are different trade unions that lead the fight, in formerly public industries such as post and rail as well as in the private sector. They are unburdened by the defeat in 2011. New trade union leaders are becoming household names. The names of the public sector trade unions are being forgotten as they are shown up for their rightward drift. There is an energy amongst workers. They know they have been taken for a ride. They were promised that fixing the budget would bring rewards worth the initial pain. Those promises ring hollow when many households choose between heating and eating, and for some even that choice is no longer available.

Enter Liz Truss; posing as the next Thatcher. She claimed to be cutting taxes to give workers more in their pocket. This was supposed to boost the UK economy, bringing prosperity to all. Yet you only needed to see who was receiving those tax cuts to see the truth. Bankers were in line for their bonus cap removed, the 1.25% national insurance rise removed, the 45% top rate of tax removed. The richest would have seen £10,0000+ savings each year. By contrast a worker on the average wage will be facing around £350 in tax. To put that in context, average energy bills rose by more £500. Any tax savings for the average worker are dwarfed by the scale of the cost of living crisis.

This was a mini budget for the rich. Such a ploy might have succeeded during times of plenty. But when most people are struggling, such a giveaway was too much even for a lot of Tory MPs. There was open talk on the backbenches of voting for Labour amendments. Even some cabinet ministers broke ranks to discuss their opposition to aspects of the mini budget due to be implemented. It soon became a question of not ‘if’ but ‘when’ a u-turn would happen.

The first u-turn came on Sunday 1 October, when the abolition of the 45% tax rate was withdrawn. This was the easiest decision for Truss’s government, with the subheading being that they are listening to their party and to the country. Yet if they thought this would placate dissent in their ranks or calm international markets, they were clearly unable to read the situation.

On Friday 15 October, 22 days after the mini budget was given, Kwarteng was asked to ‘step down’ as chancellor. Jeremy Hunt was appointed in his place. This was followed over the weekend with a shredding of the mini budget. Measures such as the cutting of income tax, maintaining the corporation tax rate at 19% and VAT free duty for tourists are gone. Around £13 billion of the tax cuts remain. The markets have responded with approval to the reversals. However no reversal for their friends in big businesses and their bonuses.

Many political commentators are saying that Liz Truss’s authority is gone and Jeremy Hunt is the de facto prime minister. That analysis has now been borne out as a new Prime Minister has been crowned – Rishi Sunak, in an astonishing turn of events where we have had three Prime Ministers in a matter of weeks. Yet for the working class there’s no meaningful change. The Health and Social Care Levy is gone, but there’s no plan for the funding or implementation of adequate social care. The Energy Price Guarantee, already inadequate for many families, is now for six months only to April 2023, leaving many with huge uncertainty as to how they’ll continue to afford gas and electricity. The cost of living crisis is still not addressed.

Jeremy Hunt has already said that tax rises and public spending cuts are necessary. We can expect real terms benefit cuts, public sector job losses, pay restraint. The next budget announcement at the end of October is likely to heap further misery on the poorest in society. Yet there are divisions within the Tory Party. They are certain they will lose the next general election but some MPs how to retain their seats. Those MPs know their constituents are struggling and that their party needs to be seen to be doing more or risk public backlash in the form of non-payment campaigns or protests.

This marks the weakness of the Tory Party today. Many in their ranks still want to be seen as fiscally responsible. Others, elected in the so-called red wall, are seeking financial support for ordinary people. Most of the cabinet itself is formed predominantly of free marketeers. Although they are hurting from the market reaction to the mini budget, they are still open to taking a ‘smash and grab’ approach to the UK economy and finances. These contradictions and tensions won’t go away, giving the opportunity for bold action by workers to extract gains. The Ukraine war is being used as an excuse to rip -up environmental protection legislation, to increase the dependency on fusil fuels, including the dangerous move back to allowing fracking, and all this in the face of an ever-increasing climate emergency.

The current disaggregated ballot of PCS members is just such an opportunity for civil servants. After supporting the UK through the crises of 2008, Brexit and COVID, we deserve fair pay, pensions and a fully funded and staffed civil service. BLN members are calling on all PCS members to use their ballot to vote YES for strike action. We need to be part of the growing trade union opposition to current Tory policy. Its clear from the rail dispute that the Tories fear strike action by unionsand the public support that workers in dispute are gaining and aim to introduce even more anti trade union laws,. We must be prepared to be bold: coordinating our strike action with other unions where practical, taking our own strike action as necessary. Unlike the current Left Unity NEC majority, BLN members won’t shy away from the candid conversions with members on what’s needed to win this dispute.

A strong Labour opposition putting forward Socialist policies would reinforce the demands of trade unions and give hope to workers. Instead the current Starmer shadow cabinet refuse to back strikes. No one knows what they stand for. They are gaining traction in the polls simply because they aren’t the Tories. Starmer’s ‘strategy’ comes with risks as it leaves many voters with nothing to vote for and they may stay away. What’s needed is a party that will support the trade unions and challenge red and blue Tories at the ballot box.

The Tory Government is on its knees and fighting for its survival. We await to hear what Sunak has planned for us – but we can be certain that it will means cuts, closures and reductions in the real value of our pay. Now is the time for us to act – vote “yes” in the ballot, post your ballot paper by the end of October. Unions are moving into action, workers are winning, let’s join them and increase our chances of defending our lot.

The death of the Queen has pushed aside many issues in some peoples minds, but for most, including PCS members, the huge problems we face – including how we are to make ends meet against a spiralling cost of living – cannot be ignored.

Half a million civil servants watched apprehensively as Liz Truss assembled her new cabinet. The new PM has already publicly committed herself to the 91,000 job cuts announced by Johnson, endorsing the fantasy that there are “back of house” cuts that can be made without massive impact to the millions of citizens who rely on the UK civil service.

Truss did not wait to even take over the office of PM before launching an attack on the civil service trade unions, promising to rein in the use of facility time. She also pledged to consider regional pay, to realise an £8.8bn pay cut to public sector pay. Truss also performed the fastest u-turn in history when it was explained even by fellow Tories that the measures of control over union reps she had called for were already in place, and that her proposed savings would destroy any idea of “levelling up” for 5.5million public sector workers.

Unthinking Tory arrogance over our pay, jobs and working lives is no laughing matter at a time when inflation has risen to 10% and may see 18% within the next 12 months. PCS’ national ballot – covering pay, pensions, redundancy rights, working conditions and staffing – begins on 26th September. Every effort must be made to smash the turnout across every single group in the union.

The Tories and the employers won’t be declaring a truce and workers will still be facing the biggest cost of living crisis in generations. There must be no delay in the national PCS strike ballot and the union must fight for co-ordinated action

There can be only one answer to the chaos unleashed in Whitehall by the army of privatisers, landlords and robbers at the top of the government; determined, disciplined, mass strike action, linking up with our brothers, sisters and comrades in the railway unions, in the postal service and the rapidly proliferating strikes in the rest of the economy.

Truss was forced into the huge concession on energy prices, which could cost twice what was spent on the Covid furlough scheme. This was because this unstable, weak and divided Tory government fear the boiling anger of workers. It shows what could be won if the unions fight and strike together.

Truss and the Tory agenda must be stopped – livelihoods and lives depend on it. Vote yes in the PCS ballot on 26th September.

The DWP Group Executive Committee (GEC) met over two days (27 & 28 July) to discuss how it intends to respond to the crisis of low pay and increasing job insecurity, with nearly 1,000 members of staff now at real risk of compulsory redundancy due to the employer’s Workplace Transformation/Network Design Programme – or, to call it what it is, its Office Closure Programme. The Department has already confirmed that it intends to commence a review of its entire estate and, in effect, puts at risk every job across the country, especially if the Back of House site has an office workforce of less than 300.

 The GEC was also given a verbal update on the National Campaign Ballot, which runs from 26^th September and will last six weeks. The earliest time we will be able to take strike action if the 50% threshold is met will be late November.

The meeting was bookended by a 24-hour strike by 40,000 railway workers, represented by the RMT union, and the announcement of a massive vote for strike action by Unite, who had balloted 1,900 port workers in Felixstowe following a below-inflation pay rise. The following day, 40,000 Openreach engineers and BT call centre workers – walked out as part of their dispute over pay. All three of these disputes involve strike votes for the first time in at least 30 years.

With inflation now into double digits, and forecast in some quarters to reach 15% by the end of this year, one GEC member showed the committee the front page of the Guardian newspaper, which carried a headline that unions were threatening a general strike to deal with the cost of living crisis and as a rebuke to Liz Truss, who is running to replace Boris Johnson as Tory leader and Prime Minister, and her threats to introduce yet more anti-democratic, anti-trade-union legislation. That is the current period in which workers are operating, and there is a growing willingness to fight back against high inflation, falling living standards, and a range of attacks on other conditions of service. The resistance is no longer confined to the public sector, with dozens of smaller and protracted strikes taking place, including hundreds of bus drivers across the North West, who are out on indefinite strike action.  Bizarrely, the committee was told on several occasions that nothing has changed since Annual Delegate Conference in May of this year, yet the newspaper headlines told a different story!

No Office Closures, No Jobs Cuts

The Broad Left Network supporters on the GEC, now totalling six (up from three) following the Group elections in May, moved a motion calling for the DWP GEC to seek authorisation from the National Disputes Committee to commence a national ballot of the Group as soon as possible, on all issues connected to the National Campaign: Pay job cuts, Civil Service Compensation Scheme, and for it to include office closures, under the campaign heading ‘No Office Closures, No Job Cuts”. We believe that the leverage conditions exist now, workers are organising in their trade unions to resist, and civil servants are demanding we do the same – now! There is a raft of DWP-specific issues that need the firmest possible response.

 A further 10 Jobcentres were announced for closure on 20^th July, which comes on the back of a previous list of Jobcentre closures earlier this year, and it has quickly become clear that the Workplace Transformation/Network Design strategy, which is seeking to close 42 back of house sites and put at risk nearly 1,000 jobs, now involves a review of its whole estate and a fight back, on a national, collective and co-ordinated basis is urgently needed. They have also ruled out providing the option of homeworking as a redundancy avoidance measure.

Left Unity ditching closure campaign

The strategy from the Left Unity GEC majority, which makes up the leadership of the DWP Group, has been to divide members and urge any campaign to be held on a singular and local basis, rather than join up the campaign to resist the closure programme. Their strategy now looks like they are ditching the office closures and staffing campaign in favour of the national ballot. The BLN, on the other hand, has consistently called for a national ballot, not just on office closures, but combining with the other key industrial issues, such as pay, staffing, and workloads, but we are now denounced as anti-democratic for attempting to override agreed union policy.

The effective and democratic running of PCS starts and ends at the Annual Delegate Conference. This is true. However, members elect a National Executive Committee, and a number of Group Executive Committees, to manage union affairs in the intervening period between ADCs and Group Conference. That delegated authority exists so that it can respond to issues as they rise. Sometimes the BLN will agree with a change of policy – such as the decision to include the disgraceful 91,000 job cut threat, when it met in July, despite ADC policy carrying no reference to jobs – and sometimes we will disagree such as when Mark Serwotka unilaterally “parked” the union’s policy to campaign for a 10% pay rise in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. We have clear Group conference policy linking staffing with the pay campaign and argued that we could utilise the tactic where groups are being balloted in a disaggregated way on the national campaign to include specific reference to the need for 30,000 extra staff and against office closures in our ballot material, to ensure all the issues our members are facing are included in a single ballot. It is not anti-democratic to argue for a ballot on all of the key issues at a time when the country is locked in an economic and political crisis. We believe the tide is flowing in our direction, yet the Left Unity leadership is doing all it can to miss riding it and they voted down our motion!

Climate change safeguards needed for members

Elsewhere, a vital debate took place on the Climate Emergency, in particular the slow response from the Department to the historic heatwave in mid-July. In seeking to amend the Health and Safety report, which only referenced the heatwave when criticising over-worked workplace reps for not understanding current Health and Safety employer policies, BLN supporters argued that a standing plan should be negotiated so that future extreme weather events, increasing in their frequency and severity, will be nationally led with clear guidance that presumes all offices would be closed in the worst affected areas as soon as the warning is issued. And no pressure to keep sites open in badly affected areas where our members or the public could be put at risk, to help reps get the right decision in each site based on safety. This amendment was carried.

COVID-19 absences could now lead to formal action

It was also reported that COVID-19 absences will no longer be protected against formal attendance management action, which risks increasing transmission in DWP workplaces as members report to work, despite unwell, out of fear of being issued with warnings. Moreover, recent studies   have shown that in May 2022, 1.2 million people showed signs of Long Covid, which could be avoided by ensuring members have the ability to rest at home for the period of sickness. It is imperative that the responsible officers continue to negotiate with the employer to provide the best possible terms when recovering from COVID-19.

On Thursday 31^st March, union reps from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) met together by Zoom to discuss the announcement of 48 office closures. We have previously reported on the first 43 closures, announced on 17^th March, affecting potentially 8,000 staff. On 30^th March, 5 more were added with less than 24 hours’ notice to the union. More than 400 staff are affected by the new wave, in Brighton, Burton, Liverpool and Hyde.

The response from the current leadership of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, drawn from an organisation calling itself “Left Unity”, left a lot to be desired. Multiple union branches with offices directly hit by the announcements, and potentially with jobs at risk, were not given any support from the union’s Group Executive Committee (GEC). This included sites like Walsall which have since organised their own all-members meeting with a view to preparing to fight back. Response from members has been positive.

On 17^th March itself, the day of the announcements, the union’s leadership issued a belated briefing, well after management-led announcements had taken place. This failed to give a clear steer to union reps and members across the affected areas; it did not announce any serious strategy to oppose the closures or to save jobs. It did not link the question of closures and jobs to other major issues in DWP: pay, temporary staff, Covid-safety or workloads.

Since then, despite this lacklustre response from DWP Group leadership in PCS, Broad Left Network supporters in the union have been working hard to build a grassroots’ response to the announcements.

A meeting on official time to discuss office closures

Thursday’s meeting involved 6 hours of paid official time for reps to be “consulted” on the closures by the PCS leadership. Every thinking rep in DWP immediately wondered, “What does DWP have to gain by giving reps time to meet?” The contents of the meeting were sadly far from surprising, and they give away exactly what DWP had to gain.

After opening remarks by the Group President, who sternly told reps not to offer ideas on what they thought the union should do, negotiators gave several presentations on the state of discussions with DWP. Chat functions on Zoom were disabled and after a controlled Q&A, reps were divided up into regions to give members’ views on the announcements.

Feedback from these sessions was tightly controlled, with only GEC members speaking for the remainder of the meeting. The result was exactly what the GEC and DWP each hoped to produce; reports which overwhelmingly commented upon secondary issues such as travel, excess fares, exit packages etc., but which downplayed any chance of fighting back.

This is what DWP had to gain – and in this the union’s leadership under PCS “Left Unity” has been the pawn of the employer. Better preparation by the GEC, who were told of the announcements on 15^th March, could have avoided this by providing the leadership that is so desperately lacking from our union, by immediately outlining the need for action and by connecting this to many broader issued affecting the vast majority of DWP’s 90,000+ staff.

“Left Unity” negotiators making mistake after mistake

New depths are still being plumbed, however, by the union’s current leadership. Negotiators revealed that, contrary to what thousands of members were told during the office closure announcements, when staff were told that DWP would do everything possible to avoid redundancies, DWP has admitted they have money set aside for potential redundancies.

Members and reps raised concerns on the day of the announcements that the offices designated to receive any transferred staff from closing sites did not have enough space. Increasingly, this fear seems justified – especially since DWP has not given a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies.

Negotiators also revealed that they have been involved in discussions with DWP about “workforce management” processes. This admission only came about because Broad Left Network reps highlighted intranet changes that DWP had not consulted about or announced publicly, removing DWP’s commitment to statutory redundancy protections for DWP staff.

One of the questions union negotiators were asked by reps was about the planned staffing and workload figures, which are usually provided by DWP as part of the ordinary run of industrial relations. This would reveal where the cuts are intended, and the likely impact on all other staff. Negotiators were unable to state clearly if they have this information.

Getting this information and getting it out to branches is crucial to building a union response. The first duty of the union’s leadership is to win support amongst the activist base for a fighting strategy up to and including industrial action, and working with reps to map a route to get to that outcome – because this kind of action is what we know will be needed to win.

By allowing the format of the recent reps’ meeting to be dictated by DWP, by incompetence in not realising the significance of information provided by DWP, by their inadequacy in expecting DWP to act in good faith, the current leadership of PCS is repeatedly showing that it is not up to the task of fighting office closures. It must step aside for those who can launch this fight.

An alternative is available

On the day of the announcements on 17^th March, Broad Left Network supporters attended as many of the affected sites as we could. The message we put forward was clear. We clearly stated our opposition to the closures and believed the primary role of the union is to fight to retain jobs and offices.

Inevitably a lot of the questions we fielded on the day were about practicalities for those offices where the work was being relocated and where members were promised a “lift and drop” of their jobs. However, where we made it clear that the first order of business was keeping existing buildings and securing all jobs, members agreed enthusiastically.

We have evidence that in these sites, new members have joined the union as a result.

We also face the threat to 3,000 fixed term staff, that their jobs will end at the end of June. The impact to both Jobcentre and Service Centre staff by the loss of these jobs will be calamitous for caseload levels and stress. We have been working hard, where we have a base, to enlist support from staff for a campaign to defend these jobs.

Critical for an integrated campaign

How we link these issues has now become critical. The GEC need to stop separating out these attacks as single issues, they need to be integrated into one campaign to bring the workforce together in defence of the major attack being made by the employer.

With the right approach, this could be expanded to all branches in DWP very quickly, even in the limited amount of time available. It can be linked to the office closures, the inevitable disruption to DWP work and the redundancies DWP is clearly planning. It can also be linked to safety – while Covid-19 guidelines are increasingly being discarded, the risks have not gone away. Offices which had hitherto maintained spacing between occupied desks are already planning to get rid of this, in order to facilitate transfers of staff into fewer sites.

It can also be linked to the attack on our pay launched by HM Treasury this week, with the 2-3% pay remit in an era of 8% inflation – a 5% pay cut, minimum. There are union reps who would not wait to react to DWP’s next betrayal of the pay, jobs and working conditions of their staff, but who would mobilise the full power of the union to resist.

You will find them on your ballot paper – these are the Broad Left Networks supporters.

The Broad Left Network support an integrated campaign on all these demands:

• No to the 48 DWP office closures, no redundancies, protect jobs, keep services local.
• Defend every job – the loss of 3,000 FTAs and who knows how many staff as a result of office closures will be calamitous for claimants and staff in DWP.
• Permanent jobs now – the recent redundancy exercise for our temporary staff is a mess. The scoring system is a mess. These staff are capable and should be given jobs.
• For an extra 30,000 staff in DWP to reduce caseloads in Service Centres and Jobcentres and to support under pressure areas such as State Pension.
• End micromanagement, end compulsory late working, end compulsory Saturday working: spreading few staff over more working hours and days is ludicrous.
• Safety first: for an agreement between DWP and PCS on home/hybrid working, that secures the benefits of home/hybrid working for all and keeps people safe.
• No discrimination – equality proof all HR policies and pay systems
• A 10% pay rise, minimum, to reverse the fall in wages due to rising prices since 2010.