Civil service pay – build a serious campaign
Bulletin of Socialist Party Scotland members in PCS
Starmer’s Labour and the SNP don’t fight for us!
We need a fighting PCS
NEC majority strives for a fighting strategy against General secretary and President blockage
Back the call for a Special Delegate Conference
The union’s national elections in May showed that members had drawn the conclusion that a new fighting leadership was needed. Members voted for a new majority on the NEC, a left Coalition of Change, that came together to restore the militant culture that has been frittered away by the misnamed ‘Left Unity’ group. This mood was reflected a few weeks later in the debates at PCS Annual Delegate Conference, which passed motion 315, which included demands for a 10% pay rise and a £15-an-hour minimum wage, and demands on jobs, workload, office closures and pensions. This has never been more necessary, as the union gets to grips with a new situation and a new government.
We now must face up to Starmer’s Labour Westminster government and the SNP government’s austerity agenda. We cannot, unlike figures in “Left Unity”, create illusions in either. Starmer opposed our union’s strikes, and SNP ministers are consistently on the wrong side of picket lines. Both Labour’s Reeves, and SNP Robison’s forthcoming budgets will contain eyewatering cuts, already the SNP have imposed “emergency” spending freezes in the Scottish government.
But that doesn’t mean that the unions can’t force concessions out of Westminster and Holyrood. We must state clearly what the situation is rather than prettify it, the better to prepare for the action that can force gains for members.
This is why the genuine left in PCS, with Socialist Party Scotland members and Broad Left Network supporters prominent, is demanding that the union fights for more than the announced Westminster 5% civil service pay remit and ensures that all pay increases across departments and sectors are fully funded and represent real changes in members incomes. It is clear there are two political trends within the leading elected bodies of the union including the NEC. Lets not forget recently the same blocking tactics used now being used over pay by the Left Unity supported General Secretary Fran Heathcote and President Martin Cavanagh were used to try and dissolve the Scottish government group. They are backed up by the unelected union apparatus and a minority grouping on the NEC, who do not want to provide the fighting lead that members need. On the other hand, the new majority on the NEC is willing and able to represent the desire of members for a fighting union. But despite being in a minority, the general secretary and her supporters are refusing to recognise the democratic vote of members to change the composition of the NEC. They have done this through an undemocratic abuse of powers by the national president. He has made seemingly endless rulings, including preventing the NEC majority from tabling motions, meaning that only those of the general secretary are heard. Imagine this happening in your own branch! Outrageously, this meant that in the recent discussion over the 5% pay remit, which is crucial for our members, the NEC couldn’t reach a decision, because the General Secretary’s motion to accept the offer and end the pay campaign was defeated, but the NEC majority’s motion to reject the offer and implement a strategy to fight for more was undemocratically ruled out. The Left Coalition is going to keep on fighting at the NEC and throughout the union. The ‘Left Unity’ group is paralysing our pay campaign. As a result of their manoeuvring, while continuing to fight the government for more than the 5% pay remit, we have agreed that PCS members are represented in delegated pay talks, but with a clear message in
each Westminster department and bargaining group: ‘5% is not enough!’ But over and above the pay campaign, we believe that members’ vote for change cannot be obstructed in this way. That’s why we support the calling of a Special Delegate Conference that would give PCS reps and members the right to demand that the democratic decision that they made in the union elections in the spring is properly reflected in the running of the NEC. Our conference is the democratic parliament of our union. It needs to properly debate the fight on pay, opposing any new funding cuts, and for a united workers’ struggle against the far-right. This must be done with the widest participation, not the current presidential decrees. These developments in our union raise the need for the building of a powerful left in PCS, around the Broad Left Network and our allies, who are prepared for the industrial action that will be necessary but who also see the need for PCS and the whole union movement to build a political alternative that can fight for the interests of workers, their families and communities.
Socialist Party Scotland says:
• Trade unions must fight austerity. We demand the Scottish Government defies Starmer and sets a no cuts/ needs budget utilising its financial powers to hold off cuts and build a mass campaign alongside the trade unions and communities to demand back the billions stolen by Westminster.
• 5% is not enough. We need £15-an-hour minimum, and a campaign for pay restoration
• End cuts and privatisation in the civil service, and all services
• Repeal all anti-trade union legislation
• Jobs, homes and services – smash racism
• Nationalise rail, mail, energy and utilities under democratic working-class control and management, with compensation only on the basis of proven need
• Starmer’s Labour and the SNP don’t represent our interests – we need a new party of the working class based upon the trade union’s
• Take the wealth off the super-rich. For a socialist alternative to capitalism’s poverty, inequality, war and climate crisis
