PCS members back fightback on pay – keep building pressure

Marion Lloyd, PCS national executive committee (personal capacity) and Socialist Party Scotland PCS members

The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union pay strike ballot which finished midday Monday 23 July returned a massive majority for strike action across UK government departments and the Welsh Government, but the vote fell short of the 50% turnout required by the undemocratic Tory anti-strike laws.

In a ballot of PCS civil service members, the turnout was 59 254 (41.6%). Of these, a huge 50,726 or 86% voted yes to strike action.

This is something that the Tories should not ignore. We may have fallen short of the 50% threshold, but no way can the Tories take any real satisfaction from this ballot. This is especially true for a Government that received the votes of only 28% of the electorate, and is propped up by the reactionary DUP.

The union’s National Executive Committee had its meeting Tuesday 24 July to discuss the result and agree a way forward. Socialist party members argued for:

• To call on the Government and the other civil service unions to re-open negotiations on the pay remit (1 – 1.5% cap) and our claim of 5% or £1,200 and for central bargaining arrangements.
  
• If the Government’s position remains unchanged, full support to those parts of the union prepared to fight the pay cap – where possible linking up these areas of the union in action.
  
• To ensure that regional and national committees, group executive committees and national branches see their own turnout so as to continue the major organising work, as we work to build action area by area.
  
• To call a special pay conference in September to assess the pay situation and further develop plans for carrying forward the fight against the Government’s vicious and discriminatory pay cap policy.

The strike ballot result is a disappointment but still represents a significant achievement. Thousands of our reps spent hundreds of hours leafleting, organising car park meetings, phone-banking members to chase votes and organising in the workplace. New members and new reps have been recruited to PCS in every corner of the country.

Civil servants in the Scottish Government and other areas under the Scottish Parliament were not balloted for strike action as they had already won a pay rise of at least the level of inflation for the vast majority of staff. PCS members secured pay rises of at least 4% minimum, in most areas, with some low paid staff getting as much as 12% after a campaign highlighting the number of staff relying food banks.

So long as the pay cap remains in UK government departments, which employ thousands of staff across Scotland, the fight against it goes on.