Vote Marion Lloyd for general secretary, John Moloney for AGS
PCS rep and Jobcentre worker
The campaign to elect Marion Lloyd for the position of Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) general secretary is well under way. At the time of writing, ballot papers are hitting members’ doormats. The PCS has 190,000 members across the civil service and the private sector.
Marion is a Socialist Party member and chair of the PCS Broad Left Network (BLN), which brings together union members who fight for PCS to be a socialist and member-led union that represents members’ interests and improves their lives. Her running mate John Moloney, from the Independent Left group, is standing to be re-elected as assistant general secretary (AGS).
Activists across the union have been leafleting and speaking to their fellow PCS members to encourage a vote for Marion.
We receive almost exclusively positive feedback. Members are keen to have change in the union. They want reps who speak with them about issues and who put forward a clear, fighting programme. Many activists and members are fed up after the lacklustre national pay campaign was ended at the first sign of an inadequate offer from the employers, following a deliberately confusing ballot.
Our opponents, who are from the Left Unity (LU) grouping which currently dominates the leadership of the union, are Fran Heathcote, who is the current national president, for general secretary, and Paul O’Connor, who is currently an unelected full-time officer, for AGS.
When invited to hustings they instead send a statement, which many members have summed up as: ‘No one turns up, it is a waste of time, and we are too busy’. When branches were deciding on nominations, only a handful of hustings were attended by the LU candidates, whereas Marion attended and won all she was invited to.
We need a leadership that clearly lays out what needs to be done to reverse falling rates of pay, attacks on redundancy rights, staffing and poor working conditions. We need to restore members’ control. We need to show members that this is their union – that they choose how it should be run and who runs it.
Our platform has gained particular resonance amongst those in the most understaffed areas, where the union leadership has not launched a staffing campaign. Members are also impressed with Marion’s pledge to reject the inflated general secretary salary, stay on her current civil service wage, and donate the difference back to the union.
Maximising turnout in these elections is vital if we wish to improve our pay and conditions. If you want to get involved in the campaign to transform our union, join bln.org.uk.
