On Wednesday the Left Unity led PCS NEC voted to launch a strike ballot across the civil service. See https://www.pcs.org.uk/news-events/news/pcs-launch-strike-ballot-over-pay-campaign

Last year the industrial action, which included 3 days of national strike action and hundreds of days of targeted action paid for by the national levy, saw a significant improvement in our pay deal and a £1500 back pay for the cost of living. In a consultative ballot members voted overwhelmingly to pause the campaign, but we made it clear that the campaign was not over.

In recent talks there has been some progress with the Cabinet Office but nowhere near enough for us to assume we could receive a decent increase this year. We are demanding a cost of living increase plus pay restoration for the many years of declining pay. The strike levy will be reinstated at the end of May.

The ballot will run from 18th March to the 13th May.

Surprisingly supporters of the BLN and IL on the NEC proposed delaying the ballot start into April. This from the people who said we were selling out the dispute last year when we paused the action. They proposed that we need more preparation time, but we decided that coming straight out of the online survey into a ballot would be better than losing momentum.

With the ballot opening in a week’s time Left Unity is calling on all our supporters and all activists to put our backs into getting the vote out. It is crucial that we get every group past the 50% strike threshold and are in the position to take strike action if needed.

In the coming days we need to make sure every member is in the correct branch and we have a ballot address for them and correct contact details.

Start planning your branch activity to deliver the ballot – leafletting, meetings, calling people.

Make sure you use PCS digital to record who has voted so we know who we need to talk to.

The cost of living remains exorbitantly high for working class people. Councils are pushing up council tax, services are being cut and this government of millionaires continues to attack our class. As other unions begin to ballot again for this year let’s deliver a spectacular strike vote that allows us to go into PCS Conference in May ready to take a stand.