The NEC met on 14 February and voted to pause the national campaign levy – meaning that from March members will no longer have to pay £3 or £5 per month on top of their union subs.

Led by Left Unity members, and our PCS Democrat comrades, the NEC voted a resounding 25-8 to finally pause the levy.

The previous day, PCS General Secretary Fran Heathcote had published a video explaining the national campaign levy – and why she was calling for it to be paused.

It was a Valentine Day’s Massacre for the self-styled ‘NEC majority’ led by the now-not-so-Broad Left Network, who only had 8 members stay with them in voting to retain the levy (Dave Semple, Marion Lloyd, Bobby Young, Chip Hamer, Fiona Brittle, Gemma Criddle, Rob Ritchie and Annette Wright).

As the roll call vote was taken a chipper Chip Hamer gave a hearty ‘No!’ while a much more disconsolate ‘no’ was mumbled by Marion Lloyd.

As in August and December, all Left Unity members voted to pause the levy, but this time were joined by Independent Left members, as well as Hector Wesley and John Davidson from the Alliance for Change in HMRC.

Those NEC members will have to reflect on why they voted against the very same proposal to pause the levy in August and again in December – unnecessarily costing members up to an extra £30 each; and, on why they refused the opportunity to review their decision in November.

As Chris Marks was keen to explain, when attempting to move an erroneous point of order, trying to justify their opportunist U-turn “we are now getting near to election time.”  Exactly Chris, and we see through you!

Of the four members elected under the Alliance for Change banner, two voted to pause the levy and two voted to keep it. They don’t seem to be much of an alliance anymore and are divided on whether to change or stick with the status quo.

Those NEC members who voted to pause the levy from the Democracy Alliance were: Martin Cavanagh, Jackie Green, Marianne Owens, Karen Alderson, Paula Brown, Saul Cahill, Bridget Corcoran, James Cox, Chris Dando, Cathy Darcan, Angela Grant, Ros Hewitt, Ian Lawther, James Marshall, Sarah Morton, and Cara Nurse.

Some of the U-turners have now taken to social media to justify themselves, presumably hoping members have short memories. The wiser ones are keeping quiet!

Despite their indignant claims, only Democracy Alliance members were proposing a pause. Their alternative was a continuation of the levy, albeit at a lower rate.

The so-called review that they now claim they wanted all along but were denied, was carried out in August by the General Secretary, leading to her recommending the levy be paused – they rejected that.

Friday’s NEC meeting got off to an inauspicious start with time wasted by the ‘NEC majority’ challenging the chair’s ruling – on the second occasion challenging a point of order that tried to table a motion for debate. This was too much for even some of them as only 7 backed the ludicrous challenge.

The Broad Left Network’s Fiona Brittle also tried to force on to the agenda of the special NEC a debate to call a Special Delegate Conference. Given Annual Delegate Conference (ADC) is now only 3 months away, and it would take months to book, plan and select delegates for a special delegate conference, you really have to worry about the attitude of those who would be happy to waste hundreds of thousands of pounds of members’ money organising a delegate conference at best, a few days before ADC!

It demonstrates their lack of awareness about what is involved in organising a conference.

The NEC meeting also heard reports of the consultation with GECs and national branches on the national campaign, and an update from the General Secretary on the outsourcing disputes. The union and members taking action have brought significant pressure to bear on the employers and the Government, which committed pre-election to “the biggest wave of insourcing in a generation.”

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