For DWP Journal Editor

I’ve been a committed Trade Unionist since joining the DWP 31 years ago. I am an active member of PCS and of Left Unity, who I have witnessed being the strongest grouping in PCS, fighting for fairness and equal treatment, both in the workplace and in society. I currently hold positions as DWP Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire Branch Secretary, DWP Eastern Region Secretary, Vice Chair of PCS Eastern Region Committee and am one of the DWP Operational TUS Secretaries.

I have been proud to work alongside leading members in Left Unity at DWP Group level to pursue our shared aims. I have been part of the huge national campaign on pay, pensions and against Civil Service Compensation Scheme cuts, as well as against the proposals to cut staffing and our estate and additionally trying to improve Health and Safety and to improve the welfare system to better support the lives of the public we deliver our vital services to.

I appreciate that to achieve all of these goals will require the continued backing and support of our membership across the country. To achieve this, I have worked tirelessly to strengthen our organisation and membership density in areas that are currently less well supported. Without maximising support on a nationwide basis, it will be harder to achieve our goals. I am an activist working in a traditionally Conservative part of the country, where the public have perhaps been less supportive of trade unions and both members and non-members have often had different priorities to those from areas that are traditionally more supportive of what we are trying to achieve. I want to be part of a Left Unity led GEC and work with them to ensure there is a clear understanding of the levels of support in these areas and what we can do to continue to improve. If we can improve our turn outs by a few percentage points further for future ballots, this will in turn continue to provide PCS with the extra leverage that will help us achieve our goals for all of our members.

I’m now seeking election to be part of the DWP GEC as Journal Editor. The PCS Voice is an important tool for communicating with our members to show what we are doing to achieve this and to target our campaigns to the right people at the right time. I understand the value of communicating with members both at the time of hugely important campaigns like the National campaign we’re undertaking currently, as well as throughout the year. As Editor I will ensure that we keep our members up to date with the issues that affect them and their working lives and what we are doing to address their concerns. I will use the role to ensure that members can see the work being done for them on a daily basis by the union, what progress we are making on issues and how the employer is responding. By doing this I will help our members to be better informed, have more understanding of the actions being taken on their behalf and better understand their place at the heart of PCS.

The Left Unity led leadership has coordinated the campaign on Pay and against the continued robbery of our Pensions and the threatened cuts to the Compensation Scheme, successfully getting DWP members over the ballot threshold to enable the largest department to participate in the effective industrial action taken in the dispute so far, to give us the best possible opportunity to win this dispute.

If elected I will continue to work with the GEC to continue to fight for members on all these important issues.