Full Democracy Alliance nomination list

I am Jimmy Gill. I work in a Jobcentre. I am an NEC member and Chair of DWP Group in Wales. I always feel very gratified that my Left Unity colleagues have nominated me for the NEC.

The question has been asked ‘what has made you stand for the NEC election’ and the simple answer is how can I not.

I know that for many of us this last two years has been sheer hell. Our safety and mental health have been compromised, our terms have been eroded and our pay is worth thousands of pounds less in real terms.

We might have thought that after PCS members had paid benefits, administered furlough, kept the borders and courts open that we may have had some sort of modest acknowledgment of our efforts. Yeah Right! We have had a tax hike, the Fat Cat chairman of Tesco is telling us that we haven’t seen the worst of the food price increases, BP have made £9.5 BILLION in profits most of it from energy price increases (yet Tories have ruled out a windfall tax) and the Governor of the Bank of England has told ordinary people not to ask for a decent pay rise.

That’s why I’m standing, because I am sick of being gaslighted by venal, corrupt, and greedy governments and intuitions, and I am heartily sick of our employer. We must build for a fightback. Our union is proudly and somewhat unusually not just a self-interest group. We are interested in the conditions of all workers, of people who are dying on hospital waiting lists, people who work full time and still have to use food banks and young workers who will never get out of the spiralling rent trap.

Everything is linked but I want to be at the centre of PCS’ fightback for decent pay, good conditions, central bargaining, a dignified retirement and conditions for all that represent a modern fair workplace rather than the Dickensian return to ‘Hard Times’