Mark Baker. PCS Public Sector Group – MHCLG PINS branch

These NEC elections are the most important we’ve faced for many years. The deterioration in the functioning of the Union’s most senior Executive this electoral year has been palpable and it is the members who are paying the price. The Alliance for Change NEC majority have certainly delivered on that change but on very little else.    

Leadership is about making difficult decisions but ensuring that you’ve built unity and gained the support and trust of the members to carry them through. You cannot run a Trade Union based upon settling old scores, personal vendettas and constant personal attacks on senior elected figures and hard-working PCS staff.  

Members have a choice between that style of leadership which we’ve experienced in the last few months or the one that the Democracy Alliance offers you of working with the elected General Secretary to progress our vision of the Union and crucially seeking membership consent to key decisions at each stage.    

The most visible example of this is the ongoing membership levy issue. Under the Democracy Alliance leadership we consulted members three times regarding this and actually used the money for its intended purpose – to support members financially who were taking sustained industrial action as part of our National Campaign. In contrast the existing NEC majority have voted down proposals from the General Secretary to pause the levy and consult members on the way forward. It’s their money after all! Instead of membership consultations the NEC majority have pursued a strategy of calling for a costly Special Delegate Conference to provide them with a platform to continue their public attacks on the elected General Secretary and President.   

They can only be stopped by members electing a tried and tested team that a Democracy Alliance leadership would provide. I’ve been proud to be part of that team since 2002 and an elected NEC member for most of that time.    

I have been active in the union for over thirty years – the whole of my working life. Nearly all of this time is with the Planning Inspectorate – an Executive Agency of MHCLG, which alongside many other smaller diverse employers are organised in the PCS Public Sector Group. 

I have remained a Branch Secretary during my time on the NEC carrying out personal casework, negotiating and organising at a local level, balancing this with a frontline official job in recent years thereby understanding all the pressures that Branch and Group reps are under on an everyday basis.

I have held most Branch roles over the years but also a leading lay pay and conditions negotiator in what remains a busy bargaining unit – we have negotiated a range of measures in the last two years to increase flexibility on an agreed basis to our members work/life balance which in turn has improved diversity and inclusion in the workforce. Having to organise our members in different ways has proved challenging but the fact that we have managed to win three successful industrial action ballots and improved membership and activity levels shows that we are adapting to these changed circumstances with increasing levels of success.   

I have also served on various NEC sub-committees including the Policy and Resources Committee, Finance and International Committees and the South West Regional Committee previously as Chair. Our large and very diverse region has been at the forefront of many of the Union’s national campaigns around pay and against office closures. I have also previously acted as NEC Liaison Officer for the HMRC Group bringing me experience of how larger Groups operate as well.

Our Left Unity team of candidates, part of the Democracy Alliance NEC list, combine both newer reps and the vital experience required in leadership as well as being fully representative of the diversity of our PCS membership.

I hope and trust members will continue to give us the support to continue this work.