This is the text of a speech by Annette Rochester, PCS NEC member, to a Midlands Regional meeting on Zoom in early June.

Today I’m tired. sleepless. Angry. Over 50 years ago Malcolm X said – That is not a chip on my shoulder – that’s your foot on my neck. How prophetic those words were.

Today – Public Health England published a report that I haven’t yet read – delayed by what is going on in America which proves that the government is aware of the social disparity it reveals. they know they need to take the moat out of its own eye and that what is happening in America isn’t because they are unique and could easily happen here.

Already we are seeing uprisings in places like New Zealand and Australia where in just one year – 1991 – 99 Aborigines were killed in custody. In the 28 years since then a further 432 have died. In Britain since records began not one officer has been tried and convicted of murder or manslaughter when people have died in their custody although in that same period 1741 people lost their lives and Black & Asian people are more than two times more likely to die.

Across the West Midlands in the last 3 months there are 6 cases alleging police brutality- 4 involving the same officer.

And of course there is the over-representation of Aborigines, African Americans and Black British people in prison. There is a multitude of reasons for this but anyone who badges this as simply class war needs to understand that we cannot fight a class war whilst we are under siege and fighting for our very survival – our right to breathe.

Every black British mother must tell her son how to walk – how to react to a police stop and search. I’ve told my son and now I’m telling my grandsons. I remember going to a PCS BM conference which was addressed by the then chair of the Black police federation – a detective inspector who told us of the time he was stopped and searched with the old chestnut – you answer the description of a burglar – in his 3-piece suit!

At the same time society refuses to acknowledge the mental strain this puts you under so we often get tagged with the aggressive trope!

It’s not our bodies or minds that are weak but the systems that are supposed to support us. In fact, those systems are often weaponised against us and the recently released Public Health England report highlights it is racism that is the main cause of increased deaths in the communities.

I’m fortunate enough to have lived long enough to have been here before. And unfortunately have seen the same problems that impacted me, impact my son and impacting my 15-year-old grandson who was stopped and search after playing basketball with the same tired old excuse. Why is he not allowed to be a child?

Society is governed by contract – We are policed by agreement. Black and Asians Britons – just when are we going to be allowed to be called Britons? – are expected to sign up to this as part of society but are being short-changed. We cannot put people on the outside of society and expect them to live by its rules.

At work including the civil service we are over monitored and under praised. Our lived experiences doubted and diminished, our opportunities stifled. And rather than seeing fewer race cases they are on the increase.

Some of this is down to lack of empathy and of course downright racism as evidenced in the NHS where it is reported black and Asian medics are pushed to the frontline riskier roles because they are not valued in the same way.

The civil service is promoting the progression of BAME staff – social mobility being one of its top priorities. But all organisations should remember tokenism is not representation – I should not have to say what you want me to say – I want to able to give my truths and for us to work properly together. When all voices are heard we create a rounded sound – a choir.

I would love to see more black activists working with me in the union and in wider society – helping to create a wall of sound and that’s why growing the BM network is one of our priorities. The DWP group has already started on this kicking off with two learning events for all BAME staff in London and West Midlands before lockdown. And we intend to continue this work across the country.

Covid and videos of a state sanctioned murder has opened people’s eyes to the very real injustices and inequality in society. Please keep them open.

You will have heard Lewis Hamilton state he was a lone voice – it’ s horrible being the lone voice – then Charles LeClerc responded saying he wanted to speak out but does not know how to. Then spoke.

I- we – loved that! Please don’t be scared to speak out: White silence is violence. Help us the take that foot off and create not a tolerant society but one in which we can all thrive.

My PCS branch in a non governmental public body and has worked hard over the last ten weeks to ensure our workplaces and staff are safe in this crisis. We felt our senior management was slow to react to the growing crisis and was still waiting on 16 March for government advice. We called an emergency branch committee meeting that day and drew up a list of what we needed from our employer as workers, parents and carers. This included full pay for anyone who wouldn’t be able to work their hours due to childcare and other caring. We included our cleaning colleagues who are outsourced and our agency staff and we recruited some more of them to the union. We immediately wrote to management with our list of needs including that all cleaning or agency colleagues who cannot work during this crisis are paid in full. We said we wanted our offices deep cleaned by properly trained and protected cleaners.

In that first week we called an online members meeting and managed to get over 210 members involved at short notice. The branch committee talked to loads of members by email and phone calls. We called directors again and again and firmly insisted on our requirements for the health and safety of our colleagues whether they are in the union or not. By Friday we had got almost everyone sent to work from home, including staff who had not previously been given tech to work from home. We got assurances that noone with caring responsibilities or health issues would have to be on-call, go to external meetings or anywhere they didn’t feel safe.

In the following two weeks we won ‘care plans’ with time off on full pay for parents and carers who cannot work their full hours. We pushed for the same emergency leave for anyone whose mental health suffers in this crisis but the take up of this has been patchy and anxiety levels are very high. Our senior management talks up our mental health support systems in usual times but staff still report bullying and a lack of support for their mental health and that situation hasn’t been completely solved. The anxiety also affects managers and we have had to try to diffuse situations exacerbated by the lockdown and fear of the virus.

Our online meeting system struggles with more than 200 participants so we repeated our weekly members’ meeting in the morning and afternoon of the same day. Some 300-350 members have joined these meetings weekly and of course there have been arguments and political disagreements but they have kept the committee and members focused and engaged. There are worries about the coming economic crisis and the cuts we may face but we have discussed and agreed we must resist being made to pay for this crisis.

Members’ voted recently to move to fortnightly meetings and we stuck to the plan despite Johnson’s chaos inducing message to stay alert, because our Director General sent a message that our organisation remains in lockdown and working from home. The branch committee continues to meet weekly.

Currently all our offices are closed and two or three individuals go into one office once a week to deal with post. This is on a voluntary basis and anyone else has to get written permission from a director to go into an office. We have been invited onto the working group for the eventual reopening of our offices but it’s moving slowly and it is clear we will be working from home for the foreseeable future.

Many members have been extremely worried at the prospect of sending their children back into schools on 1 June. So we invited Peter Middleman, National Education Union (NEU), NW regional Secretary to our online members’ meeting last week. Over 80 members heard Peter explain the NEU’s campaign to restrict schools to the most vulnerable children and children of key workers until it’s safe to open them further. He answered lots of questions and members said they felt reassured that their instincts to keep their children home was the right thing to do. We shared the NEU petition and template letter for members to write to their MP’s, councillors and head teachers before 28 May when the government is to make another announcement on schools. We encouraged members to join a Covid19 action group, People before Profit meeting this tuesday 26 May for teachers, parents and concerned members of the public. Our branch is clear that we will support any parent who keeps their children home and needs their ‘care plan’ to continue. Our management subsequently announced that care plans will continue for the foreseeable future.

There is still a lot to do. We have to ensure that our offices don’t reopen until our health and safety is assured with proper risk assessments and social distancing . But our buildings are relatively small so most of us will have to work from home for months ahead with all the problems that can cause. We have asked for written assurances that every staff member will be equally safe because we know that black and ethnic minority people have been disproportionately affected by Covid19. So we need to know what measures are going to be in place to ensure that none of our colleagues is at risk. We also want our cleaning colleagues and agency staff directly employed by our employer on the same terms and conditions as the rest of us and we need to work out how we are going to achieve this.

What we have achieved has not been easy, particularly when our HR dept rewrote all sorts of policies and assumed they could be “approved” without proper consultation in the middle of this crisis. But because the members have been so active we have been able to get proper consultation back on track.

Our union branch is stronger, better organised and larger than it was at the beginning of this crisis. So if anything good can come out of this horrible virus it will be that our PCS members have shown an extraordinary tenacity and determination to support each other through the worst time in our working lives that most of us have ever faced.

The impact of coronavirus and the lockdown on the way we had become accustomed to organising was incredibly sudden and brought most planned activity to a halt.

A couple of weeks in our Town Committee met on Zoom to discuss how things were going in the different groups and workplaces and to see how we could support each other. At the meeting we agreed to work with other West Midlands unions to find ways to organise and campaign in these new circumstances.

The first meeting had nearly 40 people involved from across the major unions and the following week had 45 people in a public meeting with Fran Heathcote, PCS President, UNISON assistant secretary Roger Mackenzie and others speaking. Now called the West Midlands Coronavirus Action Group – People Before Profit it is one of many similar initiatives that have sprung up across the country. The People Before Profit Health Worker Covid Activists group has helped raise the confidence of health workers to demand and campaign for the PPE they need.

The West Midlands Action Group has been sharing news, raising arguments for PPE and Testing and is now campaigning against an early return to work. We have organised for a small group of socially distanced members to show solidarity with the weekly clap at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. Around the country similar initiatives are being taken. We are organising virtual meetings, filming interviews and producing propaganda.

Whatever circumstances we find ourselves in we know that our rulers and the Tories will be looking to continue to run society in the interests of profit, and our class will always have to find ways to fight back. We are all probably tired of online meetings, but they have provided a way to continue to organise and build in these restricted times.

Pete Jackson

Birmingham PCS Town Committee convenor

The People Before Profit Health Worker Covid Activists group is holding a “No return to unsafe workplaces” public meeting on Wednesday 6th May at 6pm – click here for details

PCS, like everyone else is having to get to grips with whole new ways of working. Reps at every level are in a seemingly constant set of negotiations to get the best for the members that we represent, and to keep them safe.

Negotiating to protect our members

At national level, PCS is literally in daily talks with Cabinet Office to engage over coronavirus crisis issues concerning health and safety, terms and conditions and safeguarding issues to keep people safe and maximise the number working from home. Seeking to identify the workers whose attendance in the workplace is critical and maximise safety measures for those workers.

The Cabinet Office say that overall, 80% of the Civil Service are at home, this figure is very different though, in departments like DWP, where as many as 60% of members are required to be in the workplace, all designated ‘key workers’, a term originally used to secure them access to school places, but quickly leapt upon by operations managers to try to ensure that even those who could feasibly work from home, were not allowed to.

We have the Passport Office attempting to start bringing staff back into the workplace to carry out non-essential work, begging the question, how many of us need a new passport processing right now? Having successfully delayed the reopening of two offices whilst proper risk assessment processes took place, PCS has now issued detailed guidance, including legal advice, inviting members to contact a dedicated address individually with any concerns so that they can be given comprehensive advice, tailored to each individual in order to protect them.

PCS has pressed hard on the issue of workplace closures in sites where Covid-19 has been identified, with some successes in HMRC, where PCS was able to close the Salford office, all credits to local reps there, alongside group negotiators, after the initial complacency by management. This has led to an agreed HMRC protocol for workplaces where cases are identified.

In the Border Force at Heathrow, following the death of a member, PCS pressed for proper PPE. When management refused and members started to wear facemasks, astonishingly, they were instructed to remove them due to concern it gave the ‘wrong impression’.

All of this has led to PCS seeking to reach agreement on a protocol for what to do if a case is suspected.

Evidence is starting to become apparent of instances where management did not act quickly, or decisively, enough. In DWP we are seeing more confirmed cases, and offices being closed, because proper procedures were not followed and subsequent time was not allowed, following deep cleaning taking place. The long- awaited testing is being used as a means to getting people back into the office once they have tested negative, rather than being used to ensure the wellbeing of staff.

At a time when the Government advice is ‘Save Lives, Stay at Home’, some departments seem to be panic-running in the opposite direction. The latest correspondence from Cabinet Office dated 24^th April indicates though, that they do not foresee any sudden movement of civil servants currently at home coming back into the workplace which is to be welcomed, and negotiators will continue regular dialogue in order to closely monitor this position.

No Going Back

Reps are all grappling with the complex conundrum of keeping our members safe, but also ensuring that we can continue to provide essential services during the pandemic.

One thing is clear and that is that during this national crisis, it is our members and many others across the public sector and the NHS, that have been there to help people, delivering invaluable services to the most vulnerable, paying out from the Job Retention Scheme those workers that have been furloughed, providing the support to keep the country running.

What unites these groups of workers is that they have been under-resourced by successive governments and attacked by the Tories under the guise of Austerity. And whilst it’s great to hear our members praised by celebrities (thanks Pete Andre), we need to ensure that when this is all over that the recognition is not forgotten, that you cannot have everyone banging pots and pans on a Thursday night in recognition of key workers, carers and the NHS, yet continue to support policies that see them privatised, demonised and sold off to the lowest bidder.

None of the warm words will mean anything if government and employers don’t reward them with a pay rise above the rate of inflation and put the same investment into public services and their workforce, as they do into their friends in big business, because we will not forget. It is our job, as trade unionists to ensure that nobody forgets.

The PCS Outsourced Workers Committee agreed the ‘No Going Back’ campaign to ensure that gains made such as sick pay from day one and the civil service agreement to pay workers 100% pay etc must be retained after the COVID pandemic and that ultimately, the best way of achieving this is to bring the work back in-house.

All of this excellent work being done by reps at every level is being appreciated by our members, and interest in PCS is at a real high.

Making Demands

Members will remember that at the end of February PCS wrote to the head of the Civil Service, setting out national demands over pay, pensions and the CSCS.

Then, recognising the crisis that everyone is dealing with, and the need to get every department focusing on what they should be doing, getting as many as possible working from home, but still delivering essential services, often to the neediest in society, PCS set out a number of interim demands, to be implemented centrally, by the Cabinet Office. If government can be run centrally when it suits, with staff interchangeable between departments, this makes future arguments for delegation harder for them to justify.

These were interim demands, and in no way detract from our national demands set out at the end of February, a point acknowledged by the Cabinet Office, which was made abundantly clear in all material.

1. A suspension of the delegated pay process, and an immediate above inflation pay increase for all staff implemented across the civil service from the centre.

2. A 2% reduction in pension contributions.

3. No changes to the CSCS for at least a year.

4. A moratorium on office closures and redundancies.

5. Any key coronavirus issues not resolved at departmental level, including enhanced health and safety, to be subject to national bargaining.

Most activists and members recognised these as a very positive step forwards, at a time when delegated talks are not taking place, and that if these could be achieved, it would take PCS forward in pursuing our national demands at the appropriate time.

Wrong time to sow division

Only those seeking division attempt to portray this as “parking our key policies and instead put forward watered down demands at this time of crisis.” as stated in this week’s Broad Left Network article entitled ‘Bold Response Required Against Government on the Run’.

Broad Left Network is the Socialist Party electoral front in PCS. At a time the union has been frantically working to protect our members and those in society who rely on the services our members provide, PCS has been churning out materials and briefings. This was the only thing they have published on the BLN website since a call for election nominations in January.

Not a word had been said about Coronavirus or the situation facing members, despite a plea on their website to ‘Follow my blog’. Their slogan ‘Action not Words’ looks a little hollow in light of their lack of activity, and with what little activity they do indulge in limited exclusively to attacking their own union’s democratically decided policies and strategy. It is extremely disappointing that BLN are seeking to spread division during this critical time for our members.

The PCS National Executive Committee overwhelmingly voted to postpone the annual elections to that body in order to prevent unnecessary contact during lockdown and in light of social distancing measures in order to protect the health and safety of activists, members and CWU postal workers.

Incredibly as recently as last week the SP members within the union, including their leader within BLN, have continued to argue there is no good reason why the PCS elections cannot take place, while acknowledging the electioneering that would create.

This, at the very time when casualties from the virus could be at their peak and the impact this would have on PCS members and their families, adjusting to life in their second month of lockdown. It is almost beyond belief that they are prepared to make such comments intended to attack the union’s efforts to protect workers’ health and safety as “anti-democratic”.

Even their own BLN supporters do not support them in this, they were amongst those writing to PCS requesting that the elections be called off at this time. SP are completely out of touch on this issue but see anti-PCS leadership as their priority for factional and electoral purposes.

Socialist Party Scotland ran an article by an SP NEC member from the DWP group, in relation to members at Paisley jobcentre being sent home after national PCS intervention, for which he attempts to take credit. He makes the deceitful statement “Police visited the protest and agreed it should carry on. This undermines the view of some in the union that face-to-face activities should not be carried out during the Covid epidemic”.

No-one in the union has ever said that no face to face activity should take place, but many of us have stressed the point that every efforts to social distance should be made and guidelines carefully observed.

It is telling that this “revolutionary socialist” was prepared to accept the view of the police as more important than the concerns expressed by our own reps and members.

But the motivation behind his baffling comments is explained by the fact that the Socialist Party had, with little or no regard for the health and safety of members who were doing their utmost to practise social distancing, carried out a paper sale outside an office in London, where the casualty rates are amongst the highest in the UK, aimed at collecting signatures to send their factional and electoral material to.

It is worth noting that when branch officers and members complained to PCS and the matter was discussed at the NEC, this same individual hypocritically and dishonestly accused the general secretary and senior officers of ‘politicising things’.

In actual fact the general secretary, supported by senior officers and endorsed by the NEC, responded in a low key manner to the concerns raised by members by writing to SP acting general secretary, a letter aimed principally at securing a commitment from them that the party would not repeat this activity that may endanger members’ health and safety during lockdown.

The response from the SP was a bizarre suggestion that PCS was trying to prevent a socialist organisation, but not the capitalist press, from selling papers.

Their response, in which they still refused to give assurances that they would not repeat the activity, attacked Mark Serwotka and the PCS leadership. When this correspondence was debated at the NEC, it was pointed out by members of Independent Left that this was not a Left Unity decision, but in fact a stance supported by the branch and London regionally committee, many not Left Unity supporters, who had raised the issue.

The acting general secretary of the SP has now replied to say that “clearly there are profoundly different views between us on these vital questions of how the labour and trade union movement should operate in these extremely challenging times which it is in the interests of the movement to discuss out. Consequently we believe it would be useful for the movement for us to publish this correspondence on our website and in the pages of the Socialist.” SP have now published this correspondence.

In their replies the SP give little or no acknowledgement of the concerns of our members and certainly no commitment that their activity would not be repeated.

Keep members safe, Campaign for better

Left Unity welcomes all efforts that are being made by reps and members to stay safe and supports every member who wishes to challenge any situation which they believe puts their safety at risk. We need to keep our members safe, that is after all a key priority for any trade union, but the conundrum is how we continue to deliver services, including those to the most vulnerable, whilst keeping as many members as possible at home.

At a time when our services have never been more vital, when union membership has never been more crucial, let’s do what we have to, to keep members safe. But when this is over, we need to remember, we cannot allow things to go back to the way they were and understand that they have been changed forever.

It is PCS’s priority to ensure health and safety, and whilst sadly we have lost PCS members to Covid19, we will not stand by and allow our members to suffer and will do all that we can to protect them.

The Left Unity leadership supports all members who feel that their safety is being jeopardised and who want to challenge their employer, PCS will back them completely. But, as socialists, we also have a responsibility to keep services running in what is literally, a life and death crisis.

Our members deliver vital services, the media and certain celebrities are currently recognising that, but we need to keep the pressure on Government to reward our members, not just with warm words, but with recognition through our pay, terms and conditions. That is what the PCS leadership must continue to fight for.

Up and down the country, and across PCS Departments and Groups, it is Left Unity members and activists who are leading negotiations and are at the forefront of the campaigning and organising activity that is required to build PCS during these unprecedented times.

If our members are key workers, providing invaluable services, let’s treat them like key workers and reward them accordingly.

The PCS Left Unity-led NEC met on 26 March and took the difficult decision not to go ahead with this year’s NEC and Group elections in May due to the pandemic crisis unfolding every day before our eyes. We agreed to keep this decision under review, keeping branches fully informed.

Nobody takes a decision like this lightly. We had to give careful consideration to all of the factors. PCS is well-known, across the movement, for being a union that enshrines democracy and we remain proud of our record.

There was overwhelming agreement though, that in the midst of this huge crisis in our workplaces and communities, it would be wrong to just carry on regardless with the inevitable campaign activity that comes with these elections.

PCS reps are working incredibly hard on behalf of members in what is an unprecedented situation, the significant majority view was that to go ahead with these elections would not only be seen as incredibly self-indulgent, at a time when members are so worried for the safety of themselves and their families, but would detract attention from dealing with all of the many urgent issues that arise from the crisis.

The view of the independent scrutineers (CES) was that, whilst it is still technically possible to go ahead and that it would still be possible to post papers out, and then count the returned ones, there is great uncertainty about the period ahead, not least regarding the impact on their own staff and the postal workers, our comrades in CWU.

The Cabinet Office informed us that approximately 76% of civil servants are not currently in the workplace, many working from home. Approximately half a million people have claimed Universal Credit in the last 10 days with over 110,000 trying to sign up in the 48 hours prior to the NEC meeting. The system really is being tested like never before, and continued under-resourcing is being exposed.

Against this backdrop, most NEC members, although not all, agreed that it was the only correct option to take. We had already agreed at our meeting on 19^th March not to proceed with our annual conference in May, the period when the virus is expected to peak in the UK, another decision that will be kept under careful review.

Most members would expect, at a time like this, for there to be unanimity on the NEC and the vote was certainly overwhelming, but unfortunately the recently formed Broad Left Network (BLN) faction, argued that ‘there is no good reason for these elections not to go ahead’ at this time, with a longer ballot period (meaning that they would continue throughout the predicted peak in the UK) and with increased electoral activity throughout the extended ballot period.

The BLN argues that democracy is sacrosanct and that nothing should get in the way. This argument was put forward, despite hearing from two fellow NEC members, one who lost a family member last week and another whose granddaughter has been hospitalised.

The arguments put forward, and the lecture on democracy, demonstrated a breathtaking disconnect from reality, and the very real fears most of our members are experiencing, whilst their main concerns are their attempts to practice social distancing and keeping their families safe.

After the BLN proposed amendment, to extend the ballot period but continue with a ballot in May, was resoundingly defeated, the four BLN supporters, and one member of the Independent Left, voted to oppose the recommendation that the elections do not go ahead as planned, and that the situation is kept under review.

Nobody wants to be in this position. Nobody takes any pleasure from everyone’s lives, workplaces and working practices being turned upside down. The coronavirus is dominating the life of every rep and member, and for some this will be a time of sadness and loss.

PCS reps are doing a fantastic job of supporting our members, and interest in PCS is at an all-time high. Our members, many of them designated key workers, are keeping this country afloat and the services that they provide must be recognised, not just in words, but in their pay packets.

PCS is adapting fast to an ever-changing situation because it has to. Being in a union, and experiencing the support that gives, has never been so important.

Senior officers are in almost daily virtual meetings with the Cabinet Office to make demands and get improvements to guidance being issued, both centrally and at a delegated level.

Reps at every level are working flat out to take up members’ concerns and, as a result, are winning practical, and in many cases, longer term benefits for members.

Members recognise that it is PCS that is winning these improvements for them.

We all need to work together, with as much unity as possible, to ensure that PCS members get the support that they need, not be distracted by attempts to paint these difficult decisions as in any way anti-democratic.

We urge all activists, regardless of factional loyalty, to work with us to defend our members’ interests at this unprecedented time. We owe it to our members.