Over the past year the current NEC majority have created chaos at the NEC, effectively paralysing its operation. They also refuse to pause the levy, despite there being no on-going strike action as part of the National Campaign. This has led to hundreds of members leaving the union. At this year’s elections we need to make sure that this chaos comes to an end.

Left Unity is part of the Democracy Alliance. Please nominate the following candidates for the NEC this year at you branch AGM.

Click here to read the candidate’s statements

President

Martin Cavanagh  – DWP Wirral

Vice-Presidents

Hannah David – Historic England & English Heritage

Jackie Green – MoJ Humberside North, West Yorkshire & Grimsby

Marianne Owens – R&C Wales

Mohammed Shafiq – DWP Gtr Manchester & Salford

NEC candidates

Karen Alderson – HMPO Northern

Mark Baker – PsG MHCLG PINS

Paula Brown – HSE National

Saul Cahill – DWP Tyneside & Northumbria

Bridget Corcoran – DWP Tyneside & Northumbria

James Cox – HO Croydon

Chris Dando – DSG South West

Cathy Darcan – R&C Northern Ireland

Sean Dwyer – R&C Wales

Felicity Flynn – MoJ Associated Services

Ginnette Gantschuk – HMPPS National

Cheral Govind – PsG OFGEM

Angela Grant – DWP Wirral

Austin Harney – MoJ Associated Offices

Ros Hewitt – MoJ HQ

John Jamieson – Registers of Scotland

Steph Landeryou – Welsh Government Cardiff

Ian Lawther – R&C East Midlands

James Marshall – ATOS Blackpool & Lytham

Alistair Maxwell – ATOS Glasgow

Marie McDonough – DWP City of Sunderland

Liz McGachey – DWP Glasgow

Lorna Merry – R&C Stratford

Sarah Morton – DWP Liverpool

Cara Nurse – R&C East Midlands

Ian Pope – DWP Glasgow

Jo Pritchard – DWP North & Mid Wales

Jeni Reid – HSE National

Steve Thorley – CPS East Midlands

Zac Vallely – HMPO London & South East

click here to download this list

Click here to read the candidate’s statements

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Please raise this motion at your branch AGM

Conference censures the NEC for its failure to consult members on the continuation of the levy during this year when it’s not been used to fund any action under the national campaign mandate. The voting record of individual NEC members on this can be found in the annual report.

Regrettably hundreds of members have voted with their feet and left the Union citing the levy or increased cost of membership as the reason.  This is also causing a serious impediment to recruitment of new members to the Union.

The membership levy was initially agreed by an all member consultation and used to good effect during the first round of action in 2022/23 but this NEC have denied members the opportunity to review this decision despite several opportunities to do so arising during the last year.

Conference now instructs the incoming NEC to pause the levy for the National Campaign immediately should it still be in place upon them taking office and launch a full all membership consultation on the future provision of financial support for members taking paid targeted industrial action.

This consultation to take place as soon as is practicable following ADC with a view to replacing the current flat rate 50p from members monthly subscriptions paid directly into the general Fighting Fund with an appropriate percentage figure that will generate a long term regular growth in income to the Fighting Fund.

The consultation to be concluded in enough time to seek membership endorsement for any necessary rule changes required to be ratified by ADC 2026.      

Any further additional levies should receive membership approval in advance, be only used for specific campaign purposes and subject to regular review and further membership endorsement where necessary.  

click here to download the motion docx

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With hard-pressed PCS members still paying £3 or £5 a month extra into the Strike Levy for action that can no longer take place, Left Unity member and PCS General Secretary, Fran Heathcote, moved a recommendation at this week’s NEC to pause the levy.

This followed branches, groups, and many ordinary members from across the union, writing in recent months to the General Secretary and National President, to demand it ceased as no action was likely to be taken in the foreseeable future as part of the national campaign.

In defence of the levy, Broad Left Network, Independent Left, and other coalition members repeated the debunked myth that the levy is funding G4S and other strikes across the union.

This is simply not true – and it would be against the terms of the ringfenced national campaign levy to fund those areas currently taking industrial action.

In a moment that would be comical if it wasn’t so serious, one member of the ‘NEC majority’ said that he would vote to pause the levy if the General Secretary could demonstrate it was not being used to fund those currently taking action. To rebut this, again, the General Secretary and President called in the union’s Head of Finance.

He set out that strike pay for those workers came from the general fund, not the levy, and confirmed that the last time funds from the levy fund were drawn down was in the Spring to support members in The Pensions Regulator and National Museums Liverpool, as part of the national campaign.

Despite being given these assurances, for the second time in less than a month, as the NEC was talked through the finance paper which set out the union’s funds, the ‘NEC majority’ member still voted with his bloc against pausing the levy. As a result members will continue to pay an extra £3 or £5 a month to a levy that was introduced to support action for which there is no longer a live mandate.

NEC members heard directly, once again, that the continuation of the levy is causing members to leave the union and hindering recruitment, and it is now over two months since the National Disputes Committee – on which the BLN/IL coalition also has a majority – agreed that there was no prospect of meaningful industrial action under the National Campaign – yet, irrationally, they still vote to keep members paying extra.

Left Unity members and our PCS Democrat comrades on the NEC, voted to support the General Secretary’s call to pause the levy, having already tried to force the issue at last months NEC, and demanded a roll call of the vote.

Sadly, the coalition’s reckless disregard for members’ money was an ongoing theme of this latest NEC.

NEC majority claim to know better than the ICO

The union’s Data Protection Officer presented a paper reporting that PCS has been found in violation of the GDPR, particularly with regard to Subject Access Requests. The paper asked the NEC to implement the instructions of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

A routine matter you might think? Not so. According to one Broad Left Network member, the union is preventing reps from communicating with members, and the paper should not be agreed, but remitted to a sub-committee – even though the paper recommended “final proposals will be presented at the relevant NEC sub-committee meeting.”

We look forward to hearing the evidence of how our General Secretary is conspiring with the Information Commissioners’ Office to obstruct PCS reps from consulting with members. Even more interesting will be the story, when it comes out, of how PCS officers managed to convince the entire European Union to adopt the GDPR legislation to achieve apparent factional gains within PCS!

But beyond the farcical conspiracies, there is a serious point that the longer the union drags its feet in implementing the ICO’s instructions, the more likely it becomes that PCS could face fines for non-implementation.

Court victory on check-off

Earlier this month, the union won a comprehensive victory in the courts on the Government’s decision to end check-off. In 2016 the union won a case against the DWP for its improper ending of this contractual agreement, which resulted in a £3m payout in 2018. This latest ruling opens the door for further settlements with other departments.

The senior officer presenting the paper, noted that the campaign to re-sign every member and to resist government union-busting had shown the best of PCS, with members, reps, elected officials and staff working together in a united way.

This implicit call for unity was too much for one senior member of the Broad Left Network who came in to suggest that there could be no such unity now.

Rather than celebrate an unqualified victory for the union – and consider what more we can collectively do to build union density, the NEC member thought it was important to strike a note of discord and division – which is at least consistent with their modus operandi.

Row, row, row it back, part 94

As we reported last month, the NEC majority had proposed to impose real terms cuts to every budget in the union by setting a 0% increase, and to freeze the pay of PCS staff by setting a 0% budget increase. After strong push back from LU members, the NEC unanimously agreed the revised finance paper, which increases subs by between 5p and 23p per week depending on members’ salaries.

One thing that was now not disputed, despite the hyperbolic misinformation for weeks, was that staffing costs will remain within 33% of total costs in line with ADC policy.

This unanimous acceptance by the NEC clearly shows the majority’s recent public claims, that the General Secretary’s review of staffing had put PCS’ finances in serious danger, doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.

…and finally!

The coalition and their supporters have in recent weeks, became obsessed with the demand for a Special Delegate Conference early in the new year. They have lobbied and convinced a small number of branches to write into the General Secretary with the request, on the back of the above alleged risk to the unions financial health, and in order to “hold the President and General Secretary to account”, in front of reps from across the union.

As it has now been established that the union’s finances are in fact in a healthier position than they have been in decades, the only logical reason for holding a SDC, is to use it as a platform to attack our elected National President and General Secretary.

As previously reported to Left Unity members, the President, has been forced to rule a number of motions, submitted by NEC members, out of order as they breached either the rules of the union or the NECs own Standing Orders.

We have also previously covered the General Secretary’s legitimate review of PCS staffing, against the backdrop of scandalous misinformation and accusation by supporters of the BLN/IL fronted coalition.

It is interesting that the NEC majority and their supporters have consistently complained about official union communications to members, having blocked previous attempts by the GS and President to directly consult with members about national pay and the pausing of the levy, and yet they actively lobby their supporters to push for a SDC that would cost thousands of pounds of members money, only a few months before we would gather in Brighton for our Annual Delegate Conference.

It’s bad enough they insist on forcing our members to pay extra money to the union unnecessarily every month, but to compound that by now risking squandering thousands of pounds of members subs on a vanity conference is unforgiveable.

We hope PCS members will see through their façade and false indignation, and remember the damage they continue to seek to do to our union’s reputation and standing.

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News broke on 20 November confirming that PCS had won a 10 year long legal battle against a decision of the then Coalition Government to withdraw the check off method whereby Union members subs were deducted directly from their pay by the employer. The full story can be read here.

https://www.pcs.org.uk/news-events/news/pcs-wins-historic-battle-against-government-departments-supreme-court

The significance of this victory should not be underestimated. Although a legal victory it was the result of a united and determined campaign by members and activists and the union leadership, first under General Secretary Mark Serwotka and latterly his successor Fran Heathcote.

This case arose from the Tory/Lib Dem government’s attempt to bankrupt and break PCS, an attack that continued for years, and which the Union defeated, emerging stronger.    

The attack was political and carried out because the Union refused to bow down to the pensions sellout of 2011-12 and continued to fight on industrially, and also because it advocated not just resistance but a political alternative to Austerity.  

The campaign over many years of painstaking work from reps and members from all corners of the Union was a model in Union Organising. Many elements of this were soon taken up by other Unions in their organising work.  

The legal strategy is never an easy option to pursue. Court judgements are rarely in favour of Trade Unions and workers. Under the direction of senior officer Paul O’Connor though a long and hard legal battle has been comprehensively won.

Accompanying the attack on Check Off payments were attacks on Trade Union facility time for our reps particularly time off to attend Union Conferences and for Organising work. Undeterred many of our reps simply continued with these activities in their own time and using their annual leave.  

In 2014 a secret “Union busting in HMRC” document, leaked to PCS, also emerged which prepared and carried out the complete withdrawal without notice of all facility time off for seven leading activists in the Group including the Group President Lorna Merry and national Vice President Kevin McHugh. Through the work of reps on the ground in HMRC Group with support from the National Union that attack was successfully repelled along with short lived attempts to build a scab breakaway Union in that Department.  

We won’t be returning to the Check Off system but should be due significant compensation of millions of pounds from this Supreme Court judgement. Following a previous successful legal judgement against the DWP, the NEC at the time put most of this money into the Fighting Fund which laid the financial foundations for supporting members taking paid targeted Industrial Action in the first phase of our National Campaign at the end of 2022.  

Under the strategic leadership and direction of a Democracy Alliance led NEC together with the efforts and determination of our staff and all of our reps this is a success story for our Union in which we can all take pride.   

Between 28th October and 12th November, I supported the PCS members of the security officers on Strike against G4S.

Their last pay offer was an insulting 32 pence per hour above the national living wage with, hardly, any sick pay. But it did not prevent them from voting by 84% to reject the pay offer, and by 89% for more strike action.

The workers have, already, taken 41 days strike action in their dispute, resulting in jobcentres being closed and a reduced service being offered in others.

In London, I supported numerous amazing picket lines outside the Cabinet Office, South Colonnade Building in Canary Wharf and 10 Victoria Street.

I had to rise at 5.30 am each morning and travel down to the picket lines from Potters Bar in Hertfordshire, before starting work.

The attendance outside the Cabinet Office was enormous and solid with plenty of loud music, blowing of whistles and dancing.

We had support from quite a few Labour MPs including John McDonnell, the Labour MP and former Chair of the PCS Parliamentary Committee who condemned the appalling way that the security officers had been treated by the government according to their pay, terms and conditions, especially their sick pay. He added that the new Labour government has promised in – sourcing and must do so as soon as possible.

At Canary Wharf, the picket lines were well attended. It revealed that the legacy of the camaraderie of the Dockers is alive and well of which is a great inspiration to us all!

Left Unity will continue to support the struggle of all security officers and cleaners in the commercial sector. We encourage them to be active in PCS Union at local, departmental and national level. It is Left Unity’s aim to ensure that all cleaners and security officers are adequately represented in branch, regional, group, and national executive committees.

Let us campaign to improve the pay, terms and conditions of all cleaners and security officers.

An injury to one is an injury to us all in Left Unity as well as PCS!

Solidarity

Austin Harney

Supporters of the so-called “NEC Majority” attempted to pass a series of cuts to PCS budgets and services at the NEC meeting held on 7^th November.

Supporters of the coalition tabled proposals to:

• Impose real terms cuts to every budget in the union by setting a 0% increase.
• To impose further cuts to overspent budgets including the conference budget, legal services budget, membership benefits and our benevolent fund.
• To freeze the pay of PCS staff by setting a 0% budget increase. 
• In language reminiscent of George Osborne the ‘NEC Majority’ attempted to force budget holders to ‘identify waste and find savings’ to budgets. 
• Impose austerity on the union’s own budget and to tear up the financial objectives democratically agreed at ADC in May of this year.
• Block a subscriptions increase of 17p in 2025 in favour of continuing to collect the Levy. A subs freeze will mean that we need to cut our services by £1.3M next year.

Our General Secretary, Fran Heathcote, had to intervene to prevent these cuts taking place and to move an alternative budget that was balanced, and which protected members services. A final decision will be taken on the budget at the next NEC scheduled for December.  

Left Unity members at the meeting expressed outrage and anger at the proposals, pointing out that the language being used by NEC Majority supporters used to justify their proposals was the same as that used by Tories when imposing cuts on public services and attacking PCS members.

Our supporters pointed out that a political choice to impose budget cuts would mean union services are cut. Critical budgets, including legal services, member benefits, the benevolent fund and Group and Branch funds would all need to be reduced and that funding in these areas is  already over stretched. Cutting them would be a disaster for members.    

In a rare moment of honesty, an Independent Left supporter made clear that their proposals were designed to create chaos and to attack Fran, the first woman leader of our union.

Why won’t the ‘NEC Majority’ suspend the levy?

At the same meeting Democracy Alliance members on the National Executive Committee put forward a proposal for the immediate suspension of the Levy. PCS members are currently paying £5 or £3 per month into the Levy which was devised for the National Campaign under the leadership of the Left Unity majority NEC in 2023. It was designed to support PCS members taking targeted strike action in support our demands. Over £5M was raised at that point and £6.8M paid to striking PCS members.

Our position is that, given no targeted industrial action is currently taking place or is likely to be called in the near future, that continuing to collect the Levy is ludicrous. Members and activists are quite rightly asking why money is continuing to be collected in those circumstances. 

The NEC meeting received evidence that what was once a popular method of collecting funds to support strike action in support of clear demands delivered by a clear plan is now increasingly subject to criticism from members and activists.     

Based on that evidence – and evidence from Group Executive Committees and Branches showing strong support for suspension of the Levy – Left Unity members, and our comrades in the PCS Democrats, moved to suspend the Levy with immediate effect.

We were disappointed, but not surprised, that despite winning a majority vote, the motion was blocked by supporters of the so-called NEC Majority, as there wasn’t a two-thirds majority in favour of revisiting the decision.

Unbelievably, the same people who had claimed that members could not afford a subscriptions increase of 17p were determined to continue to collect a much higher payment into a Levy that they are not intending to use.

The truth is clear

PCS members were promised a change in direction by the “Coalition” when it gained a small majority on the NEC in May.

Left Unity has consistently argued that the change that would actually be delivered would be  damaging to both the union and our members.

After a series of embarrassing u-turns since May, and the increasingly hostile and personalised attacks on our National President and General Secretary, this latest attempt to hamstring the union is surely their lowest point yet.

Left Unity will continue to demand the levy be paused, and remain totally committed to a socialist programme of building our union, and delivering for members.

We urge every activist or member of PCS, who genuinely cares about our union, to work with us to bring back some order, and place our members needs and the services we provide, at the top of our agenda.

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In April the coalition formed of BLN/IL/Coalition for Change supporters promised PCS members a change of approach based on more “industrial militancy” if elected with a majority to the NEC.

Some activists feared this would mean repeated calls for unpaid industrial action in accordance with their previous “strategy”, especially after the passage of Motion A315 effectively ended the coherence of the previous co-ordinated national campaign. We have not seen any industrial action called and have instead only seen chaos.

The chaos has included instructing the General Secretary to write multiple letters to the Cabinet Office without any serious tactical considerations; replacing their promised “industrial militancy“ with demands for a Special Delegate Conference of reps, rather than agree a full consultation with members – as recommended by the General Secretary; and numerous u-turns on decisions they initially made and were then forced to backtrack on in the face of the industrial reality that confronts them in leadership.

Of course, Left Unity warned that this was to be expected from an alliance formed of different political persuasions, but one that also included some people with no real politics.

Coalition of Chaos reaches new low

Rather than focus on their alleged strategy on how to win more for members and build the union, virtually every recent article written either by the “NEC Majority”, BLN, or IL, has been straight from personalisation handbook.

The content is mainly aimed at the character assassination of either the elected General Secretary, Fran Heathcote, or National President, Martin Cavanagh – the most senior elected lay representative.

Previous Left Unity articles have sought to correct some of the false narrative that has been “put to print”, but we have also set out our position on the key issues affecting members, such as the levy, which we continue to argue should be paused https://pcsleftunity.org/2024/09/16/pcs-left-unity-says-pause-the-levy-now/, and delegated pay talks, which we had to force our opponents to concede that PCS should take part in.

Sadly, over the weekend supporters of the ”NEC majority” have reached a new low.

No longer enough to create a false picture of both Fran and Martin, they have now resorted to public accusation that we cannot let go unchallenged.

The accusation that the elected General Secretary of our union has abused her position to create jobs for her friends, and in doing so placed the union’s finances in jeopardy, is beyond reprehensible.

It is bad enough to publicly make accusations that do not hold up to scrutiny, but to then encourage others to share it widely, with the clear intention of causing reputational damage is scandalous behaviour from so-called activists.

This, though, is what happens when serious trade union activism is replaced with personal grudges.

The truth

Despite what has been stated as fact in these postings the truth is very different.

It is true that the General Secretary has commissioned and subsequently conducted, a review of PCS staffing. This was reported to the NEC when it was first decided to carry out the review, earlier this year.

It is also true that the review resulted in new posts being created (23 in total), including the creation of two new Chief of Staff roles. There were other structural changes flowing from the review, including removing 22 posts that are no longer required.

The full review, which affects the staff who work for and are paid by PCS – not the elected bodies that run our union – was subject to full and open consultation with the staff’s own union, the GMB, and resulted in a collective agreement.

The review was then also presented to the Policy and Resources Committee (PRC), a senior NEC sub-committee, to whom staffing and resources matters are reported, as has been the case for the last 20 years.

It is simply untrue that there has been no consultation or scrutiny of the review.

It is also untrue, and a shocking accusation, that the two individual PCS employees who have taken up the two new senior FTO roles, have been simply placed into them by the General Secretary.

Once the review had been to both the staff’s own union for consultation and the PRC, an advert was placed by PCS for the two roles under fair and open competition, following the same process as other FTO adverts.

The two successful candidates, approved by a panel under the full scrutiny of the union’s HR department, were Paul O’Connor and Lynn Henderson. They were not “placed” into the roles as the General Secretary’s “friends”.

Concentrate on what you’re elected to do

The tactic of personal attack on senior elected figures within our union, and the brilliant staff PCS employ, has been increasingly used in recent times, and has been a particular feature in both the elections for the GS/AGS positions last year, and the NEC earlier this.

In recent months that has ramped up even further, but this latest attack reaches new depths.

Left Unity believe the only rationale for it is to attempt to give the coalition an electoral advantage, as they hope “mud sticks”. It is also the case that if they can create such a hostile environment that it puts members off from engaging in their union and voting in elections, it increases their chances of holding onto or even increasing their majority after next year’s elections.

We urge members not to be put off by these attempts to undermine the integrity of our union or our elected leaders. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Left Unity also invites the coalition to reassess their values and refocus their attention onto the issues that matter to our members and stop the personalisation of their attacks. Open debate and challenge is not only acceptable, it should be expected in a democratic organisation, but character assassination has no place in our union or our movement; and we call on both BLN and IL to distance themselves from these outrageous attacks, and reign in any of their supporters who take part in this abhorrent behaviour.

Our members deserve so much better than “NEC majority” are offering right now, and is why Left Unity will continue to campaign on behalf of members rather than resort to personalised attacks. The latest BLN bulletin, after another series of attacks against the President and General Secretary, finishes with a rallying call of “Forward to a Special Delegate Conference, defend democracy in PCS!” Really?! Is that the battle cry of the so-called forces of militancy?! Is that the serious industrial strategy that will drive the membership agenda forward?!

Left Unity rejects this narrow, self-serving strategy, and it highlights the thinking of the coalition to all who read it. They are more focused on championing an expensive get together for themselves and their mates, than they are on tackling the issues that matter to our members.

Left Unity says forget this vanity project so we can genuinely move forward. Forward to better pay and rights for our members, with a paused levy and a national consultation of the PCS membership about our national campaign.

PCS members in DWP have reacted with disappointment and anger at the pay offer announced on Monday 14th October.

DWP has firmly established itself as a minimum wage employer, with the AA and AO grades both qualifying for the National Living Wage uplift in April for the last two years. Following the publication of the first Treasury remit in decades that sees an average figure above inflation, there was some hope at least that this year’s award would see the lowest paid given an above average pay rise, as has been the case in the other departments, such as Home Office and HMRC. Sadly, DWP have squandered the opportunity to do more for their lowest paid workers, and has instead given a larger percentage increase to members near the minimum of the SEO and G7 pay scales.

This, despite soundings from the Cabinet Office that the Civil Service should not be a minimum wage employer, and the remit guidance allowing departments to submit a business case to address chronic low pay issues.  DWP refused to agree PCS continued calls for a business case to be submitted.

What the offer means for our members

Despite the efforts of the group negotiators, who managed to force DWP to move some way from their original position of below 5% awards for AA-HEO, no consolidated increase for all legacy staff, and 9.45% for those SEO & G7 staff who now have 6%, this award still represents a real kick in the teeth for the vast majority of DWP staff, the overwhelming majority of whom are in the AO and EO grades.

Once again, if forecasts are accurate, all AA and AOs on the national scale will require the NLW uplift next April, members refuse to accept this this, and can see through the “sweetener” that is the bonus pot being weighted towards them, and ‘put in their pockets for Christmas’.

It is also a reality that as EOs have been denied even a sweetener, seeing their bonus reduced to £90, those on the national scale will also move closer to the NLW figure come next April. This once again highlights the importance of the national union’s demand for an overhaul of the discredited Civil Service pay systems, and a return to national pay bargaining.

Of course, the 5% remit was never going to allow departments to fix decades of a broken pay system across Whitehall, but Left Unity knew that already, as did our members on the NEC, and engaging with our members should have been the priority.

Missed opportunity

Left Unity also knew, however, that the small number of members we currently have covered by a live strike mandate, would not provide leverage enough to force the government to up the 5% pay remit.  This was a point unanimously agreed by the NEC and the National Disputes Committee (NDC) both committees being heavily represented by the BLN/IL/Coalition for Change majority.

That same self-proclaimed ‘NEC majority’, rather than agree to delegated talks and a consultation with the membership across the union, having initially thwarted the opening of delegated talks, have subsequently focused all their attention on asking branches to hold EGMs to support their call for a costly Special Delegate Conference; a conference that will see our members subs paying for their vanity project, allowing them to once again debate their so called strategy amongst themselves rather than with the members that are sitting in the workplace.

Remember, following their initial decision to refuse to authorise the commencement of delegated pay talks, it took a letter from the DWP GEC to the General Secretary, and a Senior Lay Reps Forum voicing their disagreement, to push the ‘NEC majority’ to backtrack. Thankfully the Lay Reps agreed with the Left Unity NEC members that it was imperative that we were able to enter talks, and the ‘majority’ were forced to agree to departmental pay teams entering negotiations, the very day before DWP talks began. This allowed our negotiators to attend and block the move by DWP to funnel all of the money from the 5% pot to the higher grades.

The blame game disrespects members’ plight

Incredibly, rather than focus their anger on the DWP for failing to deliver what was affordable within the 5% remit, or acknowledge the truth of the matter, that at a longer term campaign would be required to shift the Cabinet Office remit upwards, the Independent Left have immediately moved to their tried and trusted formula of blaming Left Unity for everything that goes wrong. IL’s refusal to accept that the offer, as bad as it is, would have been even worse had we vacated a seat at the table, and looking to personally attack the National President for his elected role, to uphold the union’s rules on the NEC, rules that they continually attempt to breach, misses the point and does our members a disservice.

Less than a week after those in different political factions elected on to the DWP Group Executive, united to condemn the employer and government for not delivering more for members, we now see the IL look to blame Left Unity rather than focus their attention on building a campaign within DWP.

That is what is needed now, a strong and united campaign, not cheap sectarian point scoring. The truth is that our union should have been out of the blocks weeks ago, consulting members and testing their views on the remit and their mood to fight for more once delegated talks had ended.  The NEC were blocked by the ‘majority’ from speaking to members, blocked from negotiators being provided with guidance for the talks, and now we see them making a concerted effort to divide PCS when we should be united against the employer.

We do not have the luxury of waiting any longer. Left Unity supports the unanimous decision of the DWP GEC to reject the offer and use the time our negotiators have secured for members meetings to speak to as many members across the group as possible, to articulate what PCS have demanded and how we can campaign together, to win better for you.

PCS members and reps may have seen calls from the NEC Majority and the Broad Left Network for the convening of a Special Delegate Conference to determine next steps for the National Campaign. Here we set out why Left Unity believes its time the members were consulted directly.

Pause the Levy

Organising reports from across the Union reveal a significant increase in members leaving the Union citing either the levy or the general increased cost of membership as the reason for this. Some Groups and branches are reporting these factors to now be a serious barrier to recruiting new members as well. 

Read more on the levy here

Campaign strategy

Current members with an industrial action mandate voted in the Spring of this year. PCS ADC carried a motion which tabled a new set of demands. This effectively created a second dispute with the employer for the majority of our members in the largest PCS Groups.

Since these developments at ADC there has been a change of Government and the publication of the Civil Service pay remit of 5% which should deliver above inflation pay increases for most of our members.

The General Secretary tabled proposals to place key demands on the new government, to consult Groups on specific bargaining priorities for their departments based on this, and crucially to have a full membership consultation on the levy and the way forward for our campaign including a further national ballot should members determine that the offers they have received are not good enough.

What would a Special Delegate Conference achieve?

Our Opponents are calling for a Special Delegate Conference (SDC) to determine a way forward.   What’s wrong with this approach? 

The time and cost necessary to organise such an event creates further delays. There would be a series of different motions with varying positions from Branches to discuss. At our ADC in May two whole sections of the ADC agenda were lost whilst arguing over priorities. Concerns have already been raised that this would be the case again at an SDC.

Left Unity is also concerned that an SDC could be used as a platform to undermine the elected General Secretary and President and circumvent the Union’s rules, rather than decide a genuine way forward for the national campaign.

The NEC majority’s sectarianism is creating a paralysis at the top of the union which an SDC would perpetuate.  Left Unity say that members should be directly consulted now to move us on from this.

Members should be consulted

Left Unity believe that a full membership consultation is now important given the changed circumstances since PCS ADC in May – the progression of pay talks at Departmental level in parallel with national talks with the new Government to seek longer term solutions (including pay restoration) and for a single new national dispute be created if that is what members want and that the levy be suspended until such time as this consultation is concluded.

The Alliance for Change are using their NEC majority to vote down these proposals and deny members their right to be consulted. Is that the change that members who voted for them wanted to see?  Why don’t they want members to decide?