Civil servants in PCS are set to vote on national strike action over pay. This could be another thorn in the side for the Tory government.
The national conference of the PCS union, held in Brighton on 22-24 May, overwhelmingly voted in favour of balloting its civil service members for industrial action. This is a statutory ballot and will allow the union to call a strike at any time in the six months after the ballot.
Many delegates at the conference spoke angrily about the 1% annual pay cap, which has meant real-term cuts in pay for almost every civil servant.
The union is campaigning for a pay increase of 5%. In his speech to conference, PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka pointed to Theresa May’s hypocrisy. After last year’s general election she had stated that there was no 1% pay cap, yet now she is refusing to lift that cap.
PCS members will be balloted between between 18 June and 23 July. PCS activists will need to mobilise members – not only in order to win the ballot, but also to ensure that the threshold of a 50% turnout is met and exceeded.
The other main decision of the conference was to agree to campaign for the election of a “Corbyn and McDonnell led UK Labour government”.
This is a big step forward for the union, which has previously refused to support the Labour Party, in part because of the attacks on civil servants by New Labour. The PCS still needs to resolve their relationship with the Labour Party, however. Socialist Appeal supporters believe that a campaign to affiliate PCS to the Labour Party is needed now more than ever.
The big surprise from the conference was the news that two members of the Socialist Party will both be seeking the Left Unity nomination for the assistant general secretary position in PCS. (Left Unity organises most of the left inside PCS.)
Both Janice Godrich, the current national president, and Chris Baugh, the incumbent assistant general secretary, announced in separate public meetings at the conference that they would stand against one another. This election will be held next year.
The task for all PCS activists now is to campaign amongst members for a big vote for strike action. If the result is positive, the PCS NEC need to ensure that an effective programme of strike action is organised and implemented without delay, in order to take the fight to the Tories.
