Letters

Climbdown on strike

A marginal increase in the derisory offer made to civil servants working in the department of work and pensions (DWP) turned out to be enough for the Socialist Party-led executive of the Public and Commercial Services Union to pull the plug on the two-day strike called for January 29-30.

The action was to have been part of a coordinated 48-hour walkout, involving PCSU members employed in five separate civil service departments, over pay claims lodged almost a year ago. The settlement date was supposed to be July 1 2003, but meaningful negotiations were delayed when management claimed inadequate funding from the treasury. Finally offers were made in early autumn of last year.

Whereas in pre-Thatcher days negotiations were carried out for the civil service as a whole, they are now done departmentally. For example, in the DWP, the PCSU represents 90,000 union members out of 145,000 staff. The offer here was between 3.5% and 3.7%, taken as an overall package, but with a good number of members receiving as little as 2.6%. It was to be a two-stage deal - the first rise backdated to July 1 and the second to be paid on April 1 2004. But many staff would not even receive a second-stage payment. The tiny increases now on offer are to be offset by delaying the stage two payment until May 1.

In the DWP, which accounts for around 30% of all civil servants, we voted in November to reject management's offer. Armed with this mandate, the executive decided to wait until the new year to ballot for industrial action. This time in a 43% turnout we voted by 22,000 to 14,000 for strike action; and by 29,000 to 6,000 to take action short of a strike - work to rules, overtime bans, etc.

The home office, prison service and department of constitutional affairs also won their ballots. The home office turnout was lower (around 30%), while in the other two, much smaller, departments the percentage voting was in the 40s. The tiny treasury solicitors office, with only around 120 members, also voted to strike. Anyway quite obviously the key department is the DWP. So the last-minute retreat has left the smaller sections high and dry.

The PCSU represents something like 290,000 out of a total of half a million civil servants employed in 173 departments and agencies. Although the coordination across five sections was welcome, it only affected about a third of the union's membership. Big departments like inland revenue and the ministry of defence either accepted their offers or are on different pay cycles.

Despite the ballot results with their clear majorities it cannot be denied that there were relatively small turnouts (only a minority of all PCSU members actually voted for action and management has predictably made much of this). Nevertheless there was a lot of coverage in terms of TV and radio and this seemed to lift morale. At first we thought that we would have our work cut out to mobilise support, since attendance at branch meetings had not generally been good. But members really began to feel they were part of something. They were certainly angry about the derisory offer and we started to notice a good deal of enthusiasm for the action - not only among union reps, but among the rank and file too.

The high-profile role of general secretary Mark Serwotka has also been important in building confidence. He is regarded by the ordinary members as being serious about pursuing the claim. In fact membership has gone up over recent weeks as a result of the union calling for action. Which makes it all the more regrettable that the leadership decided to suspend the DWP strike.

The PCSU executive is controlled by Left Unity - as is the DWP group executive. Left Unity is dominated by the Socialist Party, but also contains Socialist Workers Party, Scottish Socialist Party and other such comrades. Left Unity sometimes does deals on the executive - standing joint slates, etc - with a smaller group, known as PCS Democrats, made up largely of Labour Party members who are perhaps slightly to the left of Blair (the pro-Reamsbottom right wing is very much a declining force).

However, while the executive as a whole has moved to the left, many of the individuals involved have been pulled by the hard realities of bureaucratic office in the opposite direction. The smaller Socialist Caucus grouping, of which I am a member, effectively acts as the left opposition.

Climbdown on strike
Climbdown on strike