25.01.2007

PCSU: All out January 31

Lee Rock, national secretary of PCSU Socialist Caucus, reports on the forthcoming 24-hour strike

Over 200,000 civil servants, members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCSU), are set to take 24-hour strike action on January 31. This will be the largest civil service strike in years with over 200 government departments included. A two-week overtime ban will also commence the same time. CPGB comrades and supporters are urged to attend picket lines and rallies on the strike to show solidarity.

The vote for action comes about due to a series of attacks upon civil servants:

l New Labour is intent on cutting 100,000 jobs. These are already well underway - with 21,000 posts cut between March 2004 and March 2006 in the department for work and pensions (DWP) alone.

l The issue of compulsory redundancy is an important one - but the national union leadership seems unable to grasp the fact that opposition to it does not stop job cuts. Of those 21,000 jobs gone in the DWP, only a handful of people were made compulsorily redundant. Voluntary leaving schemes and natural staff turnover, together with dismissals for disciplinary or health reasons, have accounted for a huge reduction in workers employed.

l The government has stated its intention to hold wage rises down to a pathetic 2%. The fact that a quarter of civil servants earn less than £15,000 per annum shows the levels of poverty pay for many. It is unfortunate that the union has yet to properly launch a national pay campaign, but instead leaves each department to fight its own battle.

l There is no let-up in the drive to privatisation - for example, 60,000 jobs in Jobcentre Plus are earmarked for the private sector.

l Initially the ballot campaign also included the issue of pensions, but the PCSU national executive committee is now recommending an offer that establishes a two-tier pension scheme, which would mean new entrants having to work longer or pay more than existing members.

There are genuine concerns from activists on the ground about the lack of anything close to a coherent strategy. These concerns are also raised by members and are reflected in the ballot result. Of the 280,000 members polled, 180,000 of them did not vote. Of those who did, 61,488 favoured industrial action, while 38,823 were against. In other words, the number who did not vote at all was more than three times greater than those who voted 'yes' to action. That said, the vast majority of members will go on strike. The union is hoping that at least 200,000 members will take part out of a workforce of 500,000.

The actual strategy, if we can call it that, is for further undefined actions to take place later. Guerrilla action is all well and good. But unfortunately activists and members are led to believe that is all that will happen, making it very difficult to explain to members how we are to win the dispute. This is especially so in the DWP, where a series of strikes and an overtime ban resulted in some minor concessions, but not in relation to the planned 30,000 job cuts. Yet general secretary Mark Serwotka and the NEC recommended calling off the action and settling. As usual, it was left to the Socialist Party, which dominates both the NEC and the DWP executive, to rationalise this retreat - it was essential to bank minor gains and fight on an all-civil-service basis, we were told.

But DWP members, demoralised after their department strike resulted in so little, now see the promised all-union campaign also being pursued without a winning strategy. There is still no levy organised amongst the 300,00 members to support guerrilla-type strikes, despite the Socialist Caucus having argued for the last three years for a levy to be set up. Groups of members are yet to be asked if they are prepared to take further action in support of the campaign. It is fine to withhold tactical details from the employer - but not to set out a line of march for the members is not only to treat them with contempt, but is actually counterproductive.

If we are to win this dispute, we need a coherent strategy that involves the entire membership. We need to identify key areas for action, establish a levy to support areas taking short, sharp action and, most of all, initiate a political campaign to challenge the whole range of New Labour attacks. We must not see a repeat of the DWP dispute, which consisted in a series of two-day strikes months apart. It did not work in the DWP and it certainly will not work on a national civil service level.