24.01.2013

PCS union: Where is the strategy?

The PCS leadership seems to be up for a fight over pay, says Dave Vincent. But can it persuade the members that they can win alone?

Every branch of the Public and Commercial Services union is expected to send two officers to a regional briefing in January or February, where they will hear an address by a national executive member and an explanation of the campaign being mounted to win members to fight for a decent pay rise.

In response to the ‘offer’ of one percent in April, the NEC has prepared statistics about the state of civil service pay and has already decided that PCS members, across all or most departments, will be balloted for action from mid-February to mid-March.

As someone who has been employed in the civil service since 1974, I have experienced the pay restraint imposed on us since Thatcher took office. We used to have a review body that looked at pay rates outside the civil service and recommended that civil servants should be awarded about the average rise across local government, public and private sectors. In 1980 Thatcher scrapped that body and ever since, whether under a Tory or Labour government, we have had low pay rises. For the last two years, those on £21,000 or more have had to endure a pay freeze.

National collective pay bargaining was abolished in favour of each department negotiating their own rates. This ‘rate for the job’ was obscured through grading reviews across departments, so it was hard to see what grade was getting what rate. As predicted at the time, this would see some departments fall behind others and my own - the ministry of justice, the third largest department - is one of the very lowest in terms of rates. On top of that the MOJ was the first (and only) department that saw the introduction of regional pay - further dividing the workforce, as your pay rate depended on your region or area. In my own area, for example, civil servants in the MOJ are on slightly more pay if they work in Manchester city centre or Salford, compared to everywhere else across Greater Manchester.

For at least two decades, civil service pay has been depressed on the basis that during an economic boom we cannot have a decent pay rise for fear this will encourage other workers to demand the same, so increasing inflation. During recessions the excuse for low pay rises for civil servants is that the country cannot afford more.

A further excuse is that, after all, we at least have rock-solid pensions to look forward to. But we all know about the attacks on pensions now (and continual low pay rises have been reducing their value anyway). Job security was also cited as an excuse - redundancy pay was then reduced and jobs were cut!

For me, the one percent rise may work out about £230 per year before tax. But, according to a PCS survey, civil servants have seen their net income fall, on average, by about £100 per month over the past six months alone, due to above-inflation price increases for privatised gas, electricity, water and rail and high food prices. As a result, 88% say they have had to cut down on spending, while 54% of those surveyed stated their wages do not get them through the month.

PCS therefore is now asking for a 5% pay rise, or £1,200 - whichever is the greater - amongst a list of other demands: eg, departments must not further infringe on our terms and conditions of service or impose another increase in pension contributions.

A December 2012 cabinet office report compared pay rates in the private sector to similar work in the civil service and concluded that pay for my grade ranges from £23,883 to £34,099. I am on just over £23,000, so, while an £11,000 rise would be very nice, even £800 would be an improvement. The most common civil service grade would see their salaries doubled if they got the top rate paid elsewhere.

So the government’s own survey shows civil servants are well underpaid. We can only be presented as ‘highly paid’ if you focus on the very lowest rates in non-unionised parts of the private sector for non-comparable work. Small wonder the report was suppressed.

New focus

The PCS leadership has stated that, in addition to pay, the focus of our campaigning has moved from pensions and jobs to terms and conditions. As an activist for nearly 30 years now, this causes me problems. It is right we are trying to do something about the appalling treatment we have seen on pay. But my concerns relate to the current climate and the overall NEC strategy.

PCS is shifting its focus from pensions because of the sell-out by Labour-affiliated unions immediately after two million public sector workers took united action over pensions on November 30 2011. It was a unity that PCS had argued for at two successive TUC congresses before it was delivered - and then betrayed within days by unions deciding to go it alone, when the agreement had been that we would not settle until we all won the same major concessions.

PCS then held a one-day strike with the University and College Union on May 10 2012. Further united action alongside the UCU and National Union of Teachers planned for later in the year was called off by our NEC when the two other unions scaled down their proposed national action to just London, with no convincing explanation. But at least pensions gave us all a common cause. So changing our focus now to pay and conditions means we cannot even hope for joint action - unless other unions suddenly become willing to coordinate strike days to link up with their own pay disputes.

At the PCS national conference in May 2012, the small faction known as Independent Left (which has no members on the NEC) argued we should stop waiting for oft delayed unity with other unions and be prepared to strike alone. General secretary Mark Serwotka and the NEC strongly argued against this, stating (correctly) that our members have said loud and clear that they want united action with other unions: “PCS can’t win on its own.” Conference voted to support Mark and the NEC.

Yet suddenly we are meant to believe that PCS can indeed win on its own - on pay, at a time when the public are being told that benefits are to be capped at 1%, when Labour voted for the public sector pay freeze, then the 1% cap on our pay rise in April. The NEC had previously called off planned national action over pay when the banking crisis hit, as it knew that it would look bad if we fought for a pay rise while people were losing their jobs. People (including civil servants) are still losing their jobs.

The industrial action we are to take that will win a substantial pay rise has not been set out. Activists are told the regional briefings will invite suggested forms of action they think members will be prepared to take. The problem with this is that the ballot will be over before the wider membership gets to see what action they are to take. What if activists will only take action that everyone knows will not defeat this government (our employer)?

The latest issue of the PCS journal, Activate, contains an article by Mark Serwotka with the sub-title, ‘A member-led union’. But this ballot is being run without any strategy being proposed so that members can judge the likelihood of success; they are being urged to vote for unspecified industrial action. That is not what I would call “member-led”.

The short video by Mark being shown to activists at their regional briefings states that we can bring the government to the table if members vote ‘yes’. He gives examples of job losses and compulsory redundancies being halted in various departments after members voted overwhelmingly for action. Welcome though those concessions are, they do not seriously challenge the austerity programme. It will be a question of imposing cuts in weaker areas instead. And it is another thing altogether to win a civil service-wide pay rise that would be seen as directly and openly challenging austerity policies.

The NEC should (and still can) delay this ballot in favour of having workplace consultation meetings, so activists can talk to members and see what their mood is. A clear strategy must be agreed. Members are, as the IL often says, getting fed up with a ‘day here, day there’ course of action. This is supposed to lead to a general escalation that somehow is never reached.

PCS has never argued for members to consider a week-long strike or all-out action. It has never discussed unofficial wildcats. The NEC may believe the members will not be willing to embark on such action. It may be right, but that does not strengthen the case for ‘PCS alone’, does it? The NEC (and Mark) frequently argues against paid, selected, targeted action every time this is suggested by some activists. So what else is there but a ‘day here, day there’ (or perhaps the odd two-hour walkout)?

Interestingly, the latest issue of Workers Power is suggesting that teachers, lecturers and civil servant do go for a coordinated one-day strike, followed by a week-long action and eventually all out. The NUT is also thinking of calling its own one-day strike on March 13, the next European workers’ day of action, but can we trust the NUT to deliver?

At least the ‘day here’ on November 30 2011 was supported by two million workers in the expectation that further action would be called involving four million. But a 24-hour strike involving just 250,000 civil servants (assuming that many will actually turn out, of course)? The lunchtime protests called “in solidarity with European workers” on November 14 2012 saw just 70 people turn out from all the unions involved in Manchester Piccadilly Gardens - and 15 of them were from my own MOJ branch. Four months later, has the combativity of Britain’s working class increased enough to make March 13 a success?

On November 30 last year, the NEC called for all members to walk out of their offices for 15 minutes - ideally during the lunch period - and stand outside their offices with placards, etc. This followed an earlier 15-minute walkout by 200 PCS members in Coventry on October 18 in a protest over Francis Maude’s announcement of a review of our terms and conditions of service. Maude had earlier suggested that workers should go for a 15-minute protest to “make their point” instead of striking. But I only managed to get 30 members outside our workplace on November 30 in a branch of over 1,000 people across 20 sites. That gives an idea of how many members were willing to respond to that top-down NEC idea. Even that was better than most other branches - although the PCS website described that day as “a success”. The December 8 anti-cuts protest in Manchester city centre saw 300-500 turn out - again 23 of those were from my branch.

Heads down

We cannot ignore the awkward fact that millions of workers are just keeping their heads down at the moment, with the largest unions deciding they will wait for a Labour victory in 2015. But Labour is not promising to reverse any of the cuts and has threatened to remove the whip from councillors voting against cuts. Unite’s windbag leader, Len McCluskey, made a fine speech at the TUC demonstration on October 20 2012, but has now called a snap election for general secretary in 2013 to avoid distracting from the expected general election in 2015, when his first term of office is up.

What is going on? Why are so few unions building action? None of the major unions really mobilised for the October 20 TUC demonstration last year. I managed to win 22 from my branch to come to London and join the other 200,000. That figure compares to the 500,000 (18 from my branch) who turned out on March 26 2011. The TUC is still ‘looking into’ what support there might be for a general strike - don’t expect it to ‘name the day’ any time soon.

Just suppose PCS members are ready and willing to take lone action. Does the NEC expect this government to concede more than 1%, given its whole programme revolves around justifying and delivering austerity measures? I do not think the coalition will concede that civil servants (their employees, in effect) are a special case. We could justifiably have taken action on so many issues over the last 20 years with a much more realistic chance of winning.

That we (and millions of other workers) have a case is not in dispute. But the issue is always, what is the action that will win and will members take that action? The only way you test this for sure is through a ballot. Ideally though, it should be a ballot you know you are highly likely to win, because you have already persuaded the members that the course of action you are proposing will succeed.

I worry we will lose this ballot. Some full-time officials are saying that the only alternative to striking over pay now is to “pack up and go home”. No, the alternative is waiting until we have more factors on our side, until we see workers starting to stand up and fight back. What has changed since last year, when Mark and the NEC said PCS cannot win alone? Is a one-day PCS strike over pay going to act as a trigger for other unions to follow suit, given all I have outlined above?

Our members do not want to waste money they do not have on some token action just to make the leadership look good or help the Democracy Alliance retain control in the NEC elections in April-May.