PCS

Public & Commercial Services Union - trade union for civil servants

Set up strike committees for 30 November

Unions have set 30 November as the date for another one-day strike against pension cuts. The teaching unions NUT, ATL, and UCU, and the civil service union PCS, have still-valid mandates for action from ballots earlier this year. Unions such as Unison, GMB, the Fire Brigades Union, and teachers’ union NASUWT are now balloting. It is important that the ballots be for discontinuous action (rather than for a single day’s strike); and activists should demand that unions name a date for a further strike now rather than waiting until after the November action. Workers must also start putting in...

Fujitsu workers to strike

1,000 workers at IT company Fujitsu will take strike action on 19 September after bosses tabled a pay offer that the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS), which represents some of the staff at Fujitsu, described as “insulting”. The offer includes pay rises of between 1.5 and 2.5%, even though workers have exceeded or met performance targets. Some workers at Fujitsu are paid as little as £13,500. PCS leader Mark Serwotka said: “Such a pitiful pay offer to workers, who are paid less than what some senior executives pocket in bonuses alone, is an insult. Our members may work for Fujitsu but...

Build for November pensions strike!

The National Union of Teachers Executive should soon name a date for a second strike against government pension cuts, probably early November. The other unions which participated in the 30 June strikes — the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), the University and College Union (UCU) and the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS), will probably join the strike. The Executive of the Scottish teachers’ union, the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), is expected to approve a request by a sub-committee for a strike ballot over pensions. The Fire Brigades’ Union’s latest bulletin to...

Strike to stop pension cuts: name the date

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) Executive is talking about the idea of second strike against pension cuts in the week beginning 7 November, to follow on from the one on 30 June. NUT is in talks with the other “J30” unions, as well as the National Association of Headteachers. NUT is also discussing the prospect of a mass lobby of parliament in October, for which it hopes to mobilise at least one teacher from each school in the country. A special executive meeting on 9 September, the first week of the new academic year, will discuss the issue further. Activists in the civil service workers’...

Aviation workers reject pay deals

On 27 June, NATS, the UK’s main provider of air traffic services, received notification of rejection of the pay deals offered to two sections of its workforce. Prospect ATSS, which represents engineers, and PCS, the union for operational assistants and administrative grades, returned ballots rejecting their offers by 88% and 79% majorities respectively, on turnouts of over 75%. The offers made consisted of 4% for year one (Jan 2011), followed by RPI capped at 4.5% in year 2, with significant strings attached for both groups. The third section of NATS’ workforce, air traffic controllers, voted...

Where next for pensions fight?

The strikes on 30 June by teachers and civil service workers against pension cuts were the labour movement’s opening salvo in a war against the government. If we are to win, the war will involve many more strike days and other creative forms of industrial and political action. In primary and secondary education, the strike’s impact was enormous. Even though NASUWT, one of the bigger teaching unions, was not participating in the strikes, the big majority of schools were affected. Even on Daily Mail figures only 28% of schools were fully open. The overwhelming majorities in favour of strike...

Cuts in jobs and benefits go hand in hand

According to a report by the National Audit Office, the Department for Work and Pensions "will have to make rapid progress in reorganising the way it operates if it is to meet its target of cutting costs by £20 billion in four years while achieving substantial reform of the welfare system." The 2010 Spending Review envisions the DWP saving £2.67bn in running costs and £16.96bn in cuts to benefits and pensions by 2014-15. As well as attacks on benefits, the indications are clear that the government intends to cut jobs in the DWP. The civil service union PCS should be gearing up for a serious...

Organising for 30 June

Croydon: teachers and students uniting By a Croydon teacher and South London AWL member I got the news of the NUT and ATL [teachers’ unions] ballot results from an email at 3.10 on Tuesday 14 June. At 3.15pm I walked out of my classroom to find a group of very excited year 10s shouting “teachers are going on strike!” The teacher who runs the art club got the kids to help make banners today, some of the slogans (which the kids chose) included “no pension, no work” and “we won’t clean up your mess”. Locally, our association (Croydon) is encouraging picket lines but it looks like few will happen...

Socialist Party: hot air on pensions

In his attack on the AWL (see www.workersliberty.org/ libya) Peter Taaffe says, “the successful experiences of the [civil service union] PCS in a series of industrial struggles, including in the pensions battle of 2005, which along with other ultra-lefts the AWL heavily criticised at the time.” Before the 2005 pensions deal agreed by PCS, people joining the civil service had the right to retire at 60. People joining after it now have to work to 65 to get the same pension. How is that not a step backwards? Why is it “ultra-left” to criticise such a deal? I assume the “successful” element of the...

My life at work: Pay frozen, offices closed, now pensions cut

Theydon Boyce is a benefits worker in East London. Tell us about the work you do. I work in a east London processing centre that administers claims for Income Support, Jobseekers Allowance, Incapacity Benefit and Employment Support Allowance. Do you and your workmates get the pay and conditions you deserve? Definitely not. Some long serving colleagues have not had a consolidated pay rise for five years now. Low pay is endemic. 63% of civil servants earn less than £25,000 a year. The starting salary in my office is £17,650, barely above the London Living Wage. The sickness absence policy is...

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