THE PCS has announced that a national one day strike for 1 May. The union's press release says:
“As part of our national campaign to defend jobs, services, pay and conditions, PCS is calling on all our members who were balloted in January to take national strike action on 1 May, followed by a two week overtime ban from 2 to 15 May.
“At its meeting on 29 March, our National Executive Committee re-affirmed its commitment to obtaining a negotiated settlement on our national campaign demands.
“Discussions have taken place with senior officials and ministers. But they have yet to agree to formal negotiations about the issues in dispute. Therefore, following extensive consultation with our branch reps at a series of regional forums, our NEC has unanimously agreed that as part of our national dispute, all those members balloted in January should take national strike action 1 May, followed by a two week overtime ban.
“Taking national strike action on 1 May will increase the pressure on the employer and make clear that PCS members are united and determined to defend their jobs, pay, conditions — and the vital public services they deliver — and help to ensure the employer listens to our demands.
“Jobs: In mid April, six months of redundancy notice runs out for a small number of Civil Servants in DEFRA. Consequently they will forcibly lose their employment. As far as we know these are first compulsory redundancies in the civil service. This event cannot go unnoticed or unanswered.
“Pay: Gordon Brown has announced a pay squeeze across the public sector. In a Treasury document called “Civil Service Pay Guidance 2007-08” it states:
For the 2007/08 remit round, Basic Awards will be no more than 2.0%.
It goes on to say:
The range of awards this year will be from 1.5% to 4% ISP (individual staff pay) based on the business case put forward by departments and where individual staff sit compared with the relevant labour markets. The expectation is that for this year Civil Service pay awards will average below 3.5% ISP.
“Presently inflation as measured by RPI is over 4%.”
PCS needs to think long and hard what to next. For example should we take selective action as well as national pay (the answer by the way is yes); how should we politically campaign around our demands; how do we get the other public sector unions on board? The immediate task though is to build for 1 May.
