PCS Left Alliance

Hope for a National Campaign to Fight Injustices

In May, many branch representatives left PCS conference with hope that we may have a national campaign this year to deal with the many injustices that members are being subjected to on Pay Jobs and Conditions. We had just elected a ‘Coalition for Change’ National Executive Committee and importantly a ‘Coalition for Change’ President.

National Campaign Policy – Where is the implementation?

National Campaign Policy was clear under motion A5 passed at this year’s conference… ‘build a campaign on the widest possible basis, designed to defeat the attacks on the civil service, and to spare no effort in preparation for the launch of a statutory ballot’.

So where is the campaign two months from conference to deal with the injustices?

General Secretary Delays the Campaign

The General Secretary we believe is failing to carry out the wishes of our parliament the PCS Conference that passed motion A5 on the national campaign. Members in April in the PCS general election elected the Coalition for Change NEC the equivalent of the Cabinet, who wanted to act on the national campaign motion that came from one of their branches. Yet the General Secretary the equivalent of the Cabinet Office permanent secretary who is there to serve the NEC, our Governing body, walked out of the NEC over standing orders that she did not want to agree.

The union was paralysed for that period. So instead of implementing conference policy on the National Campaign, we had General Secretary actively working against our Cabinet the PCS NEC in refusing to agree the standing orders that the majority NEC wanted to agree. In doing so we have lost vital time in implementing motion on the national campaign as a result.

Democracy of the Union Needs Respecting

The Left Alliance who are not part of the Coalition for Change, but we do believe in the democracy of the union and recognise the members elected the Coalition for Change as the majority on the NEC to carry out the wishes of conference.

Members Losing Out on Agreed Demands at Conference

The losers in this are us as members, instead of building that campaign members desperately need to fight the cost-of-living crisis, reach a job security agreement that protects jobs, services, offices, genuine hybrid and home working, and reaching agreements on AI. Little has been done, meanwhile the employer continues to attack us.

Employer Continues to Attack Us – More Job Losses and Office Closures

The lack of a fighting union has seen for example in DWP, the largest group of the union, and the General Secretary’s own back yard, many offices now being targeted for closure on mass. Staff are being told they need to move which will result in many choosing to leave the Civil Service rather than make unreasonable journeys to different offices. This is a clear strategy by DWP to reduce staffing numbers as well as closing offices and reducing accessible services with jobcentres in the communities being closed.

Give the Branches the Tools for the Job

Separately to this the union is still to act in giving branches, the lifeblood of the union, access to members contact details. This is needed to build fighting campaigning branches. No action has been taken by the union on the three motions passed at conference this year backing motion A226 from Conference 2025 that said branches should have access to members contact details. This is a vital change to allow branches to build bottom up with members on industrial campaign for a statutory ballot in Septembers 2026 on the national campaign in line with conference policy. Instead, the Left Unity General Secretary has failed to act on this and make this happen. Branches will rightly see this as an injustice carried forward yet again from the previous year.

Who Controls the Union

The question for us as members is who controls the union. We believe the members control the union. If the General Secretary does not want to follow conference policy or take instructions from the NEC of the day, she needs to resign to allow someone that does want to carry through conference policy and serve the NEC of the day.

Injustice and Hope

Tony Benn, a working-class leader said ‘You see there are two flames burning in the human all the time. The flame of anger against injustice, and the flame of hope you can build a better world…because people need encouragement if you are going to do the best you can.’

The Left Alliance recognises the many injustices for us as members, and we believe the union leadership should be leading the fight and giving hope to our members. We are ordinary members first and foremost and see it first-hand the damage being done by the employer to our members. We have no rich backers, and we are not backed by outside organisations, but we believe that we can be a fighting union and call on all members to have hope and to start holding your leadership to account.

We need a fighting union and we need it now.

The Left Alliance believe the PCS leadership needs to implement the terms of motion A5 carried by our parliament PCS conference and start fighting back on Pay Jobs and Conditions.

PCS need to give branches the tools for the job by implementing motion A226 so they can start talking to members about building a serious campaign with a statutory ballot as a threat if our demands are not met on Pay Jobs and Conditions.

We need improvements now, we need a fighting leadership now, let us hold our PCS leadership to account now.

If you are interested in knowing more about PCS Left Alliance, please email pcs.leftalliance@mail.com