Left Futures coverage will be limited today because we are engaged in various activities in support of the strike but live coverage of today’s events can be found at Union News.
Tagged with PCS
The Unions can win, and Ed shouldn’t knock them
Ed Miliband yesterday repeated his opposition to strike action: “Strikes are a sign of failure…. on both sides and Thursday’s industrial action is a mistake.” He is, to be fair more critical of the Government who are “reckless and provocative“. However, he clearly hadn’t read Andy Newman‘s explanation here of the distinction between the funded local government pension scheme and the other unfunded schemes, which explains the difference between the differing stances of both unions and government in negotiations. Ed therefore makes the fatal mistake of blaming those taking action partly because “some of the public sector trade unions are continuing to seek a negotiated settlement rather than taking strike action.” Ed shouldn’t knock them and he will look pretty foolish if they win as they surely can. Continue reading
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Pensions: the challenge of maintaining unity
The difference in assessment of Monday’s pension talks between Mark Serwotka and Dave Prentis cannot be explained merely by the differing political outlooks of these two general secretaries. According to Mark the talks were “a farce”; whereas Dave Prentis said “there was a sense that today we were in real negotiations”. Continue reading
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Unite and PCS create alliance against cuts
Two million workers joining together can fend off savage attacks on working people and their families — that’s the message from the conference of the Public and Commercial Services Union, one of the country’s largest public sector unions, and from Unite whose General Secretary, Len McCluskey, yesterday addressed that conference in Brighton. Both unions signed an agreement committing to coordinated action in workplaces up and down the country, in the first instance to defend support services in Ministry of Defence bases and prisons, areas already in the frontline of coalition cuts. As part of the strategy to stop the cuts, Unite is prepared to ballot its members for coordinated industrial action. Continue reading
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Mark Serwotka’s conference address
The annual conference of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) opens in Brighton tomorrow. Delegates will be asked to endorse a ballot for a national strike over jobs, pensions and pay. Mark Serwotka was a surprise victor as PCS general secretary almost a decade ago, and his victory was bitterly contested by the right-wing establishment that he ousted. He came from the Benefits Agency in Sheffield, having never before been a paid official of the union. In that time, from a very difficult start, he has not only consolidated his position and strengthened the rank and file base in his union, but he has become one of the most articulate faces not just of the “awkward squad” but of the trade union movement as a whole. Continue reading