ncp-pcs

Generation facing scrapheap

2010-10-30T20:57:00.001+01:00

THE GOVERNMENT’S comprehensive spending review will put hundreds of thousands of public sector workers out of work and is an unprecedented attack on the welfare state, public services, communities, jobs and benefits, says PCS.
Chancellor George Osborne last week announced 490,000 public sector jobs will be cut over the next five years, with a 41 per cent cut at the Department for Culture Media and Sport and the Ministry of Justice budget to be reduced by £2 billion, with a 24 per cent reduction in CPS spending.
There will be a 26 per cent cut to the Department of Work and Pension’s core budget and a £7 billion cut in welfare. Budgets will be slashed by 25 per cent in business, skills and innovation, 29 per cent at Defra and £1.5 billion reduction at the Home Office.
The Con-Dem Coalition also announced a 15 per cent “resource saving” at HMRC and a £1.8 billion cut in public sector pensions.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “This spending review will throw a generation of people on the scrapheap. These cuts are a political choice, there is an alternative, not a penny needs to be cut, nor a single job lost.
“Rather than attacking the vital services offered by our members and removing jobs from some of the most vulnerable communities across the UK the coalition should be creating jobs in both the public and private sectors, closing the £120 billion tax gap, introducing a Robin Hood Tax on banking speculation and investing in our future.
“This announcement shows we are not all in this together but illustrates that it is the poorest in society who will have to bear the brunt of a crisis that was not of their making, while the millionaires in the cabinet massively increase the gap between the haves and have nots.
“With the increase in retirement age to 66 and a £1.8 billion cut in public sector pensions many people will be forced to pay much more for less.
“The Government has a vain hope that the private sector, at a time of recession and growing unemployment, will take up the slack in the labour market, but there is little indication how these jobs will be created
"We are united in opposition to these cuts and are ready to take co-ordinated action with other unions and community groups to build an opposition to these cuts and overturn them.”

News round up

2009-08-08T13:33:00.000+01:00

Immigration officers set strike date

THE CIVIL service union PCS warned last Wednesday that over 1,200 immigration officers could be taking part in a 24 hour strike on 5th August should further talks with UK Border Agency (UKBA) management fail in a dispute over job content, working practices and shift patterns.
Further talks are scheduled for this Friday aimed at resolving the dispute, which centres on plans by UKBA to force immigration officers to undertake duties and work performed by customs officers, as well as imposing changes to shift patterns which could see immigration officer’s wages cut.
Immigration officers are angry over moves by UKBA to force them to carry out duties which they weren’t employed for, such as strip searches and law enforcement duties, as the agency seeks to merge the jobs of customs officers and immigration officers.
The union isn’t against change but believes that immigration officers should be able to choose whether or not to undertake customs duties and will be pressing management for assurances on job roles, working practices and shift patterns.
The Home Office group executive section of the union which covers immigration officers will be on standby to meet in the event that talks produce an acceptable offer of settlement.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "Immigration officers are angry at being forced to do a job that they weren’t recruited to do. We are not against change, but there needs to be a recognition that immigration and customs officers have separate specialist roles and duties"

PCS anger at job outsourcing

THE CIVIL service union PCS last Wednesday reacted angrily to the news that the Government intends to outsource more than 100 finance and IT jobs at the British Council to India as part of a massive cost-cutting exercise.
The decision to recruit local Indian workers to fill finance and IT posts has infuriated unions, who fear that this could be the blueprint for Whitehall.
It is believed to be the first time that the Civil Service or a quango has directly exported jobs to save costs. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which funds the British Council, is exploring similar options.
A spokesperson said that administrative jobs could be carried out by local staff in regional hubs overseas.
PCS said that the British Council decision went against Gordon Brown’s stated principle of “British jobs for British people” and could not be justified during a recession.
The council, which promotes British culture and language abroad, said that 500 of its 1,300 British workers would have to go in the next 18 months to save £45 million.
More than a fifth of these posts are to be filled in India and the body plans to bring some of the Indian recruits over to “shadow” finance staff in Manchester.

New Worker Summer break

2009-06-28T01:10:00.004+01:00

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PCS ponders the future

2009-06-17T22:43:00.000+01:00

By Andy Brooks

Brighton was once again the venue for the annual conference of Britain’s largest-civil service union and the sixth biggest in the country. Delegates representing some 320,000 members in the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) gathered at the south coast resort last May to pass a host of worthy and progressive bread-and-butter motions and welcome the new national executive elected by a postal ballot that was an overwhelming vote of confidence for the left-led Democracy Alliance platform. The left held the deputy and assistant general secretary posts, retained the presidency and vice-presidency and the ineffectual right-wing opposition was reduced to just one seat on the NEC. On the face of it this would seem to be a remarkable victory for the left. But behind the scenes there are causes for concern.
Though the Democracy Alliance notched up another electoral victory – the seventh on the run – the turn-out was low. Only 9.5 per cent of the membership bothered to vote, a drop of two per cent from last year and that should send alarm bells ringing amongst the leadership, which is dominated by members of the former Trotskyist Militant Tendency now organised around the Socialist Party.
Though the senior officer elections were won by the left-led slate the incumbents were hit by an anti-full-timer vote. Deputy General Secretary Hugh Lanning, a veteran careerist, was seriously challenged by a maverick left candidate while a relatively unknown right-winger came within 200 votes of toppling Assistant General Secretary Chris Baugh, a leading member of the Socialist Party.
The charismatic general secretary Mark Serwotka, of course, dominated conference, and he rounded on the City, MPs and the government over the expenses scandal and the handling of the economy in his opening speech to main conference.
Serwotka launched his re-election campaign at conference during the week and over 300 delegates packed a hall to pledge support for him at the forthcoming poll this November. The Socialist Party rally was also dutifully supported by many delegates. But attendance at other fringe political meetings was well-down on last year.
John McDonnell, the leader of the Labour Representation Committee, is also the chair of the PCS parliamentary group and his address to conference summed up the bitterness, anger and frustration of the membership at the sleaze culture that revolves around Westminster. He demanded a sea-change in the entire British political system and called on PCS to reach out to other unions to build the new agenda for fundamental change in favour of working people. Though this was met with rapturous applause the leadership are following a slightly different path.
PCS, like its predecessors in the amalgamated union, is not an affiliate of the Labour Party. and the Democracy Alliance as a whole is pursuing the illusory path of the “left alternative”.
The Alliance is a big tent of factions that came from the three civil service unions that finally united in 1998 to create PCS. Led by the Socialist Party it includes its Trotskyist rivals in the Socialist Workers Party and what once was the Scottish Socialist Party; the revisionist Communist Party of Britain and even a section of the old right-wing Membership First bloc which includes at least one prominent Liberal Democrat. Bizarrely enough the only forces, like the NCP, that directly support the Labour Representation Committee or still work within the Labour Party are in the maverick “Independent Left” that walked out of the big tent last year over the pay campaign.
The right-wing For the Members (4TM) faction, a motley crew led by former Blairites, may have little to offer members but the Democratic Alliance itself is going down a blind alley of its own with the “Make Your Vote Count” campaign which aims to funnel union support for trade union candidates, opposed to Labour, in the general election. All sorts of nonsense was said by leading members of the Socialist Party, who should know better, about the supposed support for this on the street, when this was debated. Though the European elections had not yet taken place the miserable vote obtained by No2EU and the other left social-democratic slates could have easily been predicted.
Solidarity with the Palestinian Arabs was highlighted when guest speakers Fathi Naser and Hana Joma,from the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) told delegates about the reality of trade union life under the thumb of the Israeli occupation that opened a debate on a solidarity motion condemning the Israeli attack on Gaza which was overwhelming passed.
Pay is, of course, the paramount issue for the membership and it’s become the Achilles heel of the leadership. Last year the union called off a series of planned protest strikes and accepted a deal which they claimed was a “breakthrough” that would lead to considerable improvements in the future. In practice all it’s done is provide a cover for departments to impose the miserable pittances they intended to implement in the first place.
The problem is simply that the only way the employer – and we’re talking about the State in most cases – could be forced to seriously negotiate with PCS is under the threat of an all-out indefinite strike. That is beyond the reach of PCS, or indeed any other union in the country. Few are ready to endure the immense hardship of a prolonged struggle these days and most believe it wouldn’t work anyway. But that’s the point. What members fear is not lost wages as such – victory would get it back and more – but struggle which ends in hardship and defeat, like what happened to the miners in 1985.
The Serwotka leadership chose the only other course open to them which was a series of two-day protest stoppages designed to wear down management and put pressure on the Government to settle. It was essentially a war of attrition and the only favourable outcome could have been a “good draw” with at least half a loaf on the table. Unfortunately the strikes were called off because support over two years of action was waning – creating a climate in which even crumbs from the employer seemed credible. In reality the problem was that the leadership didn’t explain the tactics to the membership and perhaps more accurately hadn’t really worked out the strategy for maintaining a prolonged protest campaign in the first place.
The Independent Left alternative was the old tactic of pulling out key workers on high strike pay – ignoring the fact that when that was used last management simply routed work to other offices and bled the union’s coffers dry in the process. As for the right-wing their answer is the white flag. They argue, without any shred of evidence, that if they were in power the Government would reward their collaboration with a better deal.
When PCS was created it was led by a united and craven right-wing bloc that won the first elections with ease. Within a year the right-wing split and the left not only won control of the executive but also succeeded in tearing up the undemocratic new constitution and restoring the powers of Conference through the same postal ballot procedures that the right had for years thought was their ticket to ride. The Democracy Alliance has achieved a lot with the support of the activists and the rank-and-file. It now needs to mobilise the membership to take on the challenges of the future. This can only be done by encouraging mass participation in the campaigns and within the Democratic Alliance itself. The old dragons have been slain. But it’s not the past that matters but what comes next that counts

John McDonnell at PCS conference

2009-06-08T17:55:00.000+01:00

Budget Blues

2009-05-03T18:30:00.000+01:00

Last week’s budget did little to rally support for Labour where it counts. The new 50 per cent income tax band on the rich and an equally modest allocation of new money for council housing has done nothing to rally working people behind Labour’s banner. The latest opinion polls show the Tories widening their lead over Labour and Cameron looks set for a landslide victory at the next general election.
Harold Wilson always stressed that nothing is certain in politics. Wilson, a Labour leader far greater than Gordon Brown, famously said that a week is a long time in politics and that goes for opinion poll projections as well. Wilson confounded the pollsters who had predicted big Tory victories in the two “who governs Britain?” elections of 1974. Wilson, of course, could rely on the enthusiastic support of the unions and workers fighting for higher wages and a stake in the direction of the economy. Gordon Brown on the other hand seems to hope that he can still scrape by with the support of significant sections of the bourgeoisie.
There’s no doubt that the ruling class is deeply divided over Europe and the economic crisis. The bourgeoisie as a whole are not too bothered by the income-tax hike despite all the wails in the Tory media about a new “class war” and a return to the “politics of envy”. Those who can will avoid it. Those who can’t can easily afford it. Someone’s got to pay for the crisis and in any case the bill for bailing out the banks is going to be largely paid by working people in tax, job losses and cuts in services.
The bourgeoisie themselves have difficult choices. They approved of Brown’s decisive switch to social-Keynesianism to stave off the complete collapse of the British banking system. Many of them doubt whether the Tories could do the same given that so many of Cameron’s cohorts are still wedded to the failed Thatcherite monetarist policies that were once so eagerly embraced by New Labour as well.
There’s still no consensus amongst the ruling class over Europe either. The Neanderthals and those who still believe British imperialism’s best hopes lie in close partnership with US imperialism have been undermined by the slump which exposed the underlying weakness of the American economy and finished off the neo-cons in the US elections last November. But their views still hold sway in the Cameron leadership while those who favour greater co-operation between British imperialism and the rest of Europe cannot fully rely on Labour to do their bidding.
The Tories are implacably opposed to the single European currency. Labour is more amenable towards European integration and the Government has clearly shifted more towards Franco-German imperialism but the biggest obstacle to joining the euro is Gordon Brown himself.
Brown, like Blair before him, has turned his back on the unions though he occasionally goes through the motions of “consultation” to ensure the continuous flow of the money chain that keeps the Labour Party afloat. But Labour’s only hope of a fourth term is by mobilising the grass-roots around policies that clearly benefit working people.
Some Ministers are already talking about scrapping the odious identity card project to save money. But Labour will have to come up with much more than this to win back the millions of disillusioned voters.
The Labour Representation Committee and the unions have drawn up alternative programmes that could win back the workers to Labour. A massive council-house building programme; increases in social welfare and pensions; the restoration of the public sector and the abolition of the anti-union laws would make a good start. It can all be paid for by a return to the progressive taxation levels we had in the 1970s, pulling the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan and scrapping Trident.
If Brown & Co respond to the union demands Labour can certainly win the next election. If they don’t we will certainly be in Tory government for many years to come.

Whistling in the Wind

2009-04-24T16:14:00.001+01:00

by Daphne Liddle

CHANCELLOR Alistair Darling promised it would all be over by Christmas – the recession that is – as he delivered his 2009 Budget speech. The Tories squealed when he raised income tax on the rich to 50 per cent but the Chair of the Labour Representation Committee (LRC) said this was too little, too late. And working people were hit again with more duties on petrol, beer and tobacco.
Darling claims that though the British economy will shrink by 3.5 per cent this year it will soon pick up. He says it will grow by 1.25 per cent next year and then expand by 3.5 per cent every year from 2011. But nobody believes him.
Official Government figures show that the British economy is now in deflation and that unemployment rose by another 177,000 to 2.1 million between December and February. Thousands more job cuts are known to be in the pipeline.
The International Monetary Fund calculates that the global economy is set to decline by 1.3 per cent in 2009 – the first global recession since the Second World War.
In January, the IMF had predicted world output would increase by 0.5 per cent in 2009. It now projects that the British economy will shrink by 4.1 per cent in 2009 and by a further 0.4 per cent in 2010.
Darling shouldn’t feel too bad; other major economies are predicted to shrink even more, with Germany declining by 5.6 per cent, Japan by 6.2 per cent, and Italy by 4.4 per cent in 2009.
The truth is that none of these capitalist economists have a clue about the real size of the economic crash they have cooked up between them.
Darling announced that Government borrowing levels will rise to a massive £175 billion this year. This is the result of the massive bail-outs to the banks.
In theory those banks should be paying back some of that money over the next few years; the Government now technically owns some of them. But the global power of the banks is such that they can demand governments shore them up at whatever expense to taxpayers or their collapse will wipe out not only the governments but whole state economies overnight.
Gordon Brown could of course reduce public borrowing by many billions simply by scrapping Trident and pulling the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan. It would probably win him some votes too.
Brown’s promise to revive the economy by using public spending to create new jobs turned out to be a damp squib.In housing, where he could have done most good by creating jobs and homes for workers at the same time, Darling announced only a scheme to guarantee mortgage backed securities, an extension of the stamp duty holiday and a measly £80 million for a shared equity mortgage scheme.
There will be £500 million to restart stalled housing projects and a mere £100 million for local authorities to build energy efficient homes.
There will be new investment in retraining redundant workers and keeping young people in education longer. This will create jobs only for teachers but it will help to massage unemployment statistics.
There will be £2,000 subsidies to persuade people to junk old cars and buy new “green cars” to boost sales. But since just about all motor manufacturing here is owned by global giants in Europe, Asia and America and all these giants are in deep trouble, the fate of our car industry is beyond the scope of anything much our Government can do.
And for every job created the Government’s very small public investment schemes, far more are likely to be lost in the swingeing public sector cuts that everyone knows are just around the corner.
Darling and Brown did make one move in the right direction by bringing forward and raising to 50 per cent the increase in income tax for those earning over £150,000-a-year. But this is not nearly enough and most of this elite one per cent of the population have accountants, who will maximise their personal allowances and other avoidance strategies.
LRC Chair John McDonnell MP said: “Although the 50p rate is a small step in the right direction, it really is twelve years too late and a tokenistic measure, given that the poorest will still be paying more of their incomes in tax than the rich.
“For the Government to announce tax avoidance measures amounting to only £300m per year is derisory when £100 billion is estimated as lost to the Exchequer by tax avoidance.”
Most very rich people pay very little tax and though Darling did announce some tightening of tax loopholes, it is nothing on the scale of what Merkel and Sarkozy have been calling for in Europe.
This was a budget that showed a Government trying to pretend that economic prospects are not as bad as they really are; trying to reassure voters in the run-up to the next general election.
Whoever wins that will be forced to bring in big tax rises and big public spending cuts as soon as the results are announced, whatever they say in their manifestos.
But with Tory leader David Cameron’s mind still set firmly in the Thatcher era, we know his solutions will be the more painful for workers in Britain.

Equal pay and rights ditched

2009-03-24T12:46:00.001Z

by Caroline Colebrook

THE GOVERNMENT has launched an underhanded attack on the equality and employment rights of millions of vulnerable workers in answer to demands from bosses who say they can’t afford it during the slump.
The Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) last Monday told the Government that the current economic climate is too fragile to demand that equal pay reviews should be imposed on employers. Instead of standing up for the rights of vulnerable workers it is acting for the Government and big business by keeping a lid on demands for too-long delayed equal rights.
Currently women’s pay is on average 17 per cent less than mens and the gap is widening, making nonsense of the equal pay act that was passed over four decades ago.
PCS last week also drew attention to cuts that the EHRC is making to its helplines, which provide a service for vulnerable workers seeking advice on equality issues. The Manchester helpline is to be axed while those based in Cardiff, Glasgow and Birmingham will be slimmed down and 50 jobs will go. undermine
The move comes at a time when calls to the helpline are increasing due to the recession. Despite repeated representations from the union, the Manchester helpline, which handled over 50,000 enquiries last year from members of the public facing discrimination, goes this autumn. This, PCS warns, would undermine key government initiatives.
PCS national vice-president, Sue Bond said: “This is a key frontline service that provides support and advice for people who face discrimination in all its forms in every walk of life.
“It makes no sense to cut helpline posts at a time when call volumes are increasing, The EHRC need to think again and recognise that the service skilled and professional staff deliver is too valuable to downsize.”
Meanwhile Peter Mandelson has decided to outsource another vital Government helpline for workers facing employment rights violations.
The move to outsource the new single enforcement hotline, which includes advice on the national minimum wage, comes despite opposition from the TUC, PCS and MPs.
The formation of a single hotline for vulnerable workers brings together helplines for the national minimum wage, health and safety, gangmasters, employment agencies and the agricultural minimum wage. Many fear that lumping so many issues under one umbrella – as with equality issues – will allow the Government to dilute the service to each issue and in fact serve to curb legal demands from workers and act on behalf of the bosses.
PCS warns that outsourcing the new hotline could fail vulnerable workers, with providers lacking current staff’s expertise and links with enforcement bodies.
Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, said: “The important work of the vulnerable workers enforcement forum risks being undermined by the outsourcing of a key helpline that will cover the minimum wage and employment rights.
“We have major concerns about the lack of full consultation on these plans and doubt whether contractors have the expertise to deliver the new unified helpline.
“There is a danger that providers will cut costs, resulting in the help and support for vulnerable workers being read from a script in some distant call centre.
“As the recession bites, vulnerable workers are most at risk of being exploited. Support, advice and enforcement cannot be done on the cheap and we urge Lord Mandelson to think again and keep the helpline in-house.”
TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, added: “I am deeply disappointed that yet again the Government is turning to the private sector to deliver a crucial public function.
real support
“The most vulnerable workers need real support and advice and this helpline could have been effectively delivered by dedicated public servants.”
Once again workers must face the reality that a bourgeois state will give them no protection against the greed and oppression of the ruling class and that their only real protection is in solidarity with each other.
As the ruling class sharpens its claws to suppress workers’ demands, so the workers must sharpen their union structures to defend themselves.

Mobilising against the BNP

2009-03-08T14:28:00.003Z

by Daphne Liddle

THE HOPE Not Hate campaign against fascism is calling on trade union members throughout Britain to mobilise for a cross-union campaign day – set for 15th May – against the fascist British National Party.

The aim is to stop the BNP from winning seats in the European elections and the campaign hopes to get hundreds of union branches doing some kind of activity on this day in what, they say, will easily be the biggest show of opposition to fascism by trade unions in recent years.

The editor of Searchlight anti-fascist magazine, Nick Lowles, said: “The trade unions have a vital role to play in the European election campaign. Between them they organise almost seven million members, double that if you include other adults in the members’ households.

“Given the low turnout expected in June, the unions’ role could be decisive if they can increase the turnout of their members.

“And it is precisely because of this potential that Searchlight has been encouraging unions to target their members like never before.”

Nick also reported on the success of combined anti-fascists in getting the cancellation of a planned national BNP rally in Liverpool on 14th March.

The plan caused particular anger among Everton football supporters after police requested the team to reschedule a home match with Stoke City because they did not have enough police to cope with a BNP rally and a football match on the same day.

Trade Union Friends of Searchlight (Tufs) is an organisation that exists to provide assistance and advice to unions fighting racism and fascism.

It exposes the activities of fascists in the workplace and produces background briefings and monitors the BNP union “Solidarity”.

A Tufs statement said: “Trade unions are proud to campaign against the extremism of the BNP. We do this because we care about communities in which we work and the people who live within them.

“We have seen where the politics of hate can lead during the violent disturbances in Oldham and Burnley in 2001.

“We see the BNP’s dishonest blaming of minorities for everything as a cowardly substitute for challenging those with real power to address the real problems with which we deal every day.

“This campaign is a bread-and-butter matter for unions. We are only as strong as our members. Our influence to get the better terms and conditions our members deserve depends on us having a strong and united membership.”

Tufs has produced an anti-BNP “toolkit”, including a magazine and a DVD. The DVD is £20 to union branches but is free to branches affiliated to Tufs.

Further information is available from Hope not Hate at PO Box 1576, Ilford IG5 0NG or http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/

Unions damn welfare reform bill

2009-03-06T13:07:00.002Z

MEMBERS of the public and union activists lobbied MPs on Tuesday to protest against the Government’s reactionary welfare reform bill organised by the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, the biggest civil service union in the country, and backed by the TUC and a number of other unions and pressure groups.

At the same time PCS has released a damning report that shows that public opinion is overwhelming opposed the Government’s plans that will lead to the privatisation of employment services and the social fund; introduce “work for welfare” schemes; abolish income support; cut benefits for single parents and those on long –term illness and require all parents of young children to seek work.

Speaking at the lobby at the House of Commons on Tuesday TUC Deputy General Secretary Frances O’Grady stated that the Welfare Reform Bill is “the wrong Bill for the wrong time”, and that it will be resisted by unions.

“It’s clear that aspects of the Welfare Reform Bill now going through Parliament are not fit for purpose. This is the wrong Bill for the wrong time: conceived in a boom, about to be implemented in a bust,” he declared.

“The Government’s ideas would be flawed at the best of times; but with Britain deep in recession, these are emphatically not the best of times.

“Just think about the implications. A new regime for jobseekers, limiting the time for job search and retraining.

“Tougher rules for parents, undermining the Government’s pledge to halve and then end child poverty.

“The introduction of sanctions, stigmatising the most vulnerable as villains, not victims, and driving working people into poverty.

“And the privatisation and break up of a world-class public service, with private contractors profiting from joblessness.

“This is the reality confronting us. Why, after the near collapse of free-market capitalism, does the Government press ahead with an agenda of privatisation, marketisation and competition? Why, during the worst economic crisis for generations, is there seemingly one rule for the rich and another one for the rest?
“The contrast could not be starker. Bailouts for the bankers, punishments for the poor - welfare for Wall Sreet, workfare for working people. That is unacceptable; and we will resist it.

the answers

“So what are the answers? How do we create a welfare system that delivers in this downturn? The TUC is campaigning for a change of direction: for policies that give ordinary working people the help they need when they need it. We have already secured some important concessions - not least the welcome scrapping of plans to make disabled people look for jobs or risk losing benefits.

“But we need to go further. That means more generous benefits to stop people falling into poverty, and the TUC has been proud to lead the call for an immediate increase of £15 a week in Jobseekers Allowance.

“That means helping unemployed workers into proper retraining schemes and jobs that pay the going rate.

“And that means giving Jobcentre Plus and the dedicated staff who work in it the resources and the support they need to make a difference where it is needed most.

“Make no mistake: our welfare state has never been more needed than now. It is one of Britain’s greatest achievements. A genuine safety net for everyone: won through the campaigning of generations of socialists, trade unionists and progressive reformers. And we are not about to give up on that legacy now.

“So today let our message go out clearly. We will resist any changes that diminish our welfare system. We will stand up for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in our society. And that we will continue to fight for what we believe in.”

Seventy nine per cent of people are not confident of surviving on the current rate of jobseekers allowance (£60.50) according to an ICM poll for PCS. The poll also shows that just six per cent of respondents feel ‘very confident’ about the ability of private sector companies to take over some of the work of Jobcentres.

Coming against a backdrop of rising unemployment and government plans to privatise some of the work of Jobcentre Plus, the poll also shows that just one in three think there are enough jobcentres or that there are enough staff in jobcentres to deal with the current economic crisis.

Over the past five years the government has closed over 500 jobcentres and benefit offices.

Commenting, Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, said: “There is little appetite for the government’s plans to privatise some of the work of jobcentres, with the poll showing a lack of confidence in the private sector’s ability to take over this work.

“The public sector has consistently outperformed the private sector in getting people back into work with jobcentres working flat out and doing a fantastic job in helping the rising numbers of unemployed.

“This poll should be a wake up call to the government which needs to raise benefit levels to alleviate the threat of poverty, ditch its plans for privatisation and start opening Jobcentres to deal with rising numbers of unemployed.”

Treasury committee echoes PCS concerns

2009-02-08T00:07:00.001Z

PCS last week echoed concerns highlighted in the House of Commons Treasury Committee's report on the 2008 pre-budget report.
The committee expressed concerns about Government plans to find a further £5 billion of efficiency savings in addition to a planned target of £30 billion by 2011.
Questioning where the additional savings would come from, the committee asked the government to provide details of how and where the additional savings could be made, as well as setting out measures to ensure that public service delivery doesn’t deteriorate.
In echoing these concerns PCS warned that civil and public services would continue to suffer if the further “efficiency savings” were made at the expense of jobs and services.
Eighty thousand jobs have already gone across the civil and public sector, with tens of thousands more planed by 2011 including, 10,000 in the Ministry of Justice, 12,500 in Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and 10,000 in the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
The union maintained that further job cuts and office closures would damage public services and be bad for the economy.
PCS urged the Government to reverse its job cuts and office closure programme across civil and public services to safeguard services delivered to the public.
Commenting, Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, said: "The Treasury committee have rightly expressed concern about the Government’s plans for an additional £5 billion of ‘efficiency savings’.
"No doubt substantial savings can be made from cutting out consultants and agencies, but plucking a figure out of thin air with no idea of how it will be achieved is no way to improve efficiency.
"We have already seen the damaging impact on so called efficiency programmes on key areas such as tax, Jobcentres, justice and defence.
Further savings should not be at the expense of jobs and services which would damage public services and be bad for the economy. "Further savings should not be at the expense of jobs and services which would damage public services and be bad for the economy.
"As the recession worsens and people become more reliant on public services, the Government need to reverse its job cuts and office closure programme across civil and public services to safeguard services delivered to the public.”

A wave of anger

2009-02-08T00:03:00.000Z

A wave of anger is sweeping across the class in Europe. Wildcat strikes in Britain; battles with the cops in Athens and millions of French workers downing tools in a general strike that paralysed the country last week.
The ruling classes of Europe are determined to put the entire burden of the slump on the backs of working people. They’re going to slash state welfare, pensions and social provision. They want to drive down wages through social dumping by closing down their operations in high-wage areas and setting them up in other parts of the European Union where labour is cheap or recruiting cheap labour from poorer regions of Europe to undercut existing rates for the job. This is what Blair and Brown called the “free market” that they told us was going to usher in an era of prosperity for all in the European Union.
It’s what Brown and Co will soon be telling us about the joys of joining the Euro now that the pound is sinking.
For years Labour and the majority of the leaders of our unions have elevated the EU as an instrument for social progress and economic advance. They say that the EU is becoming more representative through the authority of the European Parliament and establishment of regional autonomy. The social-democrats claim that the anti-working class “directives” and “rulings” can be reversed. The revisionist and left social-democratic circles that still pose as communists in some parts of Europe argue that the EU can be reformed to serve the interests of working people.
But the EU with its toothless parliament, ruritanian regional governments and farcical referendas that only count when the vote agrees with what has already been decided by the powers that be, hasn’t been reformed. Nor can it ever be under the Treaty of Rome.
The neanderthal section of the ruling class, who still dream of an independent role for British imperialism, is also opposed to the EU. That’s why some of their minions are trying to divert the unofficial energy workers strike movement down nationalist and racist lines to reduce it to the demand for “British jobs for British workers” that was shamefully resurrected by none other than Gordon Brown himself in September 2007.
These people, like the rest of the ruling class, have nothing in common with workers apart from the fact that they owe their entire parasitical existence to the labour of others. The real enemy of the working class is the employer, not the imported labour from abroad.
Now people see the European Union for what it is – an institution designed solely for the benefit of the oppressors and exploiters – and millions upon millions are seeing through the lies of the bourgeoisie and taking their anger onto the streets. What little benefits the EU has brought such as increased trade and open borders could all have been achieved through separate agreements and treaties.
In fact the European Union is neither genuinely federal nor democratic and every stage of European integration has been financed by working people through higher indirect taxes, lost jobs and lost benefits. The European Union cannot be reformed. It must be dissolved and the Treaty of Rome, which established the Common Market in the first place, and all addenda repealed.
In the meantime the dispute within the energy industry must be resolved through free collective bargaining. The union leadership should take a leaf out of the wildcat’s book and call on the mass membership to defy the anti-union laws to force the Labour Government and the Labour Party whose financial survival depends almost entirely from funding from the unions to meet their demands.

Anger at HMRC cuts

2008-12-13T16:09:00.001Z

PCS last week condemned an announcement by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to go ahead with the closure of 93 offices across Britain and the loss of over 3,400 jobs by 2011.
With the economic picture growing ever bleaker, the union warned that the closures would be bad for business, the public and the taxpayer and would lead to the loss of valuable skills and expertise.
The union expressed deep concern that the ability of the department to collect revenues and provide tax advice to the public and local businesses would be further undermined by the closures.
Services are already suffering in HMRC with a drive to axe 25,000 jobs and close over 200 offices, leading to backlogs of post and reports that the department can only chase up those who owe £20,000 or more in tax due to a lack of resources.
Around 17,000 jobs have already been cut since March 2004 and the union fears that skilled and experienced staff will effectively be forced out of a job as they will be unable to relocate or travel to their nearest office.
The office closures breakdown as follows:• Eastern region - 18 offices to close and 800 jobs to go.• South West region – 19 offices to close and 835 jobs to go.• Yorkshire and Humber region – 9 offices to close and 400 jobs to go.• Northern Ireland – 5 offices to close and 190 jobs to go.• Scotland – 20 offices to close and 400 to go.• Wales – 11 offices to close 470 staff to go.• North West region – 11 offices to close.
Commenting, Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, said: “In these uncertain economic times, these closures and job losses will hit businesses, the public and the communities they serve.
“Rural areas will be disproportionately hit with face to face tax advice reduced to a bare minimum and quality jobs taken out of local economies.
“As the recession worsens this will come as a bitter blow to a dedicated workforce and will lead to a loss of valuable knowledge and expertise.
“Job cuts are already damaging the ability of HMRC to function and undermining public confidence in the department.
“Office closures and job cuts will do nothing to tackle the £21.5 billion worth of uncollected tax and £25 billion lost through tax evasion.
“The Government has to recognise that the erosion of public confidence can only be halted by having enough civil and public servants with the right resources to do the job.
“As the recession deepens and people become more reliant on public services, the department and the government should stop adding to the growing number of unemployed and call a halt to the office closure and job cuts programme.”

Welfare for All!

2008-12-13T16:07:00.000Z

THE LEADERSHIPS of several unions last week joined forces to call for support for a joint statement to oppose the Government’s attacks on welfare benefits and to demand welfare for all. The statement said: “The welfare state is one of the UK’s greatest achievements and supports us all especially vulnerable and unemployed people and their families.
“In July the government published the Green Paper No one written off: reforming welfare to reward responsibility announcing plans to change the current provision of support.
“Many of the plans were unacceptable when they were first published and the worsening economic situation should lead to a fundamental rethink.
“However the Government is pressing ahead despite the current global economic downturn which is leading to increasing levels of unemployment. As a result we have come together.
“The Government’s proposals remove entitlements and fail to value the important work of parents and carers. Parents with young children, carers, sick, disabled, people with mental health problems and other vulnerable groups face tougher tests to qualify for benefits. If they fail they could be cut off with no support.
“We are opposed to the abolition of Income Support which ends the principle that those in need deserve help. We are opposed to compulsory work for benefits. People should be paid the rate for the job or at the very least be paid the national minimum wage.
“Jobseekers Allowance is shockingly low at less than £10 a day, if it had increased in line with earnings over the past 30 years the rate for a single person over the age of 25 would be more than £100 a week.
“The Government wants more of the welfare state to be handed over to the private sector. It is wrong to profit from the sick and unemployed. There is also the intention to share information with the police which raises real concerns about civil liberties.
“We want voluntary skills training and life long learning opportunities for unemployed people. The Government should focus on ensuring that there is more support to access jobs that have fair pay and decent conditions with a guarantee that when people cannot seek work they will not face poverty.
“The Government should introduce positive measures to challenge discriminatory attitudes held by employers, encourage flexible working practices and expand the provision of affordable childcare.
“We want the Government to rethink its plans. Support our campaign to help create a better welfare state and society.” It was signed by: Mark Serwotka - general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS); Paul Kenny – general secretary of the GMB union; Sally Hunt – general secretary of the University and College Union (UCU); Jeremy Dear – general secretary of National Union of Journalists (NUJ); John Corey – general secretary of the Northern Ireland Public Services Alliance; Katie Curtis – national women’s officer, National Union of Students (NUS); Ama Uzowuru – vice president welfare, National Union of Students (NUS); Colin Hampton – national unemployed centres combine; Eileen Devaney – national co-ordinator of the UK Coalition Against Poverty; Iman Achara – director of British Black Anti-Poverty Network; Peter Kelly – director of The Poverty Alliance Scotland; Frances Dowds – director of the Northern Ireland Anti-Poverty Network Miranda Evans – policy and public affairs manager at Disability Wales – and many others.

PCS news round-up

2008-12-05T13:37:00.001Z

Remploy rally in York

HUNDREDS of trade unionists braved the weather and took to the streets of York last Saturday to demonstrate against Government plans to close a local Remploy factory, job centres and post offices.
These are the three most important issues facing workers in the area. The unions GMB Unite, Community, PCS and CWU organised the protest to call on the Government to rethink its policies on welfare reform, the employment of disabled people and the provision of our Royal Mail Services.
North Yorkshire has seen the closure of 22 post offices and hundreds of job cuts, including the loss of 50 disabled workers’ jobs at York’s Remploy factory.
The campaigners also protested at proposals to close and privatise job centres.
York Labour MP Hugh Bayley joined trade union members on the march from Museum Gardens to a rally at the Royal York Hotel.
Speakers included GMB general secretary Paul Kenny, PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka, CWU general secretary Billy Hayes, GMB manufacturing national secretary Phil Davies, Unite national secretary Julia Long, GMB regional secretary for Yorkshire Tim Roache, GMB national Remploy convenor Less Woodward and Hugh Bayley MP.
“The closure of Remploy York on the 6th March 2008 effectively blocked opportunity for disabled people in the York and surrounding areas to find sustainable work,” said Paul Kenny. “GMB will not allow this is important issue to be forgot or ignored.
“The voice of disabled workers will get louder and louder as time goes on and GMB will make sure it is listened to by Government and Councils alike.”
Mark Serwotka said: “In these uncertain times, the closure of job centres in and around York will make it more difficult to find work and restrict access to an essential service when it is needed the most.
“Added to this is the privatisation of parts of Jobcentre Plus, which will see a workforce who have consistently outperformed the private sector, replaced by a private sector ethos that is governed by the profits of the few rather than the needs of the many.”
Billy Hayes said: “The closure of local post offices will mean that disabled people, the old and the vulnerable will have to travel long distances to use basic facilities.”
Julia Long said: “As a union representing disabled people, Unite has a duty to ensure that the Government listens to and meets their needs.
“Key in this is to ensure that there are jobs for disabled workers now and in generations to come. “Despite the promises, the closure of factory after factory over the past year has not helped our disabled members into mainstream jobs. We will not allow this to continue to happen and our members to be sold short.”

PCS signs new recognition agreement

PCS last week signed a trade union recognition agreement with the Training and Development Agency for Schools. The agreement was signed by PCS senior national officer, John Hickey, and the TDA’s chief executive, Graham Holley.
The Training and Development Agency for Schools develops standards and training for teachers and the whole school workforce.
In line with the Lyons Review, the TDA is planning to relocate to central Manchester by April 2010 with a planned transitional move to another building in central Manchester taking place between April 2009 and March 2010. alarmed
The transition and eventual relocation has concerned staff for some time and they have become even more alarmed as the organisation has driven the move forward despite the current economic crisis.
The union believes that the economic situation has changed so radically over the last few months that the costs to the tax-payer of such a move (part of the 2004 Lyons Review) require serious scrutiny.
PCS has written to the minister for children, schools and families, Ed Balls, requesting a review.
PCS, whilst eager to begin negotiating with the TDA on the whole gamut of workforce matters, will be taking forward immediately members concerns over their planned relocation.
John Bramson, branch secretary at the agency said, “It is really exciting for all of us in the TDA; we have worked hard to establish this union in the organisation in a time of great change and uncertainty; we now have the opportunity to build a fruitful relationship between staff and management through the strong backing of the union.”

Spend, spend, spend!

2008-11-21T15:07:00.000Z

THERE must be considerable confusion amongst the public these days. For years we’ve been told to save for our pensions or mortgage our lives to become part of the “property-owning democracy” that Britain is supposedly about. Now we’re to spend every penny we don’t have to rescue the economy and prevent the complete collapse of the financial system.
The sycophants who surround Gordon Brown never cease telling us about his financial genius, which allegedly steered Britain through the straight and narrow when he was Chancellor during the Blair era and now will chart the way to recovery following the biggest global crash since 1929. But what has Brown done to deserve such acclaim?
When Brown was Chancellor he loyally followed Treasury advice which was essentially to pursue the neo-liberal Thatcherite policies of deregulation and privatisation that got us into this mess in the first place. Now he, along with the rest of the bourgeois world, is returning to social Keynesianism to bail out the big corporations and banks hit by the global slump.
The Prime Minister’s spin merchants have already primed the media to expect a bumper £15 billion “bonanza” to boost the economy but what will it mean for the millions out of work and those soon to join them? Very little by all accounts apart from an increase in tax credits and winter fuel payments. While there is talk of massive investment in education and the health service this is almost certainly aimed at helping the commercial predators that leech off the system rather than creating work and improving services for the people.
Now if the Government really wants people to spend it could start by slashing VAT, which would bring prices down at a drop and also help the small traders and businesses that New Labour claims it wants to help. Then the Brown government could renationalise the transport services and pump public money to revitalise our trains and buses in time for the Olympics and follow it up by ending the restrictions on borrowing on councils to allow them to resume building affordable housing. This would not only end the scandal of homelessness but provide work for tens of thousands in the building industry. That finally would lay the basis for the restoration of the state and public sector that operated until 1979.
not an impossible dream
Restoring the public sector and state welfare to the levels that existed in 1979 isn’t rocket science. Taxing the rich to pay for it isn’t beyond the realms of the imagination. You only have to look at the speed at which these parasites have forgone their millions in bonuses this year to keep their directorships to see how easily it could be to tax them to the hilt – as it was to pay for health, housing, education and welfare for all in the past. But that will only come if the labour movement as a whole mobilises to force the Labour Party, which is almost entirely financed by the unions, to return to the principles in which it was established and carry out the wishes of the millions of workers in the trade union movement.
Keynesianism is, of course, not a cure but only a palliative and its aim is not just to bail out capitalism today by mortgaging its future but to stave off social unrest by providing work and benefits for those worst hit by recession. Its purpose is to preserve and safeguard the profits of the industrialists, landowners and speculators who live off our labour and rule this country and most of the world.
While arguing and campaigning for social reforms we must also make the case for the socialist alternative and the communist ideal because the only way to end the crisis of capitalism is to end capitalism itself.

PCS calls on Government to avoid strike action

2008-10-31T18:15:00.002Z

THE NATIONAL Executive Committee of the Public and Commercial Services Union , last week agreed the first stages of a programme of national industrial action across civil and public services over the Government’s public sector pay cap. The union urged the Government to come to the negotiating table to avoid damaging industrial action and review its public sector pay cap of two per cent, which is resulting in pay cuts and pay freezes for some of the lowest paid in the public sector.
If there is no movement from the government then industrial action will begin with a one-day civil service and public sector strike throughout Britain on 10th November, hitting passports, Jobcentres, Tax Credits, immigration and customs, as well as driving licences, coastguards, driving tests and museums.
“There is a three-week opportunity to avoid damaging industrial action, where the government can pay heed to the Bank of England’s warning on the economic consequences that the squeeze on wages is having.” Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary said.
The one-day strike, which will be followed by an overtime ban throughout the civil service, comes as civil and public servants across the country face mounting pressure on their finances as a result of the Government’s public sector pay cap.
With one in five in the civil service earning less than £15,000 and thousands earning just above the minimum wage, the Government’s policy of capping public sector pay has hit some of the lowest paid in the public sector the hardest.
In October, at least six Government departments and agencies, including coastguards and the Office for National Statistics, had to give emergency pay rises to lift earnings above the new national minimum wage rate.
The NEC also agreed outline plans for sustained and targeted industrial action that would stretch into next year in the different sectors of the civil service.
The NEC will meet after the one-day strike on 10th November to discuss dates for the sector by sector action, should there be no breakthrough with the Government.
Unlike other parts of the public sector, civil servants are doubly disadvantaged because “progression” (moving from the minimum to the maximum of the pay range) is included in the government’s pay cap along with cost of living increases. Hence there is less money available to fund basic pay awards.
This year has already seen pay strikes hit jobcentres, passports, immigration and coastguards across Britain, as well as strikes in the Scottish courts service, museums and sportscotland.
PCS members have also co-ordinated their industrial action over pay with other public sector unions, including NUT, UCU and Unison.
Commenting, Mark Serwotka said: “The everyday things we take for granted from passports and getting back into work, through to tax credits, coastguards and securing our borders are delivered by hardworking civil and public servants.
“Giving these people pay rises that take their wages to just 13 or 25 pence above the national minimum wage is unsustainable when you face double digit rises in food, fuel and housing costs.
“There is a three week opportunity to avoid damaging industrial action, where the government can pay heed to the Bank of England’s warning on the economic consequences that the squeeze on wages is having.
“The Government has the opportunity to recognise that its own workforce is doubly disadvantaged by a punitive pay system, that sees coastguards receiving special pay rises because the minimum wage has gone up and nearly half of jobcentre workers receiving no pay rise whatsoever this year.”

No need for a crystal ball

2008-10-25T17:54:00.000+01:00

WHILE Gordon Brown and the rest of the leaders of the European Union try to steady the capitalist markets with a tranche of bank bail-outs, even the most bullish economists are at last conceding that the imperialist world is facing a slump of 1929 proportions. The media pundits are dusting down Keynes’ General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money but you don’t need a crystal ball to see that the Government is going to put the main burden of the crisis on the backs of those who can least afford it – the working class.
Lord Mandelson’s move to “review” and almost certainly freeze proposed new family-friendly flexible working rights shows which way the wind is blowing and it will blow even harder if the labour movement doesn’t move quickly to mobilise mass resistance to further attacks on employment rights.
The Labour Government has taken some comfort from a recent report that shows that the gap between rich and poor in Britain has decreased since 2000. According to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) measures of poverty and income inequality in Britain have fallen faster than in any of the world’s richest and most developed capitalist states.
Income poverty fell from 10 to eight per cent between the mid-90s and 2005 and the poverty level in Britain is well below the OECD average for the first time since the 1980s. The number of children living in poverty fell from 14 to 10 per cent between the mid-90s and 2005 - the second largest fall, behind Italy, during this period. But child poverty rates are still above levels recorded in the mid-1970s and 80s.
But the report, from an international organisation set up in 1948 to help administer US imperialism’s Marshall Aid, says Britain still has one of the highest levels of income inequality in the developed world. It also points out that the gap between higher and lower incomes widened by 20 per cent since 1985 and that the gap between rich and poor is still greater in Britain than in three quarters of the other OECD countries which are mainly from Europe but include Turkey, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, south Korea and the United States.
While billions upon billions are being forked out to keep the capitalist banking system afloat the media pundits tell us that we should expect to pay for it in more cuts to public services, job losses and pay cuts. Brown & Co say they are acting to safeguard what they call the national interest through state intervention and the nationalisation of some banks. They try to pass off pre-planned immense expenditure on weapons of mass destruction as job-saving projects and they claim that there is no alternative to their half-baked conversion to the theories of John Maynard Keynes – a Liberal bourgeois economist who became the guru for “Old Labour” central planning.
But there are alternatives. The first is to renationalise everything that was privatised from 1979 and then plough back the mega-profits of those corporations, like British Telecom, to subsidise the health service, pensions and welfare and revive what’s left of British manufacturing. The second is to force the rich to disgorge all of the immense sums of money they have made through tax breaks and kick-backs over the past 30 years. They’ve got plenty. They can well afford it.

PCS back strike action

2008-10-25T17:52:00.001+01:00

A PROLONGED programme of industrial action, hitting civil and public services across Britain moved a step closer last Friday, as PCS members backed strike action in a dispute over the Government’s two per cent public sector pay cap.
Fifty-four per cent of those taking part in the ballot backed union plans for industrial action, which includes national civil service wide strikes, targeted strike action and overtime bans.
“Pay freezes and real term pay cuts are simply not sustainable when you are earning a pittance and experiencing double digit rises in food, fuel and housing costs. Bailing out bankers should not be at the expense of those who deliver public services or those who rely on them.” Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, declared.
The union’s national executive committee (NEC) is meeting on Thursday 23rd October to finalise plans and decide on dates for the programme of industrial action which could stretch over the coming months. An announcement confirming these plans will be made on 23rd October.
The ballot result comes as civil and public servants across Britain face mounting pressure on their finances as a result of the government’s public sector pay cap.
With a quarter of the civil service earning less than £16,500 and thousands earning just above the minimum wage, the Government’s policy of capping public sector pay has hit some of the lowest paid in the public sector the hardest, leading to real terms pay cuts and pay freezes.
Pay in the civil service is worse than other parts of the public sector because “progression” (moving from the minimum to the maximum of the pay range) is included in the Government’s pay cap. Hence there is less money available to fund basic pay awards.
This year has already seen pay strikes hit jobcentres, passports, immigration and coastguards across Britain, as well as strikes in the Scottish courts service, museums and Sportscotland.
PCS members have also co-ordinated their industrial action over pay with other public sector unions, including NUT, UCU and Unison.
Commenting, Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, said: “The hardworking people who keep this country running, from passports, immigration and justice, to coastguards, tax and jobcentres, face increasing financial hardship because of the Government’s public sector pay cap.
“Pay freezes and real term pay cuts are simply not sustainable when you are earning a pittance and experiencing double digit rises in food, fuel and housing costs.
“Bailing out bankers should not be at the expense of those who deliver public services or those who rely on them.
“Members feel betrayed and this ballot result illustrates that they are prepared to stand up for fair pay. The union’s NEC will be meeting next week to take forward that result and finalise plans for a programme of industrial action.
“The Government have a window of opportunity to avert industrial action and to recognise that their public sector pay cap is compounding the financial misery of hardworking families in these unstable economic times.”

Tax office cuts protest

2008-10-25T17:50:00.001+01:00

SEVERAL hundred PCS members attended a protest meeting in Bradford against the planned closure of local tax offices last Friday.
The campaign against the cuts has attracted cross-party support from MPs including Marsha Singh, MP for Bradford West, Shadow Treasury spokesperson David Gauke MP, Shadow Treasury spokesman, Philip Davies, MP for Shipley, Ann Cryer, MP for Keighley, and Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman.
PCS, which represents 1,200 people in the Bradford area, highlighted its opposition to the planned closure of 200 offices by HM Revenue and Customs with the loss of around 25,000 jobs. The cutbacks are part of a move to axe 100,000 civil service posts announced in 2006 by Gordon Brown when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The union says that about 100 remaining jobs are threatened in local offices earmarked for closure by 2011. They include Crown House and Hockney House in Shipley, Worth House, Keighley, Cavendish House, Skipton, Century House, Pudsey, and Empire House in Dewsbury.
PCS Bradford and District president Trudy Bates said: “Job cuts and office closures don’t make sense. A recent report produced by the TUC estimated the UK tax gap at £25 billion, or £1,000 a year for everyone at work in the UK.
“HMRC claims to have saved tax payers £105 million last year through job cuts whilst spending £106 million on private consultants. Office closures are bad for businesses and the communities of West Yorkshire.”

PCS backs Palestine lobby

2008-10-17T22:22:00.000+01:00

PCS is calling on all supporters and progressives to support a lobby of Parliament on Wednesday 19th November.
The lobby will mark the United Nations international day of solidarity for the Palestinian people. It is being organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the Council for Arab-British Understanding and Jews for Justice for Palestinians, the event will take place from 2-6pm in Room W3 of the House of Commons.
Campaigners, including PCS, will be lobbying MPs on issues including ending Israeli occupation, ending the blockade of Gaza, Israeli settlements, Palestinian self-determination and the EU-Israel trade agreement.
This lobby is taking place at a critical time. Ensure that your MP hears your views – contact them straight away and ask to meet them on the afternoon of 19th November.
Campaign website or contact PSC – telephone 020 7700 6192/ email info@palestinecampaign.org

Seize control of the banks!

2008-10-17T22:21:00.000+01:00

by Daphne Liddle

THE STOCK markets are falling again in London and New York after rallying for just three days.
The new policies of governments buying shares in banks to rescue them and putting up billions and trillions of pounds/dollars/euros to guarantee depositors’ money seemed to be working for a little while. Governments heaved sighs of relief; Armageddon had been postponed and Prime Minister Brown had come out of it like a banking super-hero who had, by pointing the way forward, delivered capitalism from its self-inflicted wounds.
But they had underestimated the greed and arrogance of the banking shareholders. After the Government had used billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money to rescue them, the banks reported that the terms and conditions that Prime Minister Brown had imposed were deterring shareholders.
The bankers criticised the Government for its decision to stop dividends being paid out and asking banks to resume lending and called on Gordon Brown to water down the terms and conditions of the bail out in line with the package unveiled by George Bush.
Bush and his Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson had followed Brown’s example and taken a £250 billion stake in vulnerable American banks, apologising as they did so.
The semi-nationalisation is totally contrary to their free-market dogma. “This is not what we ever wanted to do,” said Paulson, “but there is a lack of confidence in our financial system.” friendlier
But Bush set friendlier terms for the bankers on Wall Street than Brown had done. The American taxpayers must foot the bill but Bush has no intention of imposing the sort of conditions that would defend their interests.
Bush’s rescue package was announced after the weekend’s meeting in Washington of G7 finance ministers and banking chiefs from the US, Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. The 15 heads of the Euro Group, plus Gordon Brown, met immediately afterwards in Paris.
Once again the leaders of the rising economic powers: China, India, Russia, Venezuela, South Africa and so on were excluded.
The G7 powers agreed a five-point plan involving colossal sums of money but without setting precise figures or estimates. They pledged to prevent any bank going to the wall and to guarantee that financial institutions have access to liquidity and capital through the governments buying shares in the banks.
Even while the rest of the stock markets were enjoying a brief recovery, shares in the banks RBS, HBOS and Lloyds TSB were still falling.
Then on Wednesday the National Audit Office released figures showing that unemployment is rising steeply and the enormity of the coming recession swept away all remaining confidence on the London stock exchange and the FTSE started to nosedive again. similar fears
Wall Street was also falling amid similar fears of the coming recession. And many of the speculators who bought two days previously with prices at rock bottom were selling again to pocket a profit.
The problem with the G7 rescue plan is that it sends a signal to speculators that they can freely start runs on any bank or financial institution they like and the taxpayers are sure to bail them out.
It leaves the governments hostage to spend every pound and dollar they can scrape together – and the speculators will not stop until all the coffers are empty. As Peter Schwarz, writing in Global Research put it: “Governments have literally handed over the keys to their treasuries to the banks. The massive redistribution of wealth from the working layers of the population to the rich elite during the last three decades is to be continued and accelerated in the course of the current financial crisis.”
This is the madness of capitalism. The media is blaming the banking chiefs for their reckless lending and lack of control over recent years. But if any banker had refused to chase the easy profits that behaviour yielded and insisted on a more sober and cautious approach, they would have been sacked.
It is a system in which the greediest and most venal always rise to the top.
This is why semi-nationalisation cannot work; it must be full-nationalisation with full government control and democratic accountability.
The billions that have been stashed away by the profiteers during the last three decades must be taxed at the highest possible rate to return the stolen wealth to the workers who created it.

Still Going Down

2008-10-11T13:42:00.000+01:00

THE BROWN government is holding crisis meetings to hammer out a package of economic reforms as the slump deepens while finance ministers throughout the capitalist world are scrabbling around trying to prop up an international banking system that’s on the verge of meltdown. There’s panic in the chancelleries of Europe.
Franco-German imperialism is trying to get European Union agreement for an EU-wide billion euro bank bail-out.The Irish government has effectively guaranteed its entire banking system for two years while our northern neighbour, Iceland, hopes to stave off “national bankruptcy” only through a four billion euro loan from Russia.
Though the American $700 billion “bail-out” package got through Congress last week it did nothing to halt the slide in the markets, while the nationalisation of Bradford & Bingley at home has only accelerated the big business demand for state intervention throughout the banking sector.
The Chancellor, Alistair Darling, says he’s willing to take some “pretty big steps” to help stabilise the markets. But the only measures the Government’s taken so far has been to replace the old Economic Development Committee with a “National Economic Council” headed by the Prime Minister and his Cabinet Ministers and to recall Peter Mandelson from the European Commission to take up a seat in the Brown Cabinet.
Mandelson’s appointment reflects a shift towards the pro-European Union elements within the ruling class but it has more to do with Gordon Brown’s need to get consensus amongst the Labour’s right-wing in the long run-up to the next election.
Meanwhile the Archbishop of Canterbury quotes Marx and his number two, the Archbishop of York, condemns the speculators as “asset strippers and bank robbers” and the Pope says the global financial crisis shows the futility of money and ambition. Benedict XV1 says that “the only solid reality is the word of God” and, no doubt, his answer to the crisis is prayers. But praying isn’t going to help the unemployed, the homeless and the destitute.
Nor can Brown’s half-hearted social Keynesianism, like the nationalisation of ailing banks, solve the crisis. The ruling class intend to put the entire burden of the capitalist crisis on the backs of working people. We have to ensure that they don’t.
The trade union movement has a crucial role to play in mobilising to set an immediate working-class agenda for the Labour Government. The state welfare system and the public sector must be restored, pensions and benefits guaranteed and homelessness eradicated through the building of mass council estates at affordable rents. And the rich must be forced to disgorge some of their wealth to pay for it.
Social-democratic reforms like those which Labour’s Attlee, Wilson and Callaghan governments pioneered from 1945 to 1979 defended the living standards of the millions of working people who put Labour in power in 1945, 1964 and 1974. But only socialism can emancipate the working class.
The year after the 1929 Great Slump Stalin said: “If capitalism could adapt production not to the obtaining of the utmost profit but to the systematic improvement of the material conditions of the masses of the people, and if it could turn profits not to the satisfaction of the whims of the parasitic classes, not to perfecting the methods of exploitation, not to the export of capital, but to the systematic improvement of the material conditions of the workers and peasants, then there would be no crises. But then capitalism would not be capitalism. To abolish crises it is necessary to abolish capitalism”.
How true those words are today.

New Worker editorials on the current global financial crisis

2008-10-07T20:25:00.002+01:00

The next step on the ladder

THE UNITED STATES Congress last Monday night voted to reject the $700 billion rescue package that had been worked out between Republican and Democrat leaders for the economic crisis. It sent the Wall Street stock exchange into freefall, losing a record total of 777.7 points in one day and sending stocks and shares crashing around the globe. The US Federal Reserve tried in vain to shore up share prices by injecting billions of dollars but soon gave up when shares continued to plummet anyway.
The Congress men and women voted narrowly against the package after pleading from George W Bush and most of those voting against were Republicans. They ignored Bush’s desperate please and dire warnings of the collapse of capitalism because they face a Congressional election in a few weeks and the proposal to give away billions of taxpayers’ money to failed bankers and fat cats is deeply unpopular among the American people.
Many of the die-hard American Republicans really believe in the capitalists’ mantra that there should never be any government intervention in the free market and that financial crises are nature’s way of wiping out the inefficient and less profitable. They believe the crash should be allowed to run its course unhindered. They believe any kind of state intervention – or democratically accountable control of the economy is covert socialism.
But they ignore the social and political consequences of the crash: the middle classes will lose their savings and pensions and face an old age of poverty while the working class will face millions of job losses, cuts in welfare and face dire poverty, hunger and homelessness. And in America these conditions already affect hundreds of thousands; the crash will multiply the numbers in dire poverty many times over.
The American people are already disillusioned with their government; after Iraq and the “weapons of mass destruction” they do not believe George Bush when he cries “wolf!” anymore.
The leaders of world capitalism fear the political chaos that could be unleashed and most of all they fear that the workers will turn leftwards. They are beset by contradictions; if they take over the failing banks to rescue them from collapse they are in effect nationalising them – a real step on the way to socialism. As Lenin pointed out in The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It: “For socialism is merely the next step forward from state-capitalist monopoly. Or, in other words, socialism is merely state-capitalist monopoly which is made to serve the interests of the whole people and to that extent ceased to be capitalist monopoly…. State monopoly capitalism is a complete material preparation for socialism; the threshold of socialism, a rung on the ladder of history between which and the rung called socialism there are no intermediate rungs,” (September 1917). Lenin did, of course, point out elsewhere that the political preparation for socialism required the destruction of the bourgeois state apparatus and its replacement with a working class state apparatus. But there is some substance to the fears of the die-hard free-market Republicans
The leaders of world capitalism could reduce interest rates to encourage lending and spending again. But that would be to repeat the policies that led to this collapse. The problem with all policies based on debt is that eventually is all has to be repaid – with interest. The borrowers must have a realistic prospect of being able to pay it back.
Or they could let the chaos take its course, leading to economic and political instability and even world war.
Chaos is fertile; it could, given the correct political leadership from the left, result in a massive swing towards socialism; or without that leadership it could result in fascism.
Capitalism is destroying itself because the capitalists can no longer trust each other. This crisis is thrusting forward the monopolisation process to a point where surviving banks and/or IT companies will be so big they will effectively be the state – all administration of the state will be privatised to these giants and the democratic structures will shrink into barely relevant rubber stamps like the European Parliament. We could soon be living under state monopoly capitalism. Our job is to be ready to push it forward to socialism and not let it go backwards to fascism.

October 3rd 2008

To be or not to be…

WHEN THE GOING got tough back in the 1960s Labour leader Harold Wilson famously said that a week is a long time in politics. Well Brown’s Labour government has 20 months to play with until the next general election. But if Labour doesn’t radically change its direction it will face crushing defeat at the polls at the hands of the Tories. Unfortunately this message has barely sunk through to Labour Party conference in Manchester this week, least of all to the New Labour leadership who still imagine that they can weather the storm of the current capitalist crisis by pursuing the same Thatcherite policies that have alienated millions of workers who make up much of Labour’s core vote.
Sure we heard union calls inside the hall for the taxing of the rich and the renationalisation of the energy companies but nothing will come of it unless the unions link their demands to the financial support they give the Labour Party to keep it afloat.
The two issues are linked. The Tory offensive against the working class began when they returned to office in 1979 and it has largely continued under New Labour since 1997. The state and public sector was privatised. Collective bargaining was severely curtailed and vital services like the Health Service, public transport and local amenities have all become seriously underfunded.
Working people who can remember the 1970s look back nostalgically to the days of free medical treatment, affordable council housing, dole money as a right, pensions linked to average earnings, controlled transport fares and energy costs and a domestic rating system that didn’t crucify working class homeowners. It was paid for by the profitable sections of the public sector and through progressive income tax.
We must mobilise the class in its own defence to fight for the restoration of state welfare to at least the levels existing in 1979. This demand can easily be met by returning to the income tax levels that existed in 1979 and returning the privatised corporations to state control. We must make the rich pay for them by disgorging a fraction of the wealth they extort from the working class every year.
This can only be done by building fighting, militant trade unions with leaderships determined to fight to defend their members interests against the employer and willing to use their immense financial bargaining and constitutional power within the Labour Party to ensure that a future Labour government carries out the wishes of those it was established to represent.
At the fringe meetings the left social-democratic and Trotskyist “alternatives” are scrabbling around for yet another platform to challenge Labour at the next election. Some sects still seek the Holy Grail of the “correct line” which will miraculously win over millions of workers if only it is repeated again and again and again. Others believe that left unity can be built around a left social-democratic platform that specifically excludes the Labour Party and its affiliated trade unions.
They call for social-democratic reforms while campaigning against the only mass force capable of implementing reform, the Labour Party itself. They foster the illusion that there is a left electoral alternative to Labour when the reality is that the only alternative, in the current situation, is a Tory or a Liberal Democrat government.
None of them wonder why Labour lost London or why the Tories have a 20 per cent lead in the opinion polls. None of them ask why past attempts like the Socialist Alliance, Respect and the Scottish Socialist Party have all failed.
A Labour government, with the yet unbroken links with the Labour Party, the trade unions and the co-operative movement, offers the best option for the working class in the era of bourgeois parliamentary democracy. The NCP’s strategy is for working class unity and our campaigns are focused on defeating the right-wing within the movement and strengthening the left and progressive forces within the Labour Party such as the Labour Representation Committee and the unions.
At the same time we must build the revolutionary party and campaign for revolutionary change. Social democracy remains social democracy whatever trend is dominant within it. It has never led to socialism. Our Party’s strategy is the only way to fight for the communist alternative within the working class of England, Scotland and Wales. We want day-to-day reforms and they can only be achieved by the main reformist, social democratic party in Britain, the Labour Party. We want revolution and that can only be achieved through the leadership of the communist party.

September 26th 2008

A $450 trillion black hole

Last Monday the giant American investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy after finding itself without funds to continue operating. It first announced its troubles a week ago and hoped to find a buyer to bail it out. The Bank of America and the British bank, Barclays, were interested but pulled out when they learned that the American government was not prepared to use its Federal Reserve to write off most of Lehman Brothers’ debts – leaving Lehman to collapse.
The Bank of America did however move to buy out Merrill Lynch, another of the top five US investment banks that was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. That makes three out of the top five firms – Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and, last March, Behr Stearns – either crashed or removed from the private sector. And the giant AIG insurance firm is also in deep trouble and seeking a $40 billion loan from the Federal Reserve.
Finance “experts” have estimated there is a $450 trillion black hole in total in and around Wall Street as bad debts pile up and each crash tears a hole in its neighbours.
The Federal Reserve – effectively the US taxpayer – has done some huge bailing out in the last two weeks, after it rescued (nationalised) the two giant mortgage companies Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae just over a week ago. We could almost believe it’s a dream socialist agenda – the commanding heights of the global economy being taken into public ownership. Alas the US taxpayers will be footing the bill but are not going to get much control in return.
They, along with workers all around the globe, are going to suffer loss of pensions as stock markets tumble, unemployment, personal bankruptcy and homelessness. The value of wages is falling as food and fuel prices rocket.
The banks, that a short while ago were complaining about state regulations and taxes, are now blaming the US government for failing to regulate properly and begging for taxpayers’ money. They are also blaming each other for “lowering standards”, taking risks and behaving like predators. But that is the essence of capitalism. Each one of those banks is hoping to be one of the tiny few that survive the storm to eat up those that have fallen. That is the process of monopolisation.
So many of the “financial experts” being interviewed are expressing shock and surprise while we Marxists know these crashes are an integral part of the capitalist process.
This will cast a shadow over the US presidential election, which is looking more and more like a very close race. The Republican candidate, Senator John McCain represents the most reactionary circles within the American ruling class while the Democrat, Barack Obama, is a liberal bourgeois who hopes to garner working class support with promises of welfare reform and a less aggressive policy abroad. Whoever wins, the American people will face a prolonged period of suffering from the outfall of this capitalist crisis.
The Bush administration has left the US militarily weakened, politically isolated and in deep economic trouble. It’s puppets like Sakashvili, Musharraf and Yushchenko are falling while those it has threatened, like Kim Jong Il, Chavez, Morales and Mugabe are prevailing.
Dick Cheney has urged Bush to treat the whole world as the enemy of the US and now that the US is visibly weakened those “enemies” are uniting to ensure the US gets no chance to regain its broken global powers and threaten them again.
None of this is good news for Gordon Brown as he faces efforts from the right-wing of his own party to unseat him in the run-up to the next general election. He has proved to be a disastrous and dithering Prime Minister from any point of view but changing the leader without changing the policies would be futile – and none of the current batch of Blairite challengers has even mentioned policies.
A leadership contest could only be of value if it leads to a real debate on policies and a massive shift to more pro-working class policies. Any other path and the Labour government seems doomed to defeat at the next election. If that happens, in the current global economic climate, we can look forward to extreme anti-working class measures from the Tories, now with greater powers of repression from the growth of the surveillance state and the draconian “anti-terror” laws. We must fight tooth and nail to prevent that.

September 19th 2008

Labour Party Conference 2008

2008-09-27T19:40:00.002+01:00

To be or not to be…

WHEN THE GOING got tough back in the 1960s Labour leader Harold Wilson famously said that a week is a long time in politics. Well Brown’s Labour government has 20 months to play with until the next general election. But if Labour doesn’t radically change its direction it will face crushing defeat at the polls at the hands of the Tories. Unfortunately this message has barely sunk through to Labour Party conference in Manchester this week, least of all to the New Labour leadership who still imagine that they can weather the storm of the current capitalist crisis by pursuing the same Thatcherite policies that have alienated millions of workers who make up much of Labour’s core vote.
Sure we heard union calls inside the hall for the taxing of the rich and the renationalisation of the energy companies but nothing will come of it unless the unions link their demands to the financial support they give the Labour Party to keep it afloat.
The two issues are linked. The Tory offensive against the working class began when they returned to office in 1979 and it has largely continued under New Labour since 1997. The state and public sector was privatised. Collective bargaining was severely curtailed and vital services like the Health Service, public transport and local amenities have all become seriously underfunded.
Working people who can remember the 1970s look back nostalgically to the days of free medical treatment, affordable council housing, dole money as a right, pensions linked to average earnings, controlled transport fares and energy costs and a domestic rating system that didn’t crucify working class homeowners. It was paid for by the profitable sections of the public sector and through progressive income tax.
We must mobilise the class in its own defence to fight for the restoration of state welfare to at least the levels existing in 1979. This demand can easily be met by returning to the income tax levels that existed in 1979 and returning the privatised corporations to state control. We must make the rich pay for them by disgorging a fraction of the wealth they extort from the working class every year.
This can only be done by building fighting, militant trade unions with leaderships determined to fight to defend their members interests against the employer and willing to use their immense financial bargaining and constitutional power within the Labour Party to ensure that a future Labour government carries out the wishes of those it was established to represent.
At the fringe meetings the left social-democratic and Trotskyist “alternatives” are scrabbling around for yet another platform to challenge Labour at the next election. Some sects still seek the Holy Grail of the “correct line” which will miraculously win over millions of workers if only it is repeated again and again and again. Others believe that left unity can be built around a left social-democratic platform that specifically excludes the Labour Party and its affiliated trade unions.
They call for social-democratic reforms while campaigning against the only mass force capable of implementing reform, the Labour Party itself. They foster the illusion that there is a left electoral alternative to Labour when the reality is that the only alternative, in the current situation, is a Tory or a Liberal Democrat government.
None of them wonder why Labour lost London or why the Tories have a 20 per cent lead in the opinion polls. None of them ask why past attempts like the Socialist Alliance, Respect and the Scottish Socialist Party have all failed.
A Labour government, with the yet unbroken links with the Labour Party, the trade unions and the co-operative movement, offers the best option for the working class in the era of bourgeois parliamentary democracy. The NCP’s strategy is for working class unity and our campaigns are focused on defeating the right-wing within the movement and strengthening the left and progressive forces within the Labour Party such as the Labour Representation Committee and the unions.
At the same time we must build the revolutionary party and campaign for revolutionary change. Social democracy remains social democracy whatever trend is dominant within it. It has never led to socialism. Our Party’s strategy is the only way to fight for the communist alternative within the working class of England, Scotland and Wales. We want day-to-day reforms and they can only be achieved by the main reformist, social democratic party in Britain, the Labour Party. We want revolution and that can only be achieved through the leadership of the communist party.

Messages from the Left to New Labour

by Mervyn Drage in Manchester

IT WAS stimulating to be a part of the national Stop the War Coalition/Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament march last Saturday and to converse with comrades and friends from across Britain and the world.
There were many political, trade union, internationalist, peace and environmental banners on the march, which was called to put pressure on Labour Party delegates to end the predatory wars of occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.
The colourful, noisy and exciting march of around 5,000 men, women and children wended its way from All Saints, past the ring of steel around the Labour Party conference, the Midland Hotel and the GMex Conference Centre to end up in a rally in Castlefield.
Several New Communist Party members and New Worker supporters attended the march and rally and we completely sold out of papers.
The massive over-the-top policing of the event was most disturbing; we observed many Greater Manchester Police photographing demonstrators and taking notes. Police in military-style formations and mounted police revived memories of state oppression during the epic miners’ and printers’ disputes of the 1980s.
The Midland and Radisson hotels and the GMex Conference Centre and adjoining roads were sealed off to the public. Large metal bollards were used to close roads.
The right to protest peacefully is enshrined in law but it appears that protesters are being surveyed and monitored, and in effect criminalised, merely for exercising their democratic rights.
We need to know what the police, the security services and the state do with the information they are gathering on us. The worldwide capitalist crisis is intensifying and the Big Brother surveillance and database state is upon us.
A plethora of Labour conference fringe events took place but those meetings in the “secure zones” of the Labour Party conference were disgracefully off limits to the public. However it was possible to attend events at the nearby Friends’ Meeting House, the Mechanics’ Institute and local hotels.
New Workers were sold throughout the week at several fringe events and meetings, including the Labour Representation Committee (LRC) rally at the Mechanics’ Institute on Monday evening; the NO2ID public meeting at the Reynolds Building, University of Manchester on the Tuesday evening; and at the Question Time for the Left event at the Friends’ Meeting House on the Wednesday evening.
At the LRC rally, Karen Reissmann, the sacked psychiatric nurse, with 25 years’ work experience, gave an impassioned speech against NHS cuts and against private medicine.
John McDonnell MP, who chairs the LRC, spoke in favour of a radical anti-capitalist Labour manifesto and he announced that New Labour was on its last legs. He noted that right-wing Blairites are seeking to replace the current lame-duck Prime Minister Gordon Brown with David Miliband. Tony Benn also spoke at this meeting.
In the current global capitalist crisis, John McDonnell said that all New Labour could come up with was more privatisation of public assets and the introduction of more market mechanisms in the public sector.
He asserted that as New Labour was becoming increasingly irrelevant and there was a virtual coalition between Labour leader Brown, Tory leader Cameron and Liberal Democrat leader Clegg on economic policies. He said it was imperative to articulate a socialist alternative policy to enhance and protect the lives of working class people and their families.
Other meetings are events during the week included a lunchtime Sinn Féin meeting on Sunday 21st September on the theme, “For a United Ireland”.
There was a demonstration outside the Marks and Spencer store in Market Street on Monday morning organised by the GMB trade union in defence of their member, Tony Goode, who was dismissed from this bullying global corporation for revealing to the media details of cuts in the redundancy terms of 66,000 Marks and Spencer workers in Britain.
On Monday at lunchtime the Communication Workers’ Union organised a march and rally on the theme: “It is Time to Deliver a Positive Future for the Royal Mail – Labour Must Listen”.
Also on Monday, at 5pm, there was a public meeting at the Friends’ Meeting House to support the five Cuban patriots imprisoned for 10 years in the United States for opposing terrorism. And on Wednesday there was a lunchtime public meeting at the Friends’ Meeting House organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, on the theme: “If they can talk to the IRA, why can’t they talk to Hamas?”

Labour conference 2008

‘Tax the bonus system out of existence’

DEREK SIMPSON, joint general secretary of the giant union Unite, last Monday at the annual Labour Party conference in Manchester, demanded that Alistair Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer, should “tax huge city bonuses out of existence. In an emergency motion to the conference, Derek Simpson called on the Government to challenge the city bonus culture which he says is “out of control”.
He said: “The powerful mega elite with no connection to ordinary people, an amoral class without a care for how their reckless behaviour is now wrecking lives.
“Alistair, these people want ordinary people to share their pain but they won’t share their gain. If you can’t regulate the bonus culture then tax it out of existence.
“It’s time for internationally co-ordinated government action to rein in these finance pirates, take the lid of their secrecy and punish them when their actions lead to disaster for working people.”
The union is also demanding a windfall tax on the giant oil and energy companies to be used to help low income people to pay their rising fuel bills – and Unite backed the demand with full-page advertisements in national newspapers.
According to Unite, even a “modest” windfall tax on oil and energy companies would generate an immediate £3.6 billion – enough to provide nearly six million homes in Britain with an estimated £250 each this winter towards their fuel bills and still have money remaining to make homes across the country fuel efficient.
According to joint general secretary Tony Woodley: “Energy companies in this country have seen their profits leap by an incredible 538 per cent in five years, money they’ve used to line their shareholders’ and executives’ pockets. Yet all consumers have had is price pain.
“In homes across the country, people will be facing an inhumane choice this winter: that of whether to heat or eat. That is simply an obscenity in this the fourth richest country in the world.
“People are looking to Labour, the party of social justice to put an end to this. We say it can be done – it is affordable, it is moral and action must be taken to protect needy people this winter.”
Unite is also launching a Warmth Webline to collect consumers’ energy cases, which the union is promising to present to the Government as further evidence of the need for immediate financial assistance.
The union also tabled an emergency motion to the conference calling for action to protect finance jobs.
Derek Simpson said: “This crisis has a real human cost with thousands of hard-working families at risk of losing their homes. The big city bankers have been exposed, they are not the masters of the universe they are the masters of disaster.
“In the short term HBOS and LTSB must engage with the unions immediately and reassure staff that they will do everything possible to protect jobs. If the banks don’t the Government must step in, they have already intervened and we believe, if necessary, they should intervene to protect jobs in the financial services.
“Looking ahead, the Government must act and undertake a thorough review of the regulations covering the activities of the finance institutions. We can never allow greed and excess to damage our country like this again.”
Meanwhile the public sector union Unison was calling on the Labour Party to remember why it was set up. Steve Warwick, who chairs Unison’s Labour Link, told a packed fringe meeting on the opening day of the conference: “The Government needs to start taking bold steps that speak loudly and clearly about its values and priorities.
“And that means priorities like continued investment in essential public services, delivered by Unison members: public services like childcare, long-term care for the elderly, community health services, youth and community centres, adult education and employment advice, and affordable social housing.
“The return of the Tories to power would be disastrous for our members and for the services they deliver to the public,” Warwick said.
“That’s why we all need this Labour government to demonstrate authority and a sense of purpose and show this country whose side it’s really on.
“The events of the past week have shown what can happen when regulation is weak, when greed takes over and the wider public interest is lost from view.
“History is once again teaching us the importance of a strong and active public sector, acting for the greater good and accountable to the wider society.
“That’s Unison’s agenda. It should be Labour’s agenda.”
Unison also took a swipe at Labour’s privatisation policies. The union last week published a report showing how using private companies to provide public services is exposing all Britons to enormous financial risks and examining the impact of the £79 billion “public services industry”.
“This hard-hitting report shows that the Treasury is at risk of having tens of billions of pounds of liabilities heaped on it, because of the way public services are now delivered and funded,” said Unison general secretary Dave Prentis.

Only a left turn can save Labour

2008-09-18T12:53:00.003+01:00

by Daphne Liddle

PRIME Minister Gordon Brown is facing a tough time at next week’s Labour Party conference in Manchester with increasing calls for a new party leader from right-wing Blairites, while Downing Street and the White House scurry around like desperate jugglers trying to shore up the great banking pillars of capitalism as they lurch and sway in the current economic hurricane.
The right-wing attack on Brown has clearly been carefully coordinated in the week before the Labour conference. Three Labour MPs – former whip Siobhain McDonagh, former vice chair Joan Ryan and former special envoy Barry Gardiner all broke ranks to call for a leadership contest – and promptly lost their jobs.
On Wednesday David Cairns, the Scotland Office Minister joined them, saying: “There are a number of ministers who have cautiously looked at the situation and say they are very uncomfortable with it. It’s been in my mind whether I should step down, and if so, when.”
These dissidents have not made a single coherent criticism of Brown’s policies; they are not opposed to privatisation, to pay caps or to the illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are worried because they face losing their jobs at the next general election.

policies

But they will not stand any chance of saving those jobs unless a leadership challenge involves a thorough debate on policies leading to a decisive turn to the left.
John McDonnell MP, who chairs the Labour Representation Committee, wrote to the press: “Witnessing the faction infighting between Brownites and Blairites has been like watching a crew having a punch-up on the deck of the Titanic.
“Just to set the record straight, I am not part of this plot and have not asked for nomination papers. I am still up for a leadership election if there is one, but it must be based on a thoroughgoing, open debate about policies and nor personalities.
“The two New Labour factions currently slugging it out have barely a policy difference between them and have supported every New Labour policy over the last 11 years, which has led us to the brink of a Tory government.
In July I suggested a compromise to hold the party together: a structured and inclusive debate about the future of Labour. If this shows support for radical change, as I suspect, it is only in this context that the party should convene an election for a new leader.”
The rebels seem to have only a handful of MPs supporting them. To mount a real challenge they would need 71 willing to nominate one challenger – and so far no one has emerged as a challenger.
To take Brown’s place in the current political and economic climate – without new policies – would be a poisoned chalice for any youthful and ambitious challenger. Only a cynical old hack seeking simply to improve their pension prospects would want the position.
But the rebellion that would have caught the headlines under any other circumstances has been completely overshadowed by the economic crisis.
Capitalism is showing itself in its true colours – commentators are taking about mismanagement by banks and governments but this is the way capitalism is; it cannot be managed to eliminate risk and gambling by speculators.
The capitalists demand a free and unfettered market and moan about taxes and then gamble knowing that ultimately the humble working class taxpayers will pick up the bill as Governments bail them out because various banks, mortgage lenders and insurance companies are “too big to be allowed to fail”.
The US Treasury has run out of funds to bail out anymore banks after rescuing insurance company AIG; anti-competition rules are abandoned as still solvent banks eat up the failing ones.
And still the stock markets plummet. Capitalism is failing.
If this does not inspire the delegates in Manchester – the trade unionists and the constituency representatives – to put working class-friendly policies back on the agenda and the word socialism back in the vocabulary, then Labour cannot win the next general election.

PCS defends state welfare

2008-09-18T12:53:00.000+01:00

MARK SERWOTKA, general secretary of the civil service union PCS, on the final day of the TUC conference in Brighton last week, attacked the Government over welfare reforms, accusing it of “dismantling the welfare state”.
Moving an emergency motion on the Government’s welfare reform proposals he said: “The Government’s proposals for welfare reform outlined in their recent Green Paper represent the most fundamental attack on the welfare state since Beveridge’s proposals established the welfare state in 1948. first time
“Just reflect on this, it is the first time since 1948 that any government has seriously proposed abolishing the ‘safety net’ benefit for those without any means of financial support. It began life as National Assistance – today it is known as Income Support.
“It is not generous, below real subsistence on any modern standard; it is never given without question. But we must always remember – with no basic safety net you don’t just deny the parent – you also deny support to children.
“The Green Paper represents a complete u-turn on ‘workfare’. In 1997 experiments with forced labour, such as that in Wisconsin, USA, were explicitly rejected.

New Deal

“Rightly, the government opted for The New Deal, increasing support for jobseekers and ensuring that people were better off in work both through the National Minimum Wage and targeting incentives either through Tax Credits or specific programme payments.
“PCS members in Jobcentres are proud of the success of the New Deal, and in particular the voluntary approach central to its most successful strand, New Deal for Lone Parents, that has enabled over half a million parents, mainly women, to break free of dependency on benefits and get sustainable jobs.
approach that works
“When this approach to worklessness is clearly the approach that works, the question we need to ask is, why is James Purnell so obsessed with the forced labour approach?
“It is an approach that goes where even Thatcher and Howe wouldn’t dare to go in the 1980’s; an approach which stigmatises and demonises people as work shy and evokes images of the Victorian workhouse.
“It is shameful that a Labour government are seeking to implement a benefits regime that unpicks the fundamentals of the welfare state, that strikes at the very notion of a safety net for those in need.”

Unions ready for pay battle

2008-09-11T14:42:00.000+01:00

by Daphne Liddle

CHANCELLOR Alistair Darling last week at the TUC conference in Brighton tried to pull off the impossible – to convince trade union delegates that if public sector workers could restrain themselves from fighting for fair pay the current economic crisis would be solved in a few months and everyone would be better off next year.
To cries of “rubbish”, he said that Britain was in a good position to ride out the global credit crunch, even though this would mean workers accepting below-inflation pay rises and big rises in food and fuel bills.
He warned that pay rises above the planned two per cent level would lead to inflation and unemployment.
Darling tried to appease delegates’ anger over huge bonuses being paid to City speculators. “A bonus should be for hard work, not big mistakes,” he said, “Excessive bonuses, which encourage traders to take excessive risks, at a time of easy global credit – one of the major reasons for the global credit crunch. We need to learn the lessons to prevent this happening again,” he added – as if this were the first capitalist crisis in history rather than a regular recurring cycle.
The unions were not taken in. GMB general secretary Paul Kenny said the performance was an effort to warm the delegates “but was only as warm as a toaster that had been unplugged for two hours”.
The big public sector unions had already agreed to coordinate a series of strikes for pay rises that at the very least should match the rate of inflation – PCS is already balloting. But they did reject a motion calling for a general strike.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber spoke up for public sector workers: “We have shown that you cannot create world-class services with a workforce battered and bruised by change, sapped of morale by a thousand reorganisations, and crippled by pay awards that do not begin the reflect the true cost of living.
“And don’t let anyone tell us that the government can’t afford fair pay for public servants. If it can spend billions on consultants, billions on tax breaks for UK plc, then surely it can find the money to give Britain’s teachers, prison officers, civil servants and local government workers the fair pay they deserve.
“But let us be clear about this: working people are not the cause of inflation; they are the victims of it.”
The rank and file delegates backed the fight for better pay. PCS member Andy Reid said: “The pay settlement is simply insufficient. The real rate of inflation is five per cent or more. Unless the Government changes its minds, it’s going to become even more unpopular.
“We have to work together to change things. I wouldn’t have any problem with a wider strike. But we are all working together. If we are united the Government will have to listen. If they will not listen to the force of our arguments we will have to make them do so.”
Unison delegate Lisa Mannion said: “People are really angry. My colleagues and I are keen to come out in industrial action. There hasn’t been this sort of strength of feeling for years, when pensions were the biggest source of dispute. “Everyone is fed up with the situation. The unions have got to work together. The Government hasn’t been listening.”
Many delegates were angry that the Government was trying to blame workers for inflation. Aslef delegate James McGowan said: “The Government’s standpoint is not good enough. Blaming public sector workers for inflation is wrong. It’s driven by private sector pay and executive pay. It’s just a political football.
“I was in Warwick recently for Labour’s national policy forum and Gordon Brown didn’t give unions the deal they wanted. The Government will have to listen to us at some stage.”
Unison deputy general secretary Keith Sonnet moved the composite motion that demanded “days of action including a major national demonstration against the Government’s pay policy” and the delegates backed it.
Sonnet told the delegates: “We have a clear message for the cabinet meeting today in Birmingham: we demand fair pay for public service workers – we demand it.”

TUC 2008: Unions challenge Brown

2008-09-11T14:38:00.003+01:00

by Caroline Colebrook

A PENSIONERS’ rally marking the centenary of the first Old Age Pension last Sunday kicked off the week of activity surrounding the 2008 TUC conference in Brighton and drawing attention to the continuing, still unmet demands for a significant raise in the basic state pension and the restoration of the link with average earnings.
Speakers at the rally included Kay Carberry, TUC assistant general secretary; Frank Cooper, president of the National Pensioners’ Convention and it was chaired by Unison general secretary and TUC president for 2008 Dave Prentis.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber opened the conference on Monday with a reminder of union successes in the last 12 months. These included the agreement on agency workers “removing one of the worst injustices from our labour market,” and a “major pensions reform” forcing all employers to contribute to their workers’ pensions.
“What better way for us to mark the one hundredth anniversary of the Old Age Pensions Act won through the campaigning of previous generations of trade unionists?” he said.
He continued: “In the past year we’ve also become stronger as a movement. We’ve recorded a welcome 65,000 increase in our membership and reached out to migrant workers in every corner of the UK.
“And signed a new Protocol with our American sisters and brothers to combat the disgraceful activities of union busters on both sides of the Atlantic.”
He mentioned union involvement in the fight against the extreme right and the British National Party and the fight to defend the NHS from “reckless privatisation”.
Then he touched on the battles to come: “Gone are the comfortable realities of the past decade: that the economy can be taken for granted; that prices will remain stable; that the Tories are a spent political force.
“With the credit crunch biting, with incomes being squeezed by rising food, fuel and energy costs, with the gap between the super-rich and the rest of us now a yawning chasm, the British people are crying out for fairness – and I believe the case for action is compelling.”
Barber added: “But let’s also be clear. The credit crunch is no random act of god – but inevitable; inevitable because governments listened to those preaching the cult of deregulation; inevitable because bankers worked out they could make money by irresponsible lending and selling on the debts; and inevitable because property price bubbles always burst.”

Fuel poverty

One of the major issues debated at the TUC was the demand for a windfall tax on the energy companies that have been making obscene profits as the costs of domestic fuel have rocketed, plunging many working class people into fuel poverty.
Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of the giant union Unite, presented a Dossier of Disgrace exposing the greed and excess of the energy companies and the compelling case for a windfall tax.
Since 2003 gas and electricity companies have increased their profits from £557 million to over £3 billion and raised prices by up to 35 per cent in 2008 alone. But for every 10 per cent increase in energy prices, an extra 400,000 people fall into fuel poverty.
The dossier exposes the huge price hikes, profits and share dividends of the oil and energy utility companies. While the industry spends just £50 million a year combating fuel poverty.
Derek Simpson, Woodley’s co-general secretary, said: “Winter is approaching and in the coming months low paid families will be forced to switch their heating off because they won’t be able to afford the bill.
“The heartless excuses from the energy companies for not fulfilling their social responsibilities have been swallowed hook, line and sinker by the Government. It’s time for action, the situation is dire.”
Tony Woodley said: “The greedy oil companies have made billions and in the next four years they will make an extra £15 billion from the British public. The Government must intervene and intervene now.
“Our case for a windfall tax is compelling. It is morally right. So I say to the Government, it’s time to do the right thing and protect the most vulnerable in society.”
Conference backed the motion, which also criticised Ofgem, the industry watchdog, for failing to control price rises and profiteering.
It said: “Congress notes that the Prime Minister, in his speech of 4th September, ruled out financial assistance for households struggling to meet their energy bills, in favour of help with home insulation. Congress believes this is an inadequate response to the current energy crisis.
“Congress also notes that the ‘big six’ energy suppliers had profits last year of £1.635 billion, whilst the average household fuel bill has risen by 42 per cent in 2008. Congress condemns the actions of these suppliers, and the phoney competition between the energy companies.
“Congress further condemns the failure of the Government and Ofgem to take any action to properly regulate the energy market, and curb the excessive price rises being imposed on hard-pressed consumers….”

The NHS

The TUC conference celebrated – and vowed to defend – the “enormous benefits” of the NHS and its “core values of equity, universality and care free at the point of use”.
Unison representative Lilian Macer told the conference: “Despite the attempts of various governments to reform the NHS beyond recognition, it is to the great credit of all in the union movement that the service the service remains overwhelmingly publicly owned and free at the point of use.”
And it is “continuing to deliver high-quality care in the fairest and most compassionate way possible,” she noted, moving a successful resolution that celebrated the NHS’s 60th birthday and outlined key campaigning priorities to meet the challenges ahead.
“Let’s be thankful that, after 60 years, we still have an NHS that continues to strive for equality and fairness,” Macer told delegates.
She welcomed the moves towards an NHS constitution that “should preserve the essential core principles of the NHS”, but warned “we must also remain vigilant in confronting the many new challenges from both home and abroad.”
She outlined two major areas of challenge: the EU directive on cross-border health care and the Government’s obsession with “patient choice” and “personal budgets”.
“Of course everyone wants patients to be able to get the highest-quality care which is the most appropriate for their needs,” said Macer.
“But the Government hasn’t grasped the fact that choice does not necessarily equal quality. And choice certainly doesn’t equal equality either.”
And when it comes to the proposed pilot of personal health budgets, she added: “For once, pilots have to do exactly what they say on the tin: test a policy to see if it works. And if not, scrap it.
“We have been absolutely clear that opening the NHS up to a co-payments free for all would be the first step onto the slippery slope of a two-tier NHS, where the rich got a business class service and the poor had to settle for the leftovers.”
Similar dangers exist with the EU directive – “another cynical attempt by the European Commission to import market principles via the back door” – Macer warned.
“Far from its stated desire of reducing inequality, the directive would do precisely the opposite, as only those who could afford to pay up front for their treatment abroad, and who could afford the travel costs, would have any realistic access to healthcare in other European countries.”

Tax

Dave Prentis, general secretary of the public sector union Unison gave one of the keynote speeches. In it he backed the motion for a windfall tax on fuel companies and also called for higher taxes in general on the super-rich.
“And why stop there?” he said. “Our tax system is one of the most unfair in the EU – the lowest top rate apart from Luxembourg. Those at the top can and should pay more... pay more to help relieve the suffering of the very poorest in our society. A bold step to show whose side Labour’s is really on.

Workers’ rights

The RMT transport union drew the attention of Conference to the threat to trade union rights contained in recent rulings from the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
“Anti-union decisions by the unaccountable European Court of Justice have undermined workers’ rights even further than the Thatcher anti-union laws still on Britain’s statute books and urgently need to reversed,” the RMT said adding: “recent rulings by the ECJ add up to the most serious attack on union rights since the Taff Vale judgement more than a century ago.”
The union called on delegates to back its call for the TUC to step up the campaign against Britain’s anti-union laws and to work for Europe-wide action with the aim of restoring the human right to strike enshrined in International Labour Organisation norms.
“The ECJ is an unaccountable and politically driven body which aims to extend the ‘internal market’ – that’s privatisation to you and me – and its rulings effectively render the right to strike meaningless,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said.
“The Viking, Laval and Ruffert rulings have each undermined the ability of trade unions to defend their members against attacks on living standards, and the Luxembourg ruling even attacks the right of EU member states to set decent minimum employment standards.
“Together they mean that an employer’s right to ‘freedom of establishment’ trumps the right to strike, and are more restrictive than even the Tory anti-union laws still in place in new-Labour Britain.
“These draconian judgments and EU rules on ‘free movement’, which are enshrined in the renamed EU constitution, the Lisbon Treaty, represent a fundamental attack on trade union rights.
“Unless we roll back these ECJ rulings we will be left defenceless against the EU’s drive to liberalise markets and institutionalise social dumping.
“That means stepping up the campaign for a Trade Union Freedom Act and ensuring that any new UK Bill of Rights includes all ILO conventions, and it means working with unions across Europe to demand the reversal of the ECJ’s anti-union rulings,” he said.
In the Viking case the Finnish ferry company Viking Line attempted to re-flag one of its ships to Estonia and replace Finnish seafarers with cheaper Estonian labour.
When the Finnish workers decided to strike to stop this social dumping, Viking began legal proceedings and, after sitting on the case for three years, the ECJ ruled that the company’s “freedom of establishment” took precedence over the Finnish workers’ right to strike.
The Vaxholm (or Laval) case began after Swedish trade unionists attempted to prevent Latvian firm Laval paying poverty wages to Latvian builders working in the Swedish town of Vaxholm.
The ECJ ruled that the right to take action is superseded where an employer complains that the union is seeking terms and conditions in excess of the minimum provided by the Posted Workers Directive.
It claimed that as Sweden has no minimum-wage legislation in place the industrial action was invalid.
In the Ruffert case the court ruled that a German public body was not entitled to include a clause in a public works contract that required contractors to pay foreign workers the same rates as those set down in collective agreements.
In the Luxembourg case the court ruled that Luxembourg must remove labour laws putting national and foreign workers on an equal footing with local employees.
In all these cases the ECJ asserts that EU rules on the free movement of goods, services, capital and labour give private firms protection against collective action by trade unions.

Unions co-ordinate pay fight

2008-09-05T18:37:00.001+01:00

by Caroline Colebrook

THE LEADERS of Britain’s major public sector unions have been meeting and discussing plans to co-ordinate their battle against a Government pay cap of around two per cent – well below inflation – on all public sector pay rises in the run-up to next week’s annual TUC conference in Brighton.
The unions will set new strike dates as this pay battle intensifies that will bring out civil servants, local government employees, teachers and health workers at the same time.
Four key unions have tabled motions to the conference demanding the TUC’s ruling council co-ordinate strike plans, including Unison; PCS, which represents civil servants; the National Union of Teachers; and the University and College Union, representing lecturers.
One TUC officer said: “Public sector workers feel they’re languishing around the two per cent mark when inflation is at four to five per cent, and by any standards that is a pay cut. There is a political price to be paid for those people who feel the Government is punishing them.”
A Unison spokeswoman said that the major unions had already discussed how to co-ordinate strikes, adding: “It’s not easy to do, but it is something we have on our radar in terms of what might make action more effective.”
There have already been some coordinated strikes against the pay caps involving civil servants teachers, NHS workers and local government workers but they have never yet all taken strike action together at one time.
The unions are angry that the Brown government is expecting them to carry the can for the current deepening economic crisis that has been brought about by capitalist greed and speculation.
The workers, especially the masses of them on very modest wages, are being disproportionately hit by steeply rising food and fuel prices – basic necessities they cannot choose to do without. Meanwhile the inflation figures are misleading because they are kept low by stable prices for goods and services that are not essentials. The lower the wage, the bigger slice of it that has to be spent on essentials and so the poorest workers are hit hardest.
Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the civil service union PCS, said: “It’s time to stand up against pay cuts and pushes the message ‘public services not private profit’.”
He commented on the recently-published Deanne Julius report on privatisation, saying it made clear “something that I have been arguing for years – that New Labour has privatised more than the last two Tory governments combined.”
He said the report revealed that the privatisation industry has grown by 130 per cent since 1995. “Senior executives in the industry, like Serco chief executive Christopher Hyman with his seven figure salary, have clearly done well from this rapid expansion. What is far less clear is the benefit to the population as a whole,” said Serwotka.
“There is very little evidence to support the argument that services have improved – as the Julius report concedes.
Indeed, if one was to consider some of the areas most likely to have been privatised (or outsourced), a few questions might reasonably be posed. For example: catering operations – has school food improved? Security – are Government facilities and staff safer? Cleaning – are hospitals cleaner?
“We do know that outsourced cleaning and security is up to 17 per cent worse paid than when in-house. It is very hard to see how that ensures a better service.
“But there is a fundamental contradiction in public sector outsourcing. For those running public services the key question should be whether outsourcing improves the services provided to the public and society as a whole.
“For the outsourcing industry, though, the key is whether all opportunities to extract a profit have been fully exploited. There are those who would argue that these are not contradictory, but they seem to find it hard to locate the evidence to support them.”
Meanwhile in Scotland public sector workers are planning to build on their successful strike last month by announcing further strike dates in local government.
The unions say that Scottish local government employers have failed to improve their pay offer. Last week officers of the giant union Unite met with representatives of Cosla (the Council of Scottish Local Authorities) to try to resolve the outstanding issues of low pay and a below inflation pay offer which resulted in the recent strike across Scotland. Jimmy Farrelly, Unite regional official said: “Initially the employers indicated that they would offer a one year deal which would take the recent rises in inflation into account.
However, today they came back with a one-year deal of just 2.5 per cent which is exactly the same as their previous offer.
“This is a total misjudgement of local government workers’ commitment to fight for a decent living wage. We are extremely disappointed with their decision which will lead to an escalation of strike action.”
Unite, the GMB and Unison will be meeting within the next week to coordinate further strike dates.

PCS news

2008-09-05T18:36:00.001+01:00

Acas staff to strike

CIVIL servants employed at the conciliation and arbitration service Acas last week voted for strike action in a dispute over pay.
PCS called on the Government to take immediate action to settle the row to avoid “embarrassing” industrial action at the organisation, which helps resolve disputes.
The union said that 59 per cent of those who took part in a ballot backed strike action, with 80 per cent supporting other forms of industrial action.
The industrial action ballot follows delays in settling this year’s pay and a pay remit submitted to the Treasury by Acas, which the union believes will result in real-terms pay cuts.
Workers are angry that pay negotiations for this year have yet to begin. The annual pay increase was due on 1st August. PCS says that this year’s delay follows a 10-month hold-up to last year’s 2007 pay increase.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “Members have indicated clearly that they are not prepared to accept below-inflation pay or a repeat of last year’s 10-month delay.”

DVLA walkout

WORKERS employed at the Department for Transport (DfT) in the Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) took strike action last Friday in a protest at pay inequality and a below-inflation pay rise in a 24-hour walkout organised by PCS.
The strike caused significant disruption leading to the closure of local offices and a restricted service in those remaining open.
The contact centre was also severely disrupted with the public being advised to contact the DVLA another day.
Picket lines across England, Scotland and Wales were well supported, with the Swansea headquarters seeing approximately 80 per cent of staff stay away from work and local politicians including Bethan Jenkins, Welsh Assembly Member, visiting the picket line.
In Edinburgh, Dundee and Glasgow, 90 per cent of staff stayed away from work, whilst elsewhere local offices were closed due to strike action.
The strongly supported action follows below inflation pay offers and widening pay gaps between the predominantly female staffed DVLA and the predominantly male DfT and related agencies.
With pay gaps of £2,524 existing between DVLA and the DfT, the union is pursuing equal pay cases.
A 10-day preliminary Employment Tribunal hearing starts on 8th September where the union will claim that women executive officers in DVLA are underpaid in comparison with male driving examiners in DSA.

Scotland on Strike

2008-08-21T10:53:00.001+01:00

by Caroline Colebrook

AROUND 200,000 local government employees in Scotland took part in a 24-hour strike over pay last Wednesday, affecting refuse collection, libraries, swimming pools, day-care centres, ferry crossings and town hall services.
And joining them were around 5,000 PCS members.
They are protesting at Government attempts to impose a 2.5 per cent pay deal over the next three years. As such this strike is part of a wave of massive public sector strikes against below-inflation pay rises that is happening all around Britain.
Wednesday’s local government striking workers are members of Unison, GMB and Unite and their protest is directed at Cosla – the Scottish local government umbrella group.
Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said: “Our members are taking this action very reluctantly. They care deeply about the vital services they provide and those who depend on them and we apologise for any disruption.
“However, members feel they have no choice when the employers’ offer is effectively a pay cut.”
picket lines

The strikers mounted picket lines outside several council headquarters. Union members also distributed leaflets to commuters at Edinburgh’s Waverley Station and a midday rally was held at George Square in Glasgow.
Michael Cook, speaking for Cosla, claimed the local governments could not afford above inflation pay rises. He said: “The issues are difficult and complex and need to be carefully thought through.
“However, as soon as possible, we will arrange talks with the trade unions in a bid to reach a settlement which takes account of the soaring cost of living which affects councils just as much as our workers.”
John Swinney, Finance Secretary of the Scottish Parliament, stood aloof and urged “both parties to try to resolve the dispute to ensure that there is no further interruption to public services”.
But the unions hold him responsible for failing to give the local authorities adequate funding to cover the much needed wage rises to address low pay.

angry

PCS members are angry that Scottish Ministers have imposed a two per cent pay increase on their own workforce in the Scottish Government, which is in effect a pay cut whilst inflation spirals beyond five per cent. This is a rise of only £4.20 per week for those PCS members earning £16,500 in the Scottish Government.
Since 31st July, PCS members have been participating in an overtime ban and working to rule, which, as the Scottish Parliament prepares to return from recess will begin to slow down Ministers’ abilities to deliver key priorities in the session ahead.
PCS is also now balloting its members in the Sheriff and High Courts, and the Procurator Fiscals’ Department who, if they vote to join the strike campaign later, would bring Scotland’s justice system to a halt.
Eddie Reilly, PCS Scottish Secretary hit out at Scottish Ministers: “Low paid civil servants are not the cause of inflation – they are the victims. Salmond and Swinney can’t stay in hiding for ever.
“Ministers need to face up to their responsibilities in this dispute. It seems to be the case with Scottish Ministers that when the going gets tough, the tough go into hiding.”

ACAS workers pay ballot

2008-08-14T21:41:00.000+01:00

MORE than 630 PCS members working for the conciliation service Acas last week began a ballot for strike action and action short of a strike in a dispute over pay.
The ballot, which runs until 27th August, follows delays in settling this year’s pay and a pay remit submitted to Treasury by Acas, which the union believes will result in real term pay cuts.
This year’s pay increase was due on 1st August yet pay negotiations haven’t started.
This year’s delay follows a ten-month delay to last year’s 2007 pay increase.
PCS national officer Dave Cliff commented: “After the ten-month delay to last year’s pay rise we had an agreement that this year’s pay settlement would be paid on time.
“However Acas management have dragged their feet and not even started negotiating yet. The prospect of a repeat of last year’s delay, combined with the likelihood of a below inflation pay award has left staff feeling angry and betrayed.”

Union leaders back petition for Miami Five

2008-08-14T21:40:00.001+01:00

BEVERLEY Naidoo, Iain Banks, Harold Pinter and Susannah York last week joined Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson, joint general secretaries of the union Unite, last week called on the US government to grant family visiting rights for the Miami Five.
Next month marks the 10th anniversary of the arrest of the Miami Five – five Cubans jailed for trying to stop US-based terrorist attacks against their country and Unite is backing a campaign for justice for the imprisoned men and their families.
The campaign is particularly focused on the visiting rights for two of the wives of the prisoners, Olga Salanueva, wife of Rene Gonzalez, and Adriana Pérez, wife of Gerardo Hernandez who have both been denied the right by the US authorities to even see their husbands for eight and 10 years.
To coincide with the anniversary of their arrests in Miami on 12th September 1998, British personalities, including several trade union general secretaries are adding their name to an appeal for justice for the five and their families.
Signatories include many famous names from the world of politics, law, music and arts including writers Iain Banks, Beverley Naidoo, Harold Pinter and actors Julie Christie, Susannah York and Maxine Peake.
Unite’s joint general secretaries, Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson, Unison’s Dave Prentis and CWU’s Billy Hayes have also signed the petition.
The full list of signatories will be published in the national media in September and there is still time for personalities and individuals alike to add their names to this petition by contacting Cuba Solidarity Campaign.
Tony Woodley said: “The Miami Five were acting to defend their country and have paid an enormous price. They are locked up in prison thousands of miles away from their children and wives.
“Unite is giving its support to gain family visitation rights and is seeking, ultimately, the release of the Miami Five.”

Unions roll over at Labour policy forum

2008-08-14T21:38:00.000+01:00

by Daphne Liddle

LEADERS of most of Britain’s trade unions set out for Coventry and the Labour Party national policy forum at the end of last month with a list of 130 demands for changes in policy to make the party more electable.
It was just after the disastrous Glasgow by-election; Gordon Brown’s position as Prime Minister was precarious and New Labour was deep in debt after most of its big business friends had quit to return to the Tory fold. The party was desperate to hang on to its trade union funding.
It seemed the perfect moment for the union leaders to press home their demands for policies that would be friendlier to the working class – now facing increased unemployment, home repossessions and soaring prices for basic essentials. The union leaders had met with Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband – who will be drafting Labour’s next election manifesto – to discuss their demands.
But the union leaders still managed to pull a staggering defeat from the jaws of victory.
The union leaders’ demands included implementation of the Trade Union Freedom Bill, which would have restored trade union rights taken away by the Tories in the 1980s.
They were also calling for more council housing to be built and measures to help families facing eviction because their mortgage repayments have increased beyond their ability to pay. And they were calling for a windfall tax on the exorbitant profits of the energy companies; an end to private contract cleaners in hospitals; free school meals for schoolchildren, the abolition of prescription charges and withdrawal from the illegal occupation of Iraq.
But nearly all the demands were rejected. Brown refused to change policy on the grounds that “there would be no return to the chaos and unrest of the 1970s”, though most workers would remember that as a time when terms and conditions of work were idyllic compared to today’s and we had a healthy, thriving NHS.
The Financial Times reported: “Gordon Brown was yesterday praised by business for resisting the worst union demands on policy”. It went on to brag: “Facing a list of 130 union demands, Mr Brown rejected the vast majority outright and gave little ground on the rest.”
The demand for a windfall tax on the energy company bosses was dismissed out of hand. A few days later Shell announced six monthly profits of almost £4 billion; Bp’s profits for the same period were £6.75 billion, which was a 23 per cent increase. British Gas announced that bills will be rising by 35 per cent and Centrica announced a huge payout to their shareholders following a massive £992 million profit.
The result will almost inevitably doom the country to another period of Tory rule soon. Many argue that there is little difference between New Labour and the Tories.
But the Tories, with growing confidence, are already promising significantly greater powers of surveillance for the police, a voucher system for children to buy a school place and effectively the privatisation of the education system.
The whole farrago demonstrates plainly that the bourgeois state machine of government is designed to defend the interests of the ruling class against the workers.
Unison general secretary David Prentis claimed the unions had won a loosely defined commitment to maintain some sort of public sector from New Labour. Within days Brown seemed to have forgotten that commitment. In any case such a pledge will be useless when the Tories win the next general election.

Scots civil servants ready to strike

2008-07-03T13:49:00.000+01:00

THOUSANDS of civil servants in Scotland are gearing up for a strike over pay this summer in a move that will severely disrupt services to the public.
PCS is balloting members and advising them to vote for strike action later this year in protest at a two per cent cap on pay rises both north and south of the border for each of the next three years – at a time when inflation is escalating sharply.
Scottish ministers have said they might increase this offers in some cases; the union wants six per cent for all workers. Hundreds of thousands of civil servants are already on very low pay and they will not be able to manage without significant pay rises to meet the rises in food and fuel prices.
If the action goes ahead Scotland’s courts will come to a halt as Crown Office staff join the industrial action. Property transactions, art galleries and payments to farmers are also likely to be affected.
Scottish Finance Secretary John Swinney has written to civil servants in an effort to head off the strike.
But union negotiators are expected to call for a two-day strike in mid-July, followed by further stoppages if the deadlock is not broken.
Social workers, housing benefit staff, teaching assistants, dinner ladies, cooks, cleaners, architects, traffic wardens and refuse collectors will join the strike in the biggest show of industrial unrest for years.
Jobcentre and benefit office workers and other civil servants could take industrial action later in the year in separate rows.
The first ballot will include 4,000 civil servants in the Scottish Government civil service and in the Registers of Scotland, which handles registration of property transactions.
Lynn Henderson, political officer for the PCS in Scotland, said: “We are seeking a fair increase for our members, who see prices going up much quicker than the two per cent in this offer.”
She added that the civil servants would attempt to co-ordinate their strike action with that of other public bodies, such as councils.
Later in the summer, officials at the Crown Office and Prosecutor Fiscal Service, which handles the prosecution of crime, and the Scottish Courts Service, which administers and staffs courtrooms, will ballot on strike action. They are also being urged to come out on strike.
Unison is also balloting council workers in Scotland for strikes over pay in a separate dispute after being offered a three-year deal worth 2.5 per cent a year.

DWP strike success

2008-03-20T16:17:00.000Z

PCS proclaimed its two-day strike by members employed at the Department of Work and Pensions on Monday and Tuesday this week a resounding success. They were protesting at a below-inflation pay package that is effectively a pay cut.
Around 80,000 DWP workers came out on strike, affecting job centres, benefits offices, the pension service and Child Support Agency. It led to the closure of some offices with those remaining open offering little or no service to the public. The public experienced difficulty getting through to call centres with recorded messages telling people to call back at a later date.
This was the second two-day strike in this dispute; the first took place in December last year against a backdrop of worsening industrial unrest across the civil service, as the government seeks to cap pay to below inflation across the civil and public services.
The strike continued to receive strong support on its final day, as members continued to show their anger by staying away from work as they protested over the imposition of a three-year pay offer averaging just one per cent a year.
The imposed pay offer also sees 40 per cent of staff receiving nothing this year and the lowest paid receiving increases that take their wage to only 24 pence above the minimum wage.
With figures out on Tuesday showing inflation on the rise, the union accused the government and DWP management of actively seeking to drive down wages and warned that further industrial action could follow if they continued with their refusal to find a negotiated outcome which ensured fair and just pay.
Below inflation pay as a result of the Government’s pay cap has also prompted strongly supported strike action in the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), the Department for Transport, Driving Standards Agency (DSA), the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), Highways Agency, Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) and Vehicle Certification Agency.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka commented: “The fact that inflation is continuing to rise in the midst of the Government’s cap on public sector pay is further evidence that public servants are not the cause of inflation, they are the victims.
“The strong support for the strike demonstrates that staff who have been battered and bruised by job cuts will not tolerate low pay increases that will result in cuts in living standards for many hard working staff. DWP managers and Government ministers must not be allowed to get away with pay levels that are so low some full-time staff will receive increases which will take their pay to only 24 pence above the national minimum wage.
“Instead of squandering millions on private consultants, contractors and divisive bonus schemes, ministers and DWP managers should negotiate seriously with PCS about reaching a fair settlement that will protect living standards and end low pay.”
Tanya Walker, North Yorkshire PCS DWP branch secretary, said the strike had caused severe disruption, affecting job centres and DWP offices throughout York and North Yorkshire.
She said: “Members of the public have been severely affected which is something we do regret. Because job centres are currently being staffed with such minimal levels of staffing anyone going in will experience long waiting times or they may find specialist officers are unavailable.”

No to a food parcel Britain!

2008-03-06T22:31:00.002Z

PCS last week condemned the Government’s announcement to cut a further 12,000 jobs and the closure of an additional 200 offices in the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).
The union also accused the Government of a dogmatic approach to the privatisation of the welfare state as it confirmed plans to implement the Freud report in full. With 30,000 jobs already gone and over 600 offices closed in the DWP, the union expressed its deep concern of the impact that further cuts will have on service delivery.
Services to some of the most disadvantaged in society have already suffered as a result of job cuts and office closures, with access to benefits and job seeking help restricted and increasing waiting times for benefits resulting in food parcels being handed out in some parts of Britain.
Accusing the Government of pursing a dogmatic policy of privatisation, the union warned that the welfare state was in danger of being run in the interests of shareholders rather than the people it was set up to help. The union went on to warn that further job cuts combined with privatisation would amount to a huge blow to the morale of staff, who are in a long running dispute over the imposition of a below inflation pay offer, which sees 40 per cent of staff receiving a naught per cent pay rise this year.
The union went on to raise the matter in talks with the Cabinet Office aimed at reaching a negotiated outcome to its national dispute over jobs, services and privatisation.
The union is seeking agreement on the avoidance of compulsory redundancies and measures to protect the workforce in the event of privatisation.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka commented: “This announcement comes as yet another blow to a workforce who have battled to provide a service in the face of swingeing cuts and below-inflation pay increases.

crude cost cutting

“These plans for job cuts and privatisation are purely about crude cost cutting and will do nothing to improve service delivery to some of the most disadvantaged in society.
“The Government, by planning to privatise large chunks of the welfare system, is effectively turning its back on vulnerable members of the public as well as its own public sector workforce, who have consistently outperformed private companies in delivering the lowest unemployment figures in a generation.
“Today’s announcement adds renewed urgency to talks with the Cabinet Office in reaching a negotiated outcome to the union’s national dispute as we seek to reach agreements on compulsory redundancies and privatisation.”
The DWP is not the only civil service department threatened with cuts; the day after the DWP cuts were announced, the Government said that Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is to close 35 offices in Wales, Scotland and the North West of England affecting up to 5,000 staff members.
PCS warned that the ability of the department to collect revenues and provide tax advice to the public and local businesses would be further undermined by the closures.
Services are already suffering in HMRC with a drive to axe 25,000 jobs and close over 200 offices, leading to backlogs of post and reports that the department can only chase up those who owe £20,000 or more in tax due to a lack of resources.
Some 15,000 jobs have already been cut since March 2004 and the union fears that skilled and experienced staff will effectively be forced out of a job as they will be unable to relocate or travel to their nearest office. Workers at the Department for transport have already taken strike action last Thursday against below-inflation pay awards and increasing pay inequality.
PCS said that across the Department for Transport there are men and women doing work of equal value yet having unequal pay; we see men and women working at the same pay band/grade yet not having the same pay.
This covers staff in DVLA, DSA, VOSA, VCA, and Highways Agency and the Department for Transport Headquarters.

one day strike

The one day strike hit driving tests, vehicle testing centres, regional centres controlling the flow of motorway traffic as well as the half yearly introduction of new number plates for new cars.
Meanwhile 5,500 PCS members in the Land Registry are being balloted on industrial action over 2007 pay and the imposition of an allowance for district team leaders, funded from the pay remit.
Members have already voted in an indicative ballot to reject the pay offer worth three per cent overall with a two per cent revalorisation, along with the DTL allowance.

Campaign for victimised rep

2008-02-22T14:13:00.000Z

PCS is calling on its members to support the campaign for the reinstatement of Eddie Fleming, who has been sacked for carrying out his duties as a union rep. The call came on the day he was sacked. Eddie, the PCS Child Support Agency (CSA) Hastings branch chair, was told November he would be dismissed after being disciplined for carrying out his union duties.
He was not disciplined for any type of serious misconduct which would normally lead to a summary dismissal, such as theft, violence or harassment.
The charges all relate to trade union duties – attending meetings to represent members individually and collectively, including those where hundreds of jobs could have been at risk.
Eddie is a well respected and hard working elected union rep who has served members for more than seven years in Hastings and at a national level.
A well supported public rally was held in Hastings at the end of last year and further events, including another rally, are being planned to highlight Eddie’s plight.
At members’ meetings at the CSA, both general secretary Mark Serwotka and assistant general secretary Chris Baugh have pledged the national union’s full support.
He and his colleagues in Hastings need the backing of all trade unionists to show all government departments that we view this attack on Eddie as an attack on us all.
We are pursuing Eddie’s reinstatement through an employment tribunal, and through internal appeals which management failed to complete before the decision to dismiss him was taken.

PCS slams new welfare plans

2008-01-31T23:36:00.000Z

PCS reacted angrily last Wednesday to Government plans to adopt welfare reform plans laid out in the Freud report, warning that questions remained about whether there was the knowledge and capacity in the private and voluntary sectors to deliver.
Accusing the Government of privatisation via the back door the union called on the government to give the public sector the resources and flexibility to innovate in helping people back into work.
Pointing to the success of the public sector run Pathways to Work pilots, which helped 20,000 long-term unemployed back into work, the union maintained that the public sector had the skills, expertise and knowledge to fulfil the Government’s ambitions in getting people back into work.
The union also expressed fears that by introducing the profit motive contractors would cherry pick the easiest to get back into work and place people into unsustainable work.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “We have serious doubts about whether there is the capacity in the private and voluntary sectors to deliver the Government’s proposals.
“The public sector has shown time and time again that it has the skills and expertise to out perform other sectors in getting people back into work. The people who have delivered the lowest unemployment in a generation and who have run the successful Pathways to Work pilots will feel let down and view these plans as privatisation by the back door.”

Unions fight pay cap

2008-01-18T14:28:00.000Z

PUBLIC sector unions have responded to the Government’s announcement of a two per cent cap – well below the rate of inflation – on public sector pay rises by calling for a united campaign against them and by demanding much higher pay rises.
Unison, GMB and TGWU-Unite have agreed to demand a six per cent pay rise – or 50 pence-an-hour, whichever is greatest – for the country’s million-plus local government workers.
This would bring the wages of the lowest paid workers up to £6.50-an-hour, which is still below the £6.75 that is estimated to be the minimum need to live on.
The unions say the demand is aimed to “catch up and match up” to recover losses from below-inflation pay rises over the last four years and to keep up with price inflation this year.
Unison’s national secretary for local government Heather Wakefield said: “Despite the headline figure, this is a modest claim.
“No-one could argue that an increase of 50 pence an hour fuels inflation. Over the past three years local government workers’ pay has increased by less than the rate of inflation, so we are starting from a low base. We need to make sure that they catch up with the rest of the public sector and that they are cushioned against inflation over the coming year.
She added: “The Government’s two per cent limit is just not on. It is half the rate of inflation and represents a real pay cut for loyal, hard-working public-sector workers, two-thirds of whom are women.

struggling

“They are struggling to make ends meet with the ever-increasing spiral of housing and fuel price rises.”
The 2004-7 pay agreements gave an increase of 11.4 per cent over three years, during which inflation rose by 12.5 per cent and average earnings by 13.4 per cent.
The 2007-2008 award was for 2.475 per cent and three per cent for the lowest paid – inflation was more than four per cent over that period.
The claim covers all grades of workers in local government, including refuse collection, school meals, social workers, administrators, cleaners, teaching assistants, parks and leisure workers and librarians.
Meanwhile the civil service union PCS has responded to the pay cap by calling for joint union action at a meeting of the TUC Public Services Liaison Group.
The call coincided with PCS members announcing that they would starting a work to rule in the Home Office next Monday over a below inflation three year pay offer which saw a large proportion of staff receiving a cost of living increase of just one per cent last year with a 0.5 per cent increase this year.
Elsewhere the union warned that members in the Department for Work and Pensions could take further strike action on 31st January should there be no progress through talks. The dispute over the imposition of a three year pay offer in the DWP has already seen a strongly supported two day strike in December.
Staff are angry over the below inflation three year deal which sees 40 per cent of staff receive no pay increase this year and people’s pay cut in real terms over the three years.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “If you look at the three-year deals in the DWP and the Home Office it is becoming increasingly clear that the Government is seeking to drive down pay in real terms with their proposals for three year pay deals across the public sector.
“The 2005 pensions campaign showed that when unions work together they are stronger and can win, which is why we are calling on public sector trade unions to campaign together and prepare for joint action to ensure civil and public servants don’t see their pay cut in real terms.
“With growing anger across the public sector, the government need to recognise that hard working civil and public servants will not tolerate below inflation pay or the false premise of being used as an anti-inflationary tool when it is clear that their wages aren’t fuelling inflation.”

HMRC in strike ballot over cuts

2008-01-11T15:31:00.001Z

MORE THAN 70,000 members of PCS who work for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs(HMRC) began being balloted on Monday 7th January for a one day strike followed by an overtime ban over office closures and job cuts.
Members are being asked to support the stoppage expected to be on the 31st January, which is the deadline for self assessment tax returns, as the department ploughs on with office closures and job cuts, despite services deteriorating and problems such as the recent data loss.
Offices at the heart of communities servicing the public and business are closing across the country as the department plough ahead with plans to close up to 250 offices and to slash 25,000 jobs by 2011.
With 13,000 jobs gone and a further 12,500 planned to go by 2011 the union warned that the department was in danger of serious service failure.
The union also warned that as jobs have been cut the department has increasingly relied on remaining staff working overtime and private consultants to mask the immediate impact of job losses.
The union is also angry that HMRC plans to privatise the remaining security guard work at a dozen sites across Britain, some of which store seized contraband.
Commenting, PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “With office closures and 13,000 job cuts to date, the department is already running on empty resulting in deteriorating services. It is lunacy for HMRC to plough ahead with closing over 250 offices and to cut a further 12,500 jobs by 2011.
“As HMRC’s own staff survey indicates morale is dangerously low. These are some of the most loyal staff, responsible for collecting taxes to build schools and hospitals, securing our borders and overseeing the payment of tax credits. HMRC cannot deliver a quality service in the face of continued arbitrary cuts and the government and the department need to recognise that HMRC needs to be properly resourced and staffed if public confidence is to be restored.”

Union anger at 3-year pay cap

2008-01-11T15:29:00.000Z

by Daphne Liddle

PUBLIC sector unions reacted angrily last week to an announcement from Prime Minister Gordon Brown that he intends for the next three years to impose a limit each year of two per cent on pay rises for six million public sector workers.
Globally there is a mighty economic storm brewing and the ruling classes have decided, as usual, that the workers must bear the burden.
Economic storms, unlike the weather, are entirely created by human beings – by the capitalist economic system that runs on insatiable greed for profit at the expense of the workers who produce the wealth that ends up in their bosses’ bank balances.
For the last decade or more the British economy has been carried forward on the back of consumer deficit spending – of workers spending wages they have not yet received and running up huge personal debts – mortgages, credit card debt, bank loans and so on.
This has sustained demand and kept the capitalists in business while the workers have been forced into ever longer hours, exhaustion, debt and depression to meet the bills.
Now they face rising interest rates, rising fuel bills, rising food prices – and the prospects of unemployment through cutbacks in the public sand private sectors.
To then expect public sector workers to accept a pay cap so low that it effectively a pay cut for the next three years is outrageous.
The public sector trade unions have reacted angrily – including the Police Federation and the Prison Officers’ Association, which are both preparing for battle on the right to strike because they are so angry over shabby pay deals. raw edge
If all the public sector unions fight together they can be unstoppable. But this is the raw edge of the class struggle and the ruling class will be out to divide and corrupt the union leaders. Can the rank and file hold their leaders to the task in hand? It depends on how hard they are prepared to fight for their right to fair pay.
Commenting on the three-year pay cap, GMB national secretary for public service Brian Stratton said: “There are four fundamental problems. The first is that the argument that public sector pay has to be controlled to manage down inflation is economically flawed and socially unacceptable.
“The second is that different parts of the public sector have different needs from pay negotiations and whereas for some a period of stability makes sense for others there is a desperate need for change.
“The third is that any sensible negotiator will want to see a premium for sacrificing future negotiating rounds and that would mean any long-term deal having to go above Retail Price Index – and that isn’t the Government’s intention.
“Perhaps most importantly of all is whether they can be trusted. After all, the Government has reneged on most recent pay review body awards and who’s to say they would honour a three-year deal? Their track record says otherwise.”
Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of Unite, said: “Below inflation pay rises are pay cuts whether they are over one, two or three years. Let’s put a proper value on this key group of workers who deliver for us all day in day out, receiving the praise and goodwill of the British people but are slapped in the face by ministers who do not seem in touch with their staff.” driving down
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “We suspect that these proposals are about driving down the pay of hardworking staff who deliver the everyday things we take for granted.
“The Government have to recognise, as an Income Data Services report shows, that civil and public servants aren’t fuelling inflation and that they are real people with bills and mortgages to pay.”
Civil servants and teachers are already preparing to ballot for strike action. On the opposite side the Government is preparing new laws to hamstring the unions. Secretary of State for Justice Jack Straw last week announced the reintroduction of a ban on prison officers going on strike.
If he succeeds he will probably try to extend the ban to other public sector workers.
The Prison Officers’ Association (POA) said last night it was a betrayal of a Labour pledge in opposition to scrap a Conservative anti-union ban imposed in 1994 by Michael Howard as home secretary.
Unison announced it is holding a pay summit this Thursday to draw up tactics to beat the Government’s two per cent pay limit this year on behalf of workers in local government, the NHS, further education, schools, transport, British Waterways, police staff and meat hygiene.
The union leaders have made their statements. Now it is up to the workers to put on the pressure to hold them to their word in the coming battle.

DWP workers strike over pay

2007-12-14T13:56:00.000Z

by Caroline Colebrook

JOB CENTRES and benefit offices across Britain faced severe disruption last week as thousands of civil servants took strike action for 48 hours in protest at the imposition of a three-year below-inflation pay rise.

Members of the PCS civil service union employed in the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Child Support Agency are furious that the pay deal will give them a two-per cent pay rise this year, no pay rise at all the next year and a mere one per cent in the third year.

When inflation is taken into account this adds up to a serious pay cut for around 120,000 workers – most of whom are already on low pay. The lowest paid will find their wages just 24 pence above the minimum wage.

The union pointed out that DWP management had enough money to guarantee every member of staff an increase in line with inflation this year; instead they chose to squander £39 million on bonuses.

PCS estimates that over 85 per cent of members took part in the first day of the strike, Thursday 6th December.

Reports on the strike indicated that despite the weather picket lines have been well supported, offices were forced to close across the country.

struggled

There was little or no service was being offered to the public in those offices that remained open as senior managers struggled to offer some form of service.

Telephone contact centres were also hit with callers failing to get through and a number of sites playing recorded emergency messages.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka commented: “This is a dispute the Government and the department could have avoided, but instead they have provoked staff into strike action by imposing poverty pay on a workforce that has already experienced massive job cuts.

“It is completely unacceptable that some of the lowest paid in the civil service are receiving increases that take their pay to just 24 pence above the minimum wage and that staff who have stuck with the DWP through thick and thin are expected to receive nothing next year.

“Staff will not sit back and be allowed to be used by the government as an anti-inflationary tool, especially when there is no evidence to suggest that their pay fuels inflation.

“The Government and the department need to understand the impact that imposing a real terms pay cut has on the morale of staff. The staff at the forefront of delivering the lowest unemployment in a generation deserve better and its time the department and the government recognised this by paying them fairly.”

The union is maintaining a work to rule.

Job cuts: claimants go hungry and cattle suffer

2007-11-01T16:30:00.000Z

PCS last week drew attention to new evidence that shows Government civil service job cuts are damaging the efficiency of various departments.
Currently 270,000 members of PCS are voting in a consultative ballot for national industrial action across the civil service in a campaign against job cuts, below inflation pay and privatisation.
In Scotland it emerged that Stirling Citizen Advice Bureau (Cab) has begun handing out food vouchers because new claimants are going hungry as they wait up to eight weeks to get their benefit paid.
With the nearly 30,000 jobs axed and the closure of over 600 jobcentres and benefits offices across Britain, the union warned that the situation could get worse and echoed Stirling Cab’s fears that up to 22,000 people in Scotland could be in need of emergency help.
Job cuts in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have already led to 21 million calls going unanswered, people having to travel unacceptable distances to get help back in to work, as well as waiting longer to access benefits.
Elsewhere following a report by the Chief Scientific officer on the control of Bovine TB, the union warned that the Government would be unable to act on his advice in using all the options available to contain the disease as it had axed the frontline staff responsible for tackling Bovine TB earlier this year.
The union criticised the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) for appearing to base its policy on the control of Bovine TB on cost cutting rather than science.
PCS members are currently voting on further national strike action across the civil service as part of the union’s campaign against job cuts, below inflation pay and privatisation.
The campaign has already seen two strongly supported national one-day strikes this year. The ballot closes on 31st October 2007 and the result is expected to be announced shortly after.
Commenting, PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka, said: “It is scandalous that people are having to rely on food vouchers because the system is failing them due to arbitrary job cuts and office closures. There is a genuine fear that the situation will only get worse as more job cuts follow and more offices close.
“Added to this you have the Government unable to act on the latest scientific advice regarding the spread of Bovine TB because it has axed frontline staff who control the spread of the disease.
“Job cuts across a number of areas in the name of efficiency are resulting in failing services and limiting the Government’s ability to respond to issues and events. The Government needs to recognise the damaging impact cuts are having by halting further job losses and addressing the union’s concerns on services, pay and privatisation.”
Meanwhile members of the Government’s new Unified Border Force – launched this summer by Gordon Brown as a major counter-terrorism initiative – are complaining they get so little training that the force is undermining rather than strengthening security.
Staff say they are being asked to perform key roles such as passenger profiling with less than three hours’ training.
Customs staff at Purfleet, on the Thames, who have been ordered to search vehicles – work previously done by immigrations officers – say checks have been halved because of lack of preparation.
The new force combines staff drawn from Revenue and Customs, Immigration and Nationality Directorate and UK Visas, the passport agency.
The workers are now supposed to perform each other’s roles with very little training.

PCS recognition at Electoral Commission

2007-10-25T17:11:00.000+01:00

AFTER almost two years of talks, the Electoral Commission’s chief executive, Peter Wardle, has signed a joint agreement with PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka giving the union full representational and negotiating rights.
Staff at the commission, which was founded in 2000, promote integrity and public confidence in the democratic process. They regulate party and election finance and set standards for well-run elections.
As the agreement was being signed off, the call went out for nominations from members for candidates to stand for branch positions. The outcome of these elections will be announced at the inaugural annual meeting on 8th November.
Welcoming the commission on board, Mark noted that these elections would probably be the most efficient and well run in the union’s history. He also thanked members for their perseverance and determination to win recognition.
PCS London and South East organiser Keith Johnston said: “This is an exciting day for staff in the commission. We have an enthusiastic and committed group of members here who are eager to get on with organising and representing their colleagues.
“Recognition allows them to now access full training with PCS and become part of the wider national union.”

Support the postal workers

2007-10-11T11:20:00.000+01:00

OVER A 100,000 Royal Mail workers walked out for 48 hours last week bringing postal deliveries to a standstill and they did so again this week, demonstrating that the membership was right behind their union’s refusal to accept management’s attempt to link their miserable pay offer to a “flexibility” agreement that will reduce postal workers’ average earnings and considerably devalue their pension scheme. The rock-solid response of the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) membership has shocked management, which had spread scare stories that a strike would finish the union and the industry.
Despite management claims what postal workers make is still £80 a week below the national average. The current 6.9 per cent pay offer over two years is tied to “flexibility” changes without any guarantee of recompense or job security. The current pension scheme will close, reducing existing benefits and the retirement age will be raised from 60 to 65. Senior management is refusing to seriously negotiate with the CWU to settle the dispute. Now they’re churning out the “greedy workers” lie to turn the massive public sympathy for the strikers to justify management’s refusal to meet the CWU’s legitimate demands.
Down the years post workers have won concessions to cover the unsocial hours, shifts and public holiday work that they have to do to deliver the mail. Now it’s called “Spanish” or “restrictive” practices. When the head of Royal Mail gets a million a year – far more than even the Prime Minister gets – it’s called “competitiveness” and “good value”.
Gordon Brown bleats that the strike was disrupting people’s lives. “When we, the Government, are investing a huge amount of money in the postal services, it is not something that we can either condone or we can stand idly by and say it is an acceptable form of behaviour,” he says, adding: “I want these people back to work.”
Well, all he has to do is tell Royal Mail management to make a realistic response to the CWU’s demands. In the meantime the striking workers should receive all the trade union solidarity and public support they need to guarantee victory.

Scottish civil service face cuts

2007-10-11T11:19:00.000+01:00

THE SCOTTISH government last week announced plans to cut jobs from 4,200 to about 3,600 – the lowest level since devolution, through a recruitment freeze.
The proposals came amid speculation that the Scottish Government’s block grant from London would be cut over the next three years.
The Public and Commercial Services Union said it was not surprised by the job cut plan, but promised to hold ministers to their promise of no compulsory redundancies.

Post workers set for more strikes

2007-10-11T11:16:00.000+01:00

THOUSANDS of post workers employed by the Royal Mail have staged two 48-hour strikes within the last week and are set for further strikes throughout next week (starting 15th October) in their fight to defend pensions and working conditions. The strike was provoked by a below-inflation pay offer of 2.5 per cent and drastic changes to working conditions that, the union says, will lead to the loss of 40,000 jobs and a worsening postal service.
Workers will not know from day to day what job they will be expected to do when they arrive for work, nor what their hours will be from one day to another. The management calls this “flexible working”.
Furthermore cuts to the pension scheme mean that workers will lose up to £15,000 when they retire and the retirement age will rise from 60 to 65.
The first strike ran from midday on Thursday to midday on Saturday and the second began on Monday at midday and ran until the same time on Wednesday.
Talks at the weekend, hosted by the TUC, broke down. The CWU negotiators reported that real progress had been made in many areas, but there was agreement in none. The management offer included a pay increase of 6.9 per cent over two years but this is subject to linking unacceptable strings, including a reduction in pensions benefits.
Royal Mail’s proposals also included flexibility proposals that mean, among other things, that postal workers will not know what job they are doing from one day to the next. The CWU postal executive met to consider the offer and decided to continue with the strikes as planned.
Meanwhile the Royal Mail continues to implement change without agreement and the union has already announced more strikes. The CWU reports that support among its 130,000 members has been overwhelming.
CWU general secretary Billy Hayes said: “Royal Mail’s claims regarding the numbers of people at work are a poor attempt to detract from the truth that postal workers are rejecting their proposals in overwhelming numbers. They should stop using their efforts to spin and start putting them into reaching an agreement.”
He also commented on the failure of Royal Mail top bosses to attend the talks. “We are very disappointed that Allan Leighton and Adam Crozier are nowhere to be seen when the future of British postal services are at stake,” he said.
“The Government has shown complete disinterest in the fate of this dispute. If this was Northern Rock they would be pouring money in. This is a company that they own and they seem to have no interest whatsoever.”
On Monday the union held a mass rally in Trafalgar Square – and many members stayed on to support a major Stop the War rally immediately afterwards.
After last Monday’s strike, the CWU plans to stage a programme of rolling strikes each Monday until the dispute is resolved. Each CWU member has been asked to walk-out from the start of their shift.
The union’s deputy general secretary, Dave Ward, said the strikes were “a proportionate response to an employer that is completely out of control,” after five weeks of negotiations.
PCS sent a message of support from general secretary Mark Serwotka: “Dear Billy, I am writing to offer the full support and solidarity of PCS members for the strike by your members in Royal Mail starting today.
“In common with all public servants, your members work hard to deliver a vital public service. Attempts to unilaterally impose changes to working practices and low pay increases are making the delivery of those services more difficult. Vital public services are being placed at risk.
“In common with your members PCS members are also fighting to protect their living standards and working conditions. Like you we are determined that those who work hard to serve the public are paid a fair wage.
“Best wishes and good luck.”

Ballot for strike action

2007-10-04T11:42:00.000+01:00

MEMBERS of the PCS civil service union working across the civil and public service last week began voting in a ballot for further national civil service strike action in an escalation of the union’s campaign against job cuts, below inflation pay and privatisation.
The ballot involving 270,000 members working in over 200 different Government departments, agencies and non departmental public bodies follows two strongly supported one-day national civil service strikes this year.
The decision to escalate the campaign comes against a backdrop of compulsory redundancies and deteriorating services due to job cuts in key areas such as tax and getting people back into work, as well as worsening pay conditions as the Government seeks to cut pay in real terms.
A quarter of the civil service earn £16,000 or less and just under half earn less than Britain’s average salary. The ballot also comes two days after compulsory redundancies were announced in the Wildlife Administration Unit of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
The result of the ballot is expected to be announced on Tuesday 23rd October 2007. PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka commented: “People delivering the essential services that we all rely on have grown increasingly angry as the services they deliver suffer due to job cuts and office closures. This anger has only been fuelled by the Government’s desire to cut wages in real terms with below inflation pay offers. This ballot marks an escalation in the campaign which could lead to further strike action hitting courts, tax offices, jobcentres and prisons.
“PCS has and continues to stand ready to negotiate with civil service management at any time. The Government and civil service management need to recognise that they can’t continue to bury their head in the sand and start negotiating an agreement with the union to resolve the dispute.”

PCS reject offer

2007-09-13T13:16:00.000+01:00

MEMBERS of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) working for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have overwhelmingly rejected a below inflation pay offer which would see approximately 40 per cent of staff receive nought per cent pay increase next year.
Seventy per cent of those voting rejected the three year pay deal which sees cost of living increases for longer serving staff members of two per cent this year, nought per cent next year and one per cent in the final year.
Commenting, Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, said: “The rejection of this pay offer sends a clear signal that the people who have delivered the lowest unemployment in a generation, pension credits and the New Deal aren’t prepared to accept below inflation pay and pay cuts in real terms.
“With a quarter of the civil service earning less than £16,000, the Government needs to wake up and recognise that hardworking civil and public servants won’t stand for being used as an anti-inflationary tool.”

Long hours for civil servants

2007-08-23T11:28:00.000+01:00

RESEARCH published last week shows that excessive workloads are forcing over half of full time civil servants to work over and above their contracted hours, with 45.8 per cent surveyed working between 40 and 48 hours and one in 20 breaking the working time regulations by working over 49 hours per week.
Over 1,700 civil servants took part in the survey conducted by the Centre for Industrial Relations at Keele University in conjunction with Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS).
The 24/7 report supports the union’s claim that workloads are increasing as the Government ploughs ahead with 84,000 civil and public service job cuts which is damaging the delivery of public services. Other key findings include:
• Half of all those working additional hours do so in order to keep control of their excessive workloads. This compares to a third in the private sector delivering civil service contracts.
• Nearly 40 per cent had attended work when ill to keep up with workloads.
• More than half are experiencing difficulties balancing work and family/private life.
• Staff working in the private sector delivering civil service contracts are considerably less likely to have work-life balance polices available in their workplace.
• One sixth had cut their holidays short and one third weren’t able to take their full holiday allowance.
The union is currently in the process of consulting with its 280,000 civil and public service members on what forms future industrial action could take as it looks to escalate the national civil service wide dispute. The dispute with the Government and civil service management has already seen two one-day civil service wide strikes this year, involving up to 200,000 civil and public servants.
The survey, conducted by researchers at the Centre for Industrial Relations, Keele University, was a national internet based survey.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “This report clearly illustrates that the government’s drive to slash jobs is leading to increasing workloads and embedding a long-hours culture in civil and public services.
“With fewer people to do the same amount work, staff are under increasing pressure leading to corners being cut, which in turn damages the quality of service delivery.
“It smacks of double standards, with the Government promoting work-life balance policies, when over half those surveyed experienced difficulty in balancing their work and family/private life.
“Excessive workloads resulting from job cuts and pay cuts in real terms are all hitting the morale of dedicated staff committed to delivering first rate service. “The Government as a responsible employer needs to wake up to the fact that decent public services need enough people with enough resources to deliver them.”

PCS and MPs attach consultant costs

2007-06-21T10:31:00.000+01:00

THE HOUSE of Commons Public Accounts Committee and PCS last week attacked the “sheer profligacy” of the Government’s annual spending on consultants.
The government could save £500 million a year by improving control on the use of consultancies, the Commons Public Accounts Committee said.
Public sector spending on business consultants has risen by a third in three years to hit £2.8 billion in 2005-06, largely due to increases in their use by the National Health Service.
Central government accounts for £1.8 billion of that total with more than half spent on IT and project management skills.
But the committee said departments and the Government’s procurement agency, the Office of Government Commerce, did not know how much they were spending on consultancy and so were unable to tell if the benefits justified the cost.
“It is impossible to believe that the public are receiving anything like full value for money from this expenditure,” said the committee’s chair, Edward Leigh. “In fact, a good proportion of it looks like sheer profligacy.”
PCS also accused the Government of giving management consultants a licence to print money at the taxpayer’s expense, as it responded to the committee’s report.
The union branded the £1.8 billion spent last year by central government on consultants as obscenely wasteful and supported the report’s view that the public weren’t receiving full value for money.
As the government continue to cut over 100,000 civil and public service jobs, the union warned of a false economy where consultants were increasingly being employed to plug gaps in the workforce and doing the same work as civil servants, often at up to ten times the cost.
The union was also shocked to learn consultants are being paid simply on the basis of the amount of time worked and not on what work has been achieved.
Commenting, PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “These are obscene sums of money being given to management consultants with little thought of value for money. Rather than investing in its own workforce, the Government have effectively given management consultants a licence to print money at the taxpayer’s expense.
“You have the ludicrous situation of departments such as Revenue and Customs seeking to save £105 million in the last year by cutting staff, but spending £106 million on management consultants who often do the same work as civil servants.
“The Government needs to recognise the skills and knowledge it has in house and start cutting management consultants, not hardworking experienced civil servants.”

PCS looks to the future

2007-06-15T13:31:00.000+01:00

by an observer

THE PUBLIC and Commercial Services Union is the biggest civil service workers’ union in the country and one that has faced the brunt of the Government’s onslaught of cuts and privatisations. Not surprisingly this dominated the debate at annual conference in May.
Over 1,200 delegates took part in the annual delegate conference in Brighton following the elections which once again returned the centre-left "Democratic Alliance" bloc to power. The leadership has tried to establish meaningful negotiations with the Government, the major employer of PCS’s 320,000 members, through national protest strikes including two this year, the last this May Day. This has been well-supported at grass-roots level and it is reflected in the continuing strength of the union’s organisation.
PCS is the fastest growing union in Britain with 72 per cent of eligible civil servants in its ranks compared to 59 per cent in the public sector as a whole. Most of them are drawn from the administrative, secretarial and executive grades.
Most are low paid compared to the private sector and all are facing increased work-loads and stress. A quarter of them earn less than £15,400 and the two per cent public sector pay cap is essentially a pay cut in real terms. Past Tory and Labour governments have broken up the civil service into 200 separate agencies, each with its own pay bargaining arrangements. PCS has been fighting for national pay coherence since its foundation in 1998, but with little success and the Blair government is moving even further in this direction through the farming out of work to the charity sector. Few expect any change from Gordon Brown, who as Chancellor was the architect of the programme to cut 100,000 civil service jobs mostly from the giant Department of Work and Pensions.
PCS is not affiliated to the Labour Party but the chair of its parliamentary group is John McDonnell MP, the leader of the Labour Representation Committee that launched its own "Public Services not Private Profit" campaign last year. John addressed conference and received two standing ovations for all the work he had done for the union in publicizing their case in defence of jobs and services.
The union was originally dominated by right wing factions who had dominated the two civil services unions that merged in 1998 to form PCS. But the left won sweeping victories in 2003 as it has continued to do every year since then. The Democratic Alliance is a bloc dominated by members of the old "Militant Tendency" now in the Socialist Party and its Scottish cousins and consisting of a number of left social-democratic Trotskyist factions including the Socialist Workers’ Party along with revisionists and a centrist faction that broke with the right wing in 1998.
Its charismatic general secretary, Mark Serwotka, a former Trotskyist who now favours George Galloway’s Respect Party but has not joined it, has since his first election in 2002 spear-headed the drive to restore the democratic traditions of the old Civil and Public Services Association (CPSA) in PCS. Annual conference has been restored. The reactionary heart of the new rule book was torn out and democratic controls restored.
This undoubtedly provided the basis for another electoral victory for the Alliance. The major right-wing bloc only managed to keep their one seat on the National Executive despite a vigorous anti-left campaigning while the other, the rump of the old faction that once dominated CPSA, achieved nothing and is clearly a spent force. An attempt to build an alternative left focus around a platform led by a number of small Trotskyist groups that operate within and on the fringe of the Labour Party who broke with the Alliance late last year failed to split the left vote and their sitting EC members, who had originally been elected on the Democratic Alliance slate, were all defeated this year. But the low turn-out – barely a tenth of those who came out on strike – is a warning against complacency.
The main right wing faction is called "4themembers" but it has little to offer the membership apart from the usual "red scare" and the suggestion that the Government would respond reasonably to the union if it were led by the likes of them. The breakaway "Independent Left" focused on their long- standing demand for prolonged selective local strikes maintained by the union’s generous strike pay. The first argument, essentially that of appeasement and class-collaboration, fell because there’s no evidence whatsoever that this Government is prepared to cosy up to any union, even those which are affiliates of the Labour Party, which PCS is not. The second would plainly be a recipe for bankruptcy given the Government’s determination to sit out long local strikes in the civil service.
Of course the only way to really put decisive pressure on the Government would be an all-out indefinite strike but everyone recognises – including the "Independent Left" – that the members are simply not prepared to endure the sort of sacrifice and hardship that this would entail with no guarantee of victory at the end. So the only realistic alternative is that which the leadership has followed throughout the campaign against the cuts: national one or two day stoppages throughout the year designed to put pressure on the employer. It’s essentially a campaign of attrition and while it may have slowed down the cuts it has not brought them to a halt. Some 60,000 jobs have already gone and the cut-backs and closures are continuing. PCS is therefore seeking to widen the front by working with organised labour in the rest of the public sector which is also under the cuts axe and its natural partner is Unison, the giant public services union with over 1.3 million members in the health service, local government, education and the gas, electricity and water utilities.
Unison has responded positively and its general secretary Dave Prentis sent a letter of solidarity to PCS conference calling for trade unions to stand together to fight the problems facing public services. Prentis said the Government’s "relentless drive to privatise" and the imposition of a two per cent pay limit were the two issues that had to be challenged by both unions. He said, "Unions cannot fight these battles alone and the PCS and Unison should be working together to maximise our impact in responding to the attacks on us".
The Unison leader also proposed meeting the PCS leadership to discuss how the two unions could coordinate campaigns against privatisation and work together to promote public services; liaise on pay developments so any industrial action could be coordinated and share information on developments in public services, the impact on members and in developing a response. His letter was distributed to all conference delegates who were urged to take it back to their members and set up meetings with Unison activists to plan joint actions.