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Looking windswept in London

The stalwarts got up early to man the picket lines again.  The temperature was only -1 today but it still felt rather chilly until the sun came out. We shared this duty with another department that occupies the building with us. Some of their colleagues very kindly brought hot coffee and biscuits out for us, which was very welcome :-) To warm up at the end of our duty we visited the local all day breakfast establishment where I had a tasty bacon buttie and a welcome cup of tea.

Mark Serwotka, General Secretary commenting in the latest edition of PCS view:


In 1987, Margaret Thatcher – who made huge cuts in the civil service – approved the current terms of our compensation scheme. If it was a fair scheme then, why does the present Labour government tell us that it is not fair now for the people who, for years, have suffered low pay on the basis that they have secure jobs?

The answer seems to lie in the fact that Gordon Brown believes it would be wrong to take parliamentary action to curb bankers’ bonuses because they are a contractual right, but it is apparently all right for the contractual rights of civil and public servants to be ripped up to save money.

Gus O’Donnell has written to civil servants to tell them the cuts are ‘fair and reasonable’ and concessions have been made to the low paid. But almost half of PCS members would be worse off, in some cases by tens of thousands of pounds. PCS does not accept that this is a fair and reasonable way to save money to pay for a financial crisis caused by the greed and stupidity of the banks.

Mr O’Donnell was quick to tell us that other unions have accepted the fairness of the proposals. It is disappointing that some unions have accepted cuts in their members’ entitlements and allowed themselves to be cited by him in his demand that PCS members should ‘think hard about how to vote’ in the ballot. But that is for them. PCS represents almost three times the number of civil and public servants than the other unions combined.

PCS cannot accept changes to the scheme which would leave almost half of our union suffering a detriment. We must be united to win protection for the other half. An agreement with the government which saves money and protects all members’ existing entitlements is affordable and possible.

Taking industrial action is never an easy decision to take but this national ballot is the most important one for PCS members in years.

The political parties are all talking about massive public spending cuts after the next general election. The government’s changes to the compensation scheme are clearly designed to make it cheaper and easier to cut and privatise our jobs, whether by a Labour or Tory government.

We must build the pressure on the government to reach an agreement which is truly fair to its own employees.

The updated photo gallery of picket lines in Shropshire can be found here.

10 Comments CherryPie on Mar 9th 2010

10 Responses to “Second Day of Action”

  1. jameshigham says:

    Go for it, Cherie. The bass todds are not going to concede though.

    • CherryPie says:

      I have been fighting for a number of years on similar issues. It is my duty to stand up and be counted because I know what will come next if I don’t. First it is just this one small issue (in the bigger scheme of things), then it moves on to a few more issues, then it moves onto the wider public sector and then the private sector and then…

      You have talked about it extensively and as you know people aren’t listening.

      On this occasion though quite a few unexpected people have been listening and the penny is beginning to drop. Probably too little to late, but I don’t see that as a reason to stop!

  2. Serwotka puts it very well as usual

  3. Ginnie says:

    Did someone say BACON BUTTIE!?! :D I hope to have one in England next month, CP.

  4. Go Cherry go Cherry!!!!

    Proud of you!

  5. [...] someone who doesn’t do mornings three in one week is just a bit much.

  6. liz says:

    WEll done, you! So many of us mutter but you actually do something. For us all. thank you.