Wednesday morning saw the start of this year’s PCS Annual Delegates Conference. The president Janice Godrich opened the conference and apologised for the fact that Mark Serwotka was unable to attend the conference this year.
Her speech outlined the current political situation regarding the labour legacy and what would come next from the Con-Lib alliance. She went on to explain that everyone in the public sector was now under threat and that we need to get ourselves organised for the coming storm. Of the Lib-Dems changing their values to go into the alliance, she was reminded of the Groucho Marx quote:
“These are my principles, if you don’t like them I have others”
Janice then read out a letter of support from Mark Serwotka, who was in hospital undergoing tests for a heart condition. He congratulated members on their recent victory in the civil service compensation scheme dispute and thanked them for taking part in the strike action. He will be receiving DVD updates of the conference every day and has been keeping up to date with our campaign via regular press clippings. He mentioned how the nurses cheered when they heard the news that we had won our dispute. He praised the NHS staff and said they were wonderful and this has made him even more determined to defend the NHS.
He finished by thanking everyone who was standing in for him and sent his best wishes for a successful conference.
Deputy General Secretary, Hugh Lanning went on to present the PCS annual report. He thanked members for their support in PCS campaigns, which is essential to the success of the union.
“It is important to highlight what is possible when we stand together in unity and with resolve. The ruling that the government acted illegally over making unagreed changes to the civil service compensation scheme is a fantastic vindication of our determination to fight these attacks.”
The first motions of the 2010 conference all related to protecting public services. Many other issues were debated including: redundancy pay & pensions, comercial sector, personnell policy, organising for success, protecting our reps, health & safety, international issues, affiliations, tackling pay problems, improving working conditions, evironmental issues and social & economic campaigns.
A report from each session of the conference can be viewed on the PCS website or downloaded as a word document.
Not enamoured of the Lib-Dems then, the PCS leadership?
I think it would be fair to say that most of the PCS activists are not very enamoured with any of the three main parties.