PCS boss urges unions to 'fight like never before'

Thrugelmir

Sounds like Custer Last Stand. As membership declines.

The leader of the biggest civil service union has urged trade unions to join forces to head off attacks from the new Conservative government.
"We don't have to accept defeat as an inevitable state of affairs for the next five years," Mark Serwotka told the PCS union annual conference.
Mr Serwotka said members should oppose spending cuts and the expected attacks on pensions and public sector pay.
"We need to be prepared to fight like never before," he added.
Trade Unions coordinated industrial action in 2011 over public sector pensions.
But Mr Serwotka said that unity didn't last long enough.
He urged other unions "to step up to the plate".
"We need this time to not just call for united coordinated action across the trade union movement but it needs to be united in every sense" he said. "Common demands, common negotiations and common industrial action strategies".
Job loss fears
The PCS union represents civil servants in Whitehall and around the UK in job centres, tax offices, the courts and immigration.
It is one of the biggest public sector unions with around 225,000 members.
But quoting a newspaper report that suggested government cuts could lead to 100,000 further job losses in the civil service, the PCS leader called on delegates to fight back.
"We need to commit ourselves to opposing the cuts, the closures of the offices, the privatisations and the further attacks we are expecting on pensions and in public sector pay" Mr Serwotka said.
Mr Serwotka said that the message from the election was not that the Conservatives won but that Labour lost by refusing to advocate ant-austerity politics.
And he said that proportional representation would help anti-austerity politics take hold in the UK.
He also criticised government plans to tighten strike ballot rules.
"They don't want to change the balloting laws to have more people voting to make it more democratic' he said. "They want to change the balloting laws to stop us from going on strike".
Falling membership
The PCS union has seen its membership fall in recent years, hit by cuts in Whitehall and across the public sector.
In total, around 90,000 jobs were cut across the civil service during the last parliament.
The PCS has also seen numbers drop due to changes in how it collects subscriptions from members.
Several government departments including the Home Office, HMRC and DWP have ended the so-called "check-off" system which automatically deducted union subscriptions directly from salaries.
That's led to lapsed memberships as the union attempts to re-recruit people to pay by direct debit.
Mr Serwotka admitted that the union was still on course to lose "thousands and thousands" of members. That's hit the union's finances forcing it to save £6m this year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32804970

padington

It is going to get nasty, nurses are talking about 'work to rule'. I bet Cameron and Osborne opt for the easy solution again after a couple of years and we slip into much more debt.

michaels

I can see an attempt being made to end national pay rates and instead look to pay local market rates - I think much fairer given how much housing costs diverge around the country.

Tromking

Rumours that the Prison Officers Association has voted to withdraw from cooperating with Prison Service Pay Review Board such is their lack of faith in its recommendations. One less Quango I guess!

michaels

I wonder if widescale privatization of prisons will be back on the agenda? Perhaps a two tier model like probation with only Cat A being kept in the public sector?

BobQ

I doubt check off is responsible for this decline, it is very easy to choose to leave a union if you want however subs are collected. Removing check off is mean minded and actually costs employers money.

PCS members are relatively unskilled. A Government efficiency programme is bound to see people made redundant by automation, or outsourced. Of course that has consequences in that there are more arbitrary decisions and reductions in services or their quality. But that is Government Policy for good or evil.

To listen to Sewatka, you would think that the public sector was a terrible employer. It is not. Those employed in the public sector are suffering, but without a critical mass to oppose change the staff are accepting this. If people really wanted to do something about it membership would be at 95% and members would be willing to take action. But it isn't and they are not.

chucknorris

michaels wrote: »

I can see an attempt being made to end national pay rates and instead look to pay local market rates - I think much fairer given how much housing costs diverge around the country.

I've often thought that this needs addressing, but nothing ever seems to happen.

Marktheshark

The Unions are more interested in whats going on in Palestine than whats been happening to their members jobs and pay.

I think they might just find out most people turn around and tell them "Where the **** were you when we actually needed you"

Tromking

michaels wrote: »

I wonder if widescale privatization of prisons will be back on the agenda? Perhaps a two tier model like probation with only Cat A being kept in the public sector?

Possibly.
In the medium term at least I can see Prisons nominally remaining in the public sector but every task within save for the frontline unified staff being outsourced to the privateers.
That process has begun with the likes of Carillon taking over the Estate management function in many gaols.

BobQ

michaels wrote: »

I wonder if widescale privatization of prisons will be back on the agenda? Perhaps a two tier model like probation with only Cat A being kept in the public sector?

If the policy is to privatise I cannot see why Cat A would be exempt. Once the ECHR is repealed anything will be possible, we could simply abandon convicts on islands like North Rona and Sroma to fend for themselves.

gazter

BobQ wrote: »

If the policy is to privatise I cannot see why Cat A would be exempt. Once the ECHR is repealed anything will be possible, we could simply abandon convicts on islands like North Rona and Sroma to fend for themselves.

Who is repealing the ECHR?