Campaign to continue the dispute!

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This is how we see it; the NEC will meet later this month and a majority, though possibly not as great as the Left Unity leadership hopes, will vote to hold a ballot of members in the UK Civil Service to end the dispute. Given that the union’s web story has been entitled ‘proposal’ and that the advert for the webinar on Monday, 12th of June talks of ‘explaining the pay offer’, we believe the union will imply that the ballot is about deciding whether or not to accept the 4.5% plus the £1500. Although this will be completely dishonest, as the government is paying the £1500 regardless of whether the dispute is settled or not, it’s clear that is the current direction of travel of the leadership.

Further the ballot will be a snap one and will start a few days after the NEC meeting. Indeed, we would not be surprised to learn that the ballot is being prepared now.

The ballot will be an electronic one in order to increase turnover, but more importantly for the leadership to reduce the ballot period to three weeks or so. They want a shortened ballot so as to deny time to increasing opposition that is building against a cessation of the industrial dispute.

Importantly a number of branches have come out in favour of continuing the dispute and it looks like, certainly we hope, a branch-based campaign will be established soon to act as a counter weigh to the Left Unity leadership’s attempt to end the dispute. When we get details of that branch-based campaign we will publicise them, but in the here and now, we would urge you to put the below motion to your BEC and/or members meeting and tell us when you have.

 This BEC/Members meeting agrees to:

  1. Oppose any decision to:
    a) Refrain from obtaining or renewing legal mandates for strike action.
    b) Depict the 2023-24 remit guidance plus an unconsolidated £1,500 payment as sufficiently meeting the aims of our dispute over the 2022 imposed pay settlements.
  2. Positively campaign for the lifting of civil servants above the national minimum wage and at least to an underpin of £15 per hour.

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