When we call for national action—the kind that might actually win something—Left Unity (LU) usually has one tired answer: “We’re too weak to deliver it.” Or more accurately “Activists and members keep failing us”. They point to internal hurdles like low engagement or the “failure” of their so-called stress tests, which supposedly gauge our readiness for a national ballot.

The current leadership’s inaction becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: they run a campaign with minimal publicity and zero genuine commitment, which creates the low turnout they then use to justify avoiding action in the first place. Their behaviour also taps into the caution many reps may feel in a do-nothing, at the national level, union 

LU’s conclusion? We should stick to local disputes and avoid the truly risky proposition of winning a national strike mandate.

We know this reluctance isn’t just a strategic caution—we will write more on this later – it’s fundamentally about maintaining control inside the union.

By constantly insisting that the organisation is weak, or acting that way, LU conveniently justifies a strategy of protracted national talks, engagements with Ministers and polite, pointless lobbying. This approach means they don’t face an unpredictable mass mobilisation. Their priority isn’t building power to fight the employer; it’s internal stability. They are focused on controlling the narrative and keeping their own leadership secure, ensuring they never face the scrutiny that might come with a failed (or indeed successful) statutory ballot.

The truth is, the only way to build a fighting union is to actively campaign and give members a clear, rallying objective and to work towards a national ballot mandate. And yes, to take risks. We may fail at times but that is better than doing nothing, provided we learn from those failures.

To help build a serious union then join the IL. You can do that here: https://pcsindependentleft.com/join-us/

Left Unity, which leads the PCS union, decided not to hold a ballot of members across the UK civil service. Their official reason as to why no vote? Well activists, that’s you, failed a series of internal “stress tests.”

These tests were based on attendance at the National Activist Forum, the Campaign Schools, and members’ meetings. The poor turnouts for these showed that the union was not ready for a vote on industrial action.

Now the notion of “stress tests” is taken from the work of Jane McAlevey, the US union organiser and writer.

However, Jane’s actual concept of “structure tests” bears little resemblance to what Left Unity conducted. In her model, the tests are active, collective exercises. They involve asking members to take a clear, measurable action — sign a petition, attend a picket, contact co-workers — something that shows real strength and organisation across an entire membership. Passive activities like meetings were never meant to count as tests.

To repeat – a real structure test involves all members taking a specific, measurable action—it’s a massive, active undertaking.

Meetings, as Jane said are not stress tests. But even if they were, Left Unity did next to nothing to promote them. There was no central push, no real publicity, just vague notices. The resulting low attendance wasn’t a stress test failure; it was a clear verdict on Left Unity’s non-organising of the campaign. If there was a test, it was of the leadership’s competence, and they scored a resounding ‘Fail.’

In any case, the national forum was dire. In an article from one of our comrades in August, they wrote of the Forum

There were a fair few comments about how there’d been very little communication about the campaign until now, and why we were holding these fora and the strikes schools in the same week in the middle of the summer holidays, at 7 days’ notice. In response to this, Fran seemingly blamed A383 for setting an unrealistic time scale, while Martin noted that the overlap of the Scottish and English summer school holidays means that there about 9 weeks of comparative quiet. You’ve had since May, comrades!

,…

I could not help but think throughout that the subtext of all of this is that quite soon the NEC will conclude that we are not ballot-ready. And this will precipitate no reflection on their part, because they don’t want to have a ballot.

Then there was confusion over the timing of meetings. In a tweet of 12 August, we wrote:

New Branch Bulletin says branch meetings should “conclude as far as possible by September but also “no later than mid-September”. Which is it?  Branches only got this on 11/12 Aug — barely a month to organise. Unclear deadlines + short notice = harder for branches to deliver. Feels like we’re being set up to fail. Certainly this is an unserious way to operate. But then what do you expect from LU – order, planning, thought!

The sad truth is that Left Unity never wanted a ballot or a serious campaign in the first place.

The entire process—the late notice, no real publicity or drive to build for events, the confusing deadlines, and the misuse of the stress text concept, was designed to blame activists for the leadership’s own failings. By deliberately conducting an unserious campaign and then claiming members weren’t ‘ballot-ready,’ Left Unity manufactured the outcome they wanted: an excuse to avoid industrial action.

If you want a serious leadership then we have to vote Left Unity off the NEC and GECs. To help in that please join the IL. You can do that here: https://pcsindependentleft.com/join-us/

PCS National President Martin Cavanagh, the Left Unity (LU) co-leader, titled his latest web article, “Budget threat is clear – we will keep fighting.”

The Independent Left (IL) agrees we are fighting, but only at a local level. Nationally, LU has chosen a strategy of calculated retreat. They have deliberately disarmed our union by refusing to run a national pay and job security campaign and, crucially, refusing to ballot members on these critical issues.

Mr. Cavanagh says that PCS is “working to secure an agreement with the employer on pay restoration, job security and better access to more flexible ways of working.” He argues that departments cannot recruit or retain staff without fixing pay, a reality he claims the Cabinet Office (CO) acknowledges in their recognition of the need for a new ‘reward strategy.’

He then notes “It is increasingly clear that jobs are under threat… we are clear we need more staff, not fewer.” Finally, he observes that “jobs, pay and the services you provide are all under threat of further cuts as the budget approaches in November.”

Contradiction

The President claims the CO knows they need a new pay strategy (the good news), but also that pay is “under threat” as the Budget nears (the bad news). Since the Chancellor controls the money and is vastly more powerful than the CO, the pay tug-of-war has an obvious winner.

LU may be “working” for an agreement, but they have abandoned the only leverage we have: the threat of national action. Why would the employer concede anything without that threat?

Job Security: A Conspicuous Omission

Mr. Cavanagh mentions the Cabinet Office’s acknowledgment of a new pay strategy, but he conspicuously fails to say whether they acknowledge the need for a new job security agreement. Since LU would certainly mention it if the Cabinet Office had, we assume they have not.

So what is LU’s plan for job protection? What pressure will they apply?

Our Alternative: Prepare to Fight

The Independent Left sees the severe political and economic climate as demanding a genuine fight, not polite lobbying.

We argue that PCS must immediately restart preparations for an industrial action campaign. Given the time LU has wasted, we need a proper run-up before a statutory ballot can succeed. Therefore, the Independent Left urges PCS to work toward preparing for a national ballot in 2026 for all UK civil service members, covering pay, terms, conditions, and, importantly, job security.

We need a fighting, member-led union—not one that gives up its power before negotiating. If you agree it’s time to stop hoping and start preparing to fight, please join us: https://pcsindependentleft.com/join-us/

PCS, that is the Left Unity leadership of our union has posted on the  PCS website:

“In negotiations with the Cabinet Office we are seeking an agreement on pay, jobs and flexible working across the civil service…

We have further detailed talks scheduled in the coming weeks with senior officials and ministers to push our case…

Following delegated pay talks, and a series of consultations with groups and members, the NEC agreed that there is not a strong enough case to move to an industrial action ballot under the national campaign at this time, though this will be kept under review.”

This decision means the PCS is heading into so-called national pay talks completely unarmed as Left Unity has chosen not to ballot members for an industrial dispute, citing a perceived apathy among the rank and file.

Leadership’s Failure, Not Membership’s Apathy

The Independent Left fundamentally rejects this justification.

This supposed lack of enthusiasm is a direct result of the leadership’s own failure to act. By ensuring “nil publicity” around a possible ballot and failing to run a proper campaign, Left Unity effectively neglected to inform or engage the membership about the potential for a vote. It is disingenuous to cite a lack of enthusiasm when the groundwork for generating it was intentionally neglected. The leadership’s position is thus a self-fulfilling prophecy of their own design.

The Union’s Strong Case, Weak Hand

Our negotiators will undoubtedly present a solid case that civil service pay needs radical change.

They will correctly point out that the pay system is deeply flawed after over 30 years without a substantive review. They will highlight that:

• Pay is lower in real terms than in 2010.
• Uncompetitive salaries make it difficult to recruit and retain specialists.
• Pay restraint and National Living Wage hikes have destroyed pay differentials between AAs, AOs, and in some cases, EOs in many areas, leaving tens of thousands of staff on the minimum wage.

The union will also correctly argue that extra pay funding is affordable if our Tax Justice Campaign proposals were adopted, and that higher wages will actually boost the economy and GDP.

These are good, solid arguments. If we lived in a fairer world where good arguments win, we might get somewhere. But we don’t. We live in a world where power counts.

Stripped of Leverage

The government negotiators know the Left Unity leadership is ignoring the ADC motion to ballot. They can see there is no visible campaigning seeking to pressure them.

Without a tangible threat of industrial action—and having successfully suppressed the energy needed to generate one—the government sees the union leadership walking in with a polite request, not a demand. The decision not to ballot has stripped the union of all its leverage.

A loyal Left Unity member will say: “Ah, we will tell them that if they don’t offer us something serious then we might ballot.”

That threat only works if the other side genuinely believes it will be followed up. Otherwise, it is a weak bluff. And judging by this initial retreat, Left Unity are not very good poker players. The Independent Left believes we should have walked in with our demands backed by a live, active ballot mandate.

Shortly branches will be told that there will be no ballot and that the union is entering national talks on pay, job security etc.

The Independent Left (IL) believes this approach is wrong. This moment demands activity as opposed to going into sleep mode.

IL believes that PCS should actually have a membership campaign and work towards a ballot in the New Year.

We are not opposed to the national talks, such as they are, but without a surrounding campaign there is no pressure on the government to make any concessions.

Over the next week, we will post more.

The pay remit for the UK civil service was for an average pay award of 3.5%. And that’s what most members got. Of course an average covers a multiple of sins and many people didn’t get 3.5% and even if they did, many would have had an unconsolidated award in whole or part.

We know that particularly in DWP and HMRC, AAs and AOs will again be caught by the rise in the minimum wage next year.

Now for the third month in a row, inflation as measured by CPI, has remained at 3.8%.

That means that inflation has overtaken the pay awards of most members, so most of us are worse off than last year.

In other words, yet again, PCS, which means at the moment Left Unity, has failed to make any breakthrough on pay, let alone ensuring that all members are better off after a pay round – the basic duty of any union.

Has this failure triggered a ballot, a union push back, a union campaign – NO.

Left Unity is inert and incapable of winning at pay. They have run the union for decades and have delivered decades of failing living standards. They need to be voted out.

But changing the leadership is not enough – we need to change the union as well.