Tag Archives: trade-unions

PCS Annual Delegate Conference 2024

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Following the election of a Coalition for Change majority NEC, this years Annual Delegate Conference was going to be very important for members and activists who wanted to secure that victory by ensuring the policy of the union reflected the change in mood amongst the membership.

In that regard, it was a success.

Ensuring motions were heard

The Standing Orders Committee had ruled out several motions for technical or constitutional reasons. Despite many years of conference choosing to ignore please to over-turn standing orders decisions, an unprecedented number of delegates rose to challenge the, this year and great many of them were then overturned by conference, and the motions re-added to the running order.

Conference was not prepared to have motions submitted by members and branches over-ruled on minor bureaucratic points.

The National Campaign

The outgoing Left Unity NEC proposed a motion in a self-congratulatory fashion, hailed the success of last year’s action, and the £1500 non-consolidated payment as a victory. It didn’t acknowledge any shortcomings in last year’s dispute and made no mention of any re-ballots.

The motion, and the leadership, received heavy criticism from conference floor, largely relating to the decision to pause action last year in response to the £1500.

Two rival motions were moved in opposition to outgoing NEC’s. There were some differences between them, but both condemned the NEC for its conduct of the dispute and for the misleading wording of the consultative ballot which led to the pause.

In the end, Emergency motion A315 was passed, defeating the outgoing NEC’s motion. It calls on the leadership to coordinate with branches to ‘develop a plan for sustained, targeted action across those areas with a mandate’ and to ‘maintain the mood for action in these areas while re-balloting elsewhere commences’. It also called on the union to make 100,000 additional staff and a commitment to hybrid working part of the dispute.

A solid basis for the incoming Coalition for Change NEC to build upon.

Organising

The leadership also lost its organising motion, largely due to criticism of how they have conducted organising so far. The motion refused to accept any issues with the current organising strategy which has led us to the lowest proportion of members in the union in living memory and puts us in a position in many areas where we have very reduced leverage when we strike and where we could potentially be at threat of recognition.

The incoming majority leadership recognise this and have put forward a strategy for changing the unions organising strategy.

Political Strategy

There was also a debate on the political strategy. There were 2 motions in this debate A12 and A13 moved by the outgoing NEC.

A12 called on the NEC to put pressure on the Labour Party over specific and identified goals for and demands for them to commit to and enact in government to improve our organising and bargaining positions and to implement the elements of its programme relating to expanding workers’ rights and trade union freedoms. It called to demand that an incoming Labour government should immediately impose its policy commitments in these areas on the Cabinet Office and Civil Service leadership, to repeal Departmental bans on onsite strike meetings and other anti-union restrictions.

A13 in contrast did not commit the union to any political strategy in the election and take a completely uninterested view in the outcome or the policies of the parties or candidates vying for members votes.

Solidarity with the Palestinians

In the international section, motion A99 committed the union to continue its opposition to Israel’s attack on Gaza, for ‘a free and independent Palestinian state’, and against the victimisation of our members who have spoken out for Palestine.

The motion condemned Hamas’ killing of civilians on October 7th, but also condemned the mass killing, starvation and displacement of civilians by Israel in response. It welcomed PCS’ decision to donate substantial amounts of money to Medical Aid for Palestinians, and it also called on the union to provide guidance to members on their rights to attend protests and express views in support of the Palestinians.

This motion had widespread support. To the extent that there was debate, it was in nuances expressed by speakers supporting the motion. The SOC ordered the motion, stating other motions were covered by it. This included a motion claiming ‘antizionism isn’t antisemitism’, an absolute which is patently untrue and potentially discriminatory as there are examples of antizionism being antisemitism. Equally, motions expressing a desire for a 2-state settlement were tagged alongside those calling for the destruction of Israel. These positions are counter-posed and it would have been better to have an open debate on the question if some activists wished to change the unions position.

Again, we hope this predicates a much more active year for PCS’ international solidarity work, which, especially over Gaza was slow to materialise.

Equality and Trans Rights

Motion A52, noted the Tories’ anti-trans scapegoating, and the leaked Cabinet Office guidance which would have led to the harassment of trans and non-binary people. The motion instructed the NEC oppose any guidance which would marginalise trans and non-binary workers, and to organise action to confront this guidance if introduced. The motion passed overwhelmingly.

Conference once again rightfully asserting it’s belief in trans rights over a historically poor leadership position on the question.

A worker’s representative

In the Finance section, Assistant General Secretary and supporter of the Independent Left, John Moloney, gave a run down on the union’s finances, which are soon to be boosted by the re-introduction of the strike levy. He also mentioned his pledge to take only an inner London EO’s wage on the basis that union officials should not gain financially by given the privilege of being elected. As a result, he has given the rest of the ridiculously high AGS salary back to the union. This has meant he has now paid back well over £100,000 to the strike fund.

John Moloney re-elected: The fight for the future of the union has begun

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The results of the election for the unions General and Assistant General Secretary have been announced this afternoon.

Fran Heathcote, the existing union President, and candidate of the leadership won General Secretary, only beating Marion Lloyd by 783 votes or 3.9% in the closest run General Secretary election in the union’s history.

Remarkably, John Moloney of the Independent Left defeated full-time officer Paul O’Connor by 11,705 votes to 8,152 to be re-elected as Assistant General Secretary.

The closeness of the GS result and the defeat of Paul O’Connor are remarkable for several reasons. They occur in the context of Fran and Paul being the anointed successors of Mark Serwotka, the union machine being used to profile both candidates throughout the campaign and the patronising and sometimes unedifying and desperate spectacle of celebrity endorsements.

Despite the ongoing leadership claim that PCS is a member led union, the turnout in the election was appallingly low at 11.5%. Much lower than the 19% 5 years ago, and a statistic which puts the bed the justification for bringing the elections forward made by Mark Serwotka that it would increase turnout.

In this respect the election was a failure for all candidates and damning indictment on the state of the democratic deficit in the union. If barely 1 in 10 members feels any purpose in returning a ballot for the leadership of the union, something much more fundamental than simply standing in elections with decent politics is required to rebuild the rank-and-file in PCS.

Clearly, the election of the unions first woman General Secretary is a good thing. It was, of course, a foregone conclusion before the ballots were even issued as both candidates were women.

Unfortunately, there is little evidence that the result of the GS election is going to better the material conditions of women members or members more widely for that matter.

What we heard during the campaign, echoed in the closeness of the results and overwhelming return of John Moloney as AGS, is that many members are acutely aware of the dire state the union is in and the inability and unwillingness of the leadership to change or fight for better. 

In the countless members hustings events Marion and John spoke to throughout the country, most of which were boycotted by Fran and Paul who preferred to seek support from the likes of Steve Coogan, members wanted change or through debate were convinced by the alternative as laid out by Marion and John.

Members are acutely aware that this leadership strategy this year has led to the worst pay-rise in the public sector alongside a pro-rated £1500 payment which the unions own negotiators didn’t equality check, and which therefore was disproportionately lower for part-time workers and negatively impacted UC payments. Members are also aware of the Orwellian ballot to ‘continue the campaign’ on 23/24 pay, which despite members voting ‘Yes’ has now, as predicted by us, been well and truly buried.

Throughout, Fran and Paul’s campaign vaunted the increase in pay in certain departments, not mentioning that in many cases the pay-rises had nothing to do with the union and everything to do with the rise in the minimum wage and forgetting that most members listening were profoundly conscious – particularly at this time of year – that they only got a 4.5% rise.

During the campaign, members were told of ongoing talks with the Cabinet Office on 23/24 pay, but true to type these haven’t produced a result. Largely, as predicted, because the leadership strategy has given up any leverage we had by shutting the dispute. Additionally, members haven’t had an update on talks because of the unions longstanding insistence to keep much from members for as long as reasonably possible.

On both issues, the alternative presented by Marion and John, of re-energizing the national campaign, with a more creative and combative industrial strategy and of ending secretive negotiations and opening them up to membership control won many members over.

We hope that considering John’s large mandate, he will be given the remit to carry out his platform, including that of bargaining. It’s the democratic thing to do. But we also know that to really change the union we have to win the leadership.

The combined votes for the candidates for change, Marion and John, exceeded those for Fran and Paul by nearly 2770 votes or 7%. We’re not stating this to claim Fran shouldn’t have won, but to illustrate that despite everything, our ideas got through to members.

This coalition, which throughout the campaign saw many new individuals and groups of activists join, needs to maintain the same level of unity going into the NEC elections next year.

If you agree, please consider joining us at the PCS Independent Left.