Posts Tagged ‘pcs’

Unite-PCS merger in trouble at PCS conference

21/05/2014, 12:32:39 PM

It’s been a busy morning in Brighton, with a debate taking place that will have major implications for the future of the Labour party. The non-party affiliated civil service union, PCS, is having its annual conference and top of the bill for discussion has been the impending merger with Unite.

The PCS NEC proposed a motion that would have allowed them to continue negotiations with Unite, without conditions. The pace of discussions has accelerated in recent months with the merger process now due to complete in January 2015.

However, this timeline may now be in doubt as PCS members rejected their leaders’ motion by a significant majority – 109,326 t0 73,212. A subsequent motion allowing the NEC to continue negotiations subject to minimum conditions did pass on a hand vote, but the warning signal from the PCS membership was very clear: they still prize their independence.

Although PCS has a substantial pensions deficit, its immediate solvency isn’t threatened and questions have been raised by many members as to the benefits of subsuming their union into Unite. The debate in the hall was particularly characterised by hostility to joining a Labour affiliated union with speakers citing the level of civil service cuts implemented by the last Labour government.

Notably, one of the conditions stipulated for future PCS-Unite merger talks is that there would need to be an independent political fund.

PCS members’ suspicion of Labour will heap further pressure on Unite, in addition to its own internal rumblings, to revisit its relationship with Labour.

Recently, Len McCluskey envisaged a scenario where Unite could disaffiliate from the party if Labour lost the next general election. Given the recent polls, and the views of the PCS rank and file, Unite’s long term relationship with the Labour party is now looking increasingly tenuous.

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Unite’s takeover of PCS will have big implications for Labour if Ed doesn’t make it into Number 10

30/04/2014, 07:00:32 AM

by Rob Marchant

While we all want the morning of 8 May, 2015 to be defined by a triumphant Miliband glad-handing a crowd of jubilant supporters in Downing Street, it is worth taking a moment for a cold, hard look at the opposite: the Armageddon scenario of Labour returning to opposition.

Although this may be seen as a distasteful or even a disloyal task, neither is it, if the direction of travel of poll lead continues, one that is unthinkable in an election still far too close to call. Forewarned, as they say, is forearmed.

What will surely weigh heavily in the minds of all the major players at that point are the desires of one man, who over the last couple of years has shown himself to be the party’s trickiest stakeholder. That man is Len McCluskey.

While the furore of the Falkirk selection disaster has died down and the party reform agenda has largely gone through for the long term, Unite has been quietly preparing itself for a post-election world. It seems fairly obvious that, should Labour win, the chances of a split with Unite look remote; it would be a short route to instant marginalisation. As Prime Minister, Miliband could afford to face down a little union cage-rattling, and potentially even expand his party reform agenda.

But were Labour to lose – and presuming losing were deemed a “hanging offence” for the current leader, though we should not rule out, by the way, that Miliband might not look to hang on as a unity candidate –there would be a leadership election in which, as Uncut has observed before, it would be politically impractical to preclude unions from taking part “in the old way”. That is, such that candidates would need to court them just as they did before the Collins reforms. McCluskey would, at this point, have three important levers at his disposal.

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Labour’s caution on tackling poverty dishonours the memory of the hunger marchers

11/01/2013, 10:32:39 AM

by Ian Stewart

As reported in the press, Con Shiels, the last participant in the Jarrow Crusade died at the age of 96 on Boxing Day. With him dies perhaps the last living link to the great interwar struggles of the Labour movement against government indifference to suffering and want under the Tory and coalition governments of Baldwin, Macdonald, and Chamberlain.

No doubt Atul and Pete will come up with something more iconoclastic and humorous for this period soon, but I feel like sticking to the story right now.

I suppose that many of us, at least if we are over thirty, “did” the Jarrow march at school. I seem to remember it being of the same set of lessons when we were told that the then Prince of Wales visited depressed areas and murmured “something must be done”. We certainly did NOT learn at school that proud Edward thought that the answer to unemployment lay with Mr Moseley and Mr Hitler.

We did learn about “red” Ellen Wilkinson, and Jarrow, and unemployment, and “buddy can you spare a dime?” What we didn’t learn was that the 1936 Jarrow march was part of a bigger picture of resistance to unemployment and vicious cuts in outdoor relief.

From its creation by the Communist party, the national unemployed workers movement (NUWM) sought to do something that many trades union and Labour leaders thought undesirable, if not impossible – organise the unemployed to fight for a better deal.

And they did it. The NUWM had a life of its own, for despite leadership opposition, ordinary trades unionists and Labour members worked alongside the communists to make it work. There were marches to London in1922,1929,1930,!931,1932,1934, and 1936. From Cardiff and Glasgow they marched, to Bristol from the Rhondda in their tens, hundreds and thousands.

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Budget preview: abolishing national public sector pay rates is right

20/03/2012, 12:00:32 PM

by Rob Marchant

As part of the Budget run-up, on Friday Britain’s labour movement was convulsed at the thought of the latest Osborne proposal: that national public sector pay rates might be scrapped.

But, before we join the voices of the major trade unions and the TUC who are, understandably, trying to look out for their own interest group, as a party whose interests are not always identical to those of our union colleagues, it might behove us to take a few minutes to take a step back.

Now, while no-one would suggest we should be adopting the Tory Budget wholesale, smart opposition is about determining which bits to oppose. A regional bargaining system would likely increase some pay-rates, as well as decreasing (or failing to increase) others.

And it is surely difficult to argue that the current, entirely inflexible system of fixed national pay rates, which was put in place decades ago in a corporatist state era, is fit for purpose.

First, as the Treasury points out, there are absurd variations depending on where you live. In some places pay rates can be artificially up to 18% higher than their private sector equivalents. And furthermore, applying the only current regional exception to the national system, the addition of London weighting, the system even then visibly fails to attract, for example, enough teachers to schools in inner London because many cannot afford to live there. So some people are still not paid enough. Result: poor levels of public service.
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Friday News Review

09/09/2011, 06:59:13 AM

Cameron’s elitist education

David Cameron will signal a return to “elitism” in schools in an attempt to mend Britain’s “broken” society and secure the economic future. The Prime Minister will attack the “prizes for all” culture in which competitiveness is frowned upon and winners are shunned. In a significant speech, he will outline Coalition plans to ensure teaching is based on “excellence”, saying that controversial reforms are needed to “bring back the values of a good education”. Failure to do so would be “fatal to prosperity”, he will say. The comments mark the latest in a series of attempts to focus on education in response to the riots that shocked London and other English cities last month. They follow the announcement by Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, of back-to-basics discipline in state schools. He plans to give teachers more freedom to search pupils suspected of carrying banned items and to let them use reasonable force in removing the most disruptive children from the classroom. – the Telegraph

David Cameron will identify discipline, “freedom for schools” and “high expectations” as the key factors that make for a good education system as he opens one of the first “free” schools today. “We want to create an education system based on real excellence, with a complete intolerance of failure,” the prime minister will say in a speech being seen by some as backing a return to elitism in schools. While there is no direct mention of the recent riots in extracts of the speech released in advance, he will say: “We’ve got to be ambitious too, if we want to mend our broken society. “Because education doesn’t just give people the tools to make a good living – it gives them the character to live a good life, to be good citizens. So for the future of our economy, and our society, we need a first-class education for every child.” Speaking at the opening of one of the first new “free” schools – set up by parents, teachers, faith groups, charities and others outside of local authority control – he will say that the country had been “bogged down in a great debate” for too long about how to provide that first-class education. “Standards or structures? Learning by rote or by play? Elitism or all winning prizes? These debates are over – because it’s clear what works,” he will add. – the Guardian

Co-ordinated action

A strike by millions of workers protesting at Government pension reforms will be called in November, a union leader revealed yesterday. Action by up to 10 unions will be finalised at next week’s TUC conference in London, said Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the civil servants’ Public and ­Commercial ­Services union. The strike would come after four unions staged a day of action on June 30, involving 750,000 workers. Mr Serwotka branded pension talks with the Government a “shambles”. He said: “The Government has a choice – to put its head in the sand or negotiate. We are prepared to talk.” The Government wants civil service staff to pay £1.1billion in extra contributions from April next year.  – Daily Mirror

In an interview with the Evening Standard before next week’s annual congress, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said there was a “very real prospect” other unions would follow suit. He spoke out as sources at the civil service PCS union, which joined teachers on strike in June in a row over the Government’s pension reforms, said its national executive had agreed to hold another one-day walkout in the autumn. Other unions are also threatening industrial action and the PCS it would consult on joint action before setting a date. It is a clear sign that unions feel their concerns over plans to make them work longer and pay more towards their retirement are being ignored, and raises the prospect of widespread disruption before the end of the year. “We have reached an extremely difficult point where at the moment there is absolutely no sign of the Government being prepared to really take a step back on some of the changes that they are preparing to force through which are very, very damaging to millions of public sector workers,” Mr Barber said. “On the industrial action issue, we may be heading towards a more difficult period.” – Evening Standard

Labour’s donations headache

Political parties face a £10,000 cap on donations but would be compensated by a big rise in state funding, under proposals from an inquiry into how politics is financed. The Committee on Standards in Public Life, the anti-sleaze watchdog, wants all parties to become less dependent on big donations. In a report next month, it is expected to propose small donations be matched by tax relief to encourage parties to recruit new members and supporters. The plan to channel millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money to the parties may prove highly controversial at a time of spending cuts and squeezed household budgets. However, it may provide political cover for Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister responsible for political reform, to propose a rise in state funding, a long-standing Liberal Democrat goal. The proposed £10,000 ceiling, ending the £1m gifts from rich individuals, is much lower than the parties expected. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have backed a £50,000 cap. Labour may suffer the biggest headache from the review because of its heavy dependence on the trade unions, which provide about 80 per cent of its donations. – the Independent

Ed’s challenge

Ed Miliband, the Labour leader has been warned by leading Labour figures including Dagenham MP Jon Cruddas that he risks missing a huge opportunity to make Labour more democratic and ensure ordinary party members’ views are heard in planned reforms. The Labour national executive is due to meet on 21 September, four days before the start of Labour conference, to discuss the outcome of the “Refounding Labour” consultation undertaken by the party leadership through the summer. One Labour source involved in the talks with the unions said all options are still on the table. But there are growing signs that Miliband has stepped back from plans to dilute the size of the union vote at party conference, and is instead focusing on a series of reforms designed to make local parties more dynamic, and open up the party to a wider group of Labour supporters. In a letterCompass, the left-of-centre pressure group, together with Cruddas and other Labour activists, said: “It would be a hugely missed opportunity if the party reforms instigated fell short of the mark in making Labour more democratic.” – the Guardian

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