Skip to main content
The end of the year – and a time to reflect
With new faces being elected to both to government and to my union, PCS, 2024 has been a year of change – with new challenges ahead for 2025, writes LYNN HENDERSON
PCS placards

HOGMANAY, the last day of 2024, gives me the opportunity to reflect on the year gone by for my union, the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS), and also our class, our struggles and achievements at home and internationally.  

As I approach my 60th year, I also take time for personal reflection back over 40 or so years of activism — as a 14-year-old joining Scottish CND, as a further education college student activist, as a lifelong Labour and trade union movement activist, through the campaign for devolution, voluntary work for refugees, in the Scottish TUC and as a long-serving officer in the PCS.

This column however covers just a few key matters that stand out for me in 2024.

End of an era – start of a new one

40th anniversaries

Election of a Labour government

Industrial action builds union power

Check-off victory

Palestine

Morning Star call for advertising
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
PCS women
VOICES OF SCOTLAND / 30 October 2023
30 October 2023
In my union PCS, we know from experience that women are the first line of defence during this ongoing period of attacks from the government and employers on our living standards, writes LYNN HENDERSON
NEW MOOD: Passport Office workers picket in Glasgow, April 3
VOICES OF SCOTLAND / 24 April 2023
24 April 2023
PCS senior national officer LYNN HENDERSON explains why the union is growing and taking more industrial action despite the hostility of the current government to workers’ demands
Picket line Edinburgh
Voices of Scotland / 11 October 2022
11 October 2022
With PCS members themselves facing poverty due to poor pay and the cost-of-living crisis, industrial action was inevitable — it’s time to link up our struggles, writes LYNN HENDERSON
The massive TUC March for the Alternative makesitswaythrough
Features / 4 April 2022
4 April 2022
Trade unionists must unite workplaces and communities in refusing to pay for the cost-of-living crisis — that means industrial militancy and building locally towards a mass demo this summer, writes LYNN HENDERSON
Similar stories
exhib 1
Features / 19 October 2024
19 October 2024
BEN CHACKO sees an exhibition that charts the memorable struggle to have union rights restored to workers at the intelligence hub GCHQ in Cheltenham
PCS picket
Durham Miners' Gala / 12 July 2024
12 July 2024
As Labour takes power, PCS general secretary FRAN HEATHCOTE urges solidarity to push for workers’ rights and calls for pension justice and job security after years of Tory attacks on civil servants
11scotlandvoting
Voices of Scotland / 11 June 2024
11 June 2024
Watching the progress of the general election campaign leaves LYNN HENDERSON doubtful that we’ll see anything like the fundamental change so desperately needed by working people
Members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) on
Features / 22 May 2024
22 May 2024
The outrageous minimum service levels legislation has been brought in to break the growing momentum of our movement — but these attacks won’t work, writes PCS general secretary FRAN HEATHCOTE