OUR members have had enough and are raring to join today’s mammoth strike action. When PCS re-balloted eight further areas that came close to beating the threshold last time — which included HMRC — all eight didn’t just beat, but smashed, the threshold the second time around.

In PCS, we have developed a strategy of targeted action, where distinct areas take action, on behalf of everyone — an action that is impactful and cannot be ignored. This is accompanied by all-member action, when we bring out everyone covered by the mandate when it can have the most impact, alongside other unions.

In our biggest dispute in over 20 years over pay, pensions, redundancy terms and job security, tens of thousands of our members have taken action since November. After a huge show of strength on February 1, more areas are making submissions for targeted action every week.

Members from Border Force, the British Museum, DFT, Highways England, the Rural Payments Agency, Animal and Plant Health Agency, DWP and the Land Registry have all taken targeted action, alongside many others, causing significant disruption.

We’ve been able to take this hard-hitting, targeted action, and plan further disruption, thanks to our historic ballot result in November. The average Yes vote is the largest in our union’s history.

We secured the largest mandate for strike action we’ve ever had. Leading to thousands of new joiners and our union’s profile being the highest it has been for decades.

PCS members are striking though because this government treats its workers appallingly. During the pandemic, our members went above and beyond the call of duty. They were clapped and praised as key workers on a Thursday night. At a time of national crisis, they put their safety at risk to provide the essential services the public relied on.

They paid benefits, delivered the furlough scheme and so much more. Their reward for keeping public services running, for hard work and dedication, has been a relentless assault on our living standards and the lowest pay offer anywhere in the public sector.

47,000 of them are using foodbanks. Forty per cent of those processing universal credit are also entitled to claim it, because their pay is so low, and the latest shocking statistic is that in the two biggest departments alone, the DWP and the HMRC, 46,000 PCS members will get an enforced increase in April because their pay will fall below the national living wage. These are government employees, forced to claim the very benefits that they process.

They have seen no real-terms pay rise since the Tories came to power over a decade ago. The Civil Service 2 per cent Treasury pay remit is the lowest offer in the public sector.

All of us have been overpaying our pension contributions by £500 per year since 2019, when the government reviewed our pension scheme, to find that, rather than it being inefficient, as they had presumed, in fact, we were paying more than we should be.

They refused to address it, we took them to court, we won in court and have recently pursued a judicial review aimed at putting this right. Our demands are for this government to not only shield our members from the cost-of-living crisis but to compensate them for plummeting living standards.

A 10 per cent pay rise; a living wage of at least £15 per hour; an immediate 2 per cent cut in pension payments; no further cuts to redundancy payments; and a job security agreement, alongside the resources desperately needed to deliver decent public services.

We’re clear that if the government continues to ignore these demands, we will escalate our action still further and have just put in place plans for our re-ballot beginning on March 20 to enable us to continue to take and escalate action once the initial mandate expires. There will be no resolution to the current industrial action unless the government addresses this pay and cost-of-living crisis.

We congratulate every worker who has taken action so far and has pledged to keep up the pressure on this rotten government. Our members are sending an emphatic message that the shameful treatment of its workers cannot continue.

It is important though to appreciate that it is a myth that the government doesn’t have enough money to pay us a decent wage. When they tell us that we have to put up with worsening terms and conditions and lower pensions to help the economy and what can be afforded, this is just not true.
 
Every government since Thatcher has pursued a policy of cuts and privatisation, and we have to accept that they have been successful. They have managed to make the super-wealthy even more wealthy; they have done this by stealing our assets, our services and our conditions from us, and this won’t stop until we stop them.

Holding down public-sector wages is not about the economy, it is a strategy to deliberately demoralise public-sector workers. To drive us out of the NHS, education, the Civil Service, and out of all the other public services that people need to have a civilised existence.

All of these attacks stem from the same source: this rotten government. If we are to defeat them, as a movement we need to unite like never before, and that means joint campaigns, joint demands like no cuts and privatisation, and joint activity.

More than anything though, it means co-ordinating joint strike action, so that we put the maximum pressure on this government, the sort of pressure that cannot be ignored. Co-ordination is what they fear most, and it is now within our gift.

February 1 was a fantastic show of strength and today, March 15 will be huge. PCS looks forward to standing together with all of you, to send this government a very clear message. Let’s stay united, let’s stand together, let’s campaign together, and let’s strike together in solidarity.

Fran Heathcote is PCS president. Twitter: @FranHeathcote.