Brazilian workers are calling for internationalist brigades to defend Venezuela from US attack, reports WT WHITNEY JR
From GCHQ to minimum service levels, union power can win
PCS leader FRAN HEATHCOTE draws the parallels between a major trade union rights battle 40 years ago and the fight we have ahead of us today
TODAY thousands of trade unionists from across the movement will come together in Cheltenham to mark the 40th anniversary of one of the longest trade union disputes in British history.
Fourteen civil servants working in GCHQ were sacked simply for being a member of a union. What followed was a 13-year campaign that ended in victory, when the ban was finally lifted. Forty years on, our movement once again faces an existential threat, with minimum service levels undermining the right to strike.
Back in 1984, Margaret Thatcher enforced a ban on trade union membership. Over 100 workers refused to give up this basic right and by 1988, there were 14 workers still holding out. Their defiance cost them their jobs and they were sacked.
Similar stories
Public and Commercial Services union leader FRAN HEATHCOTE warns the Chancellor not to take an axe to the Civil Service – and points to measures that would genuinely improve the public sector
As the government ploughs ahead with £3 billion in welfare cuts, arbitrary office-return mandates, and below-inflation pay rises, women will bear the brunt through deepening poverty and increased caring burdens, argues FRAN HEATHCOTE
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



