Is it time to UNITE?

I have been a member of the Public & Commercial Services Unison (PCS) since it was founded in 1998. I did not vote for the merger that formed PCS, due to anti-democratic terms of the merger and the likelihood that the approach and policies of the then very right-wing CPSA leaders would be carried forward into the new union.

The election of Mark Serwotka as PCS General Secretary began the era of the activist led union that we have today. This very nearly did not come to pass, as the outgoing General Secretary mounted a coup to unseat Mark and take the union back to the days of right-wing domination. The coup ultimately failed, and since that time PCS has grown from strength to strength. In recent years, we have taken the high ground in the fightback against the Government’s austerity policies, dragging the TUC and more reluctant unions along behind us.

The PCS has been the most vocal opponent of the Government’s plans to slash public service pensions. The strike on 30^th November 2011 saw the largest number of public sector trade union members out on strike in a generation. Sadly, on 19^th December 2011, the TUC and UNSION leaderships took the decision to accept the Government’s ‘Heads of Agreement’ for public sector pension schemes. Seemingly, the PCS was left alone abandoned by our allies.

Moving forward to 2012, PCS balloted its membership for a national strike on 28^th March, and this was presented on the basis that the action would be taken with other unions. Despite, receiving a commanding majority for the action, PCS’ National Executive called off the action as no other unions were prepared to take national strike action on March 28^th. I, and many other colleagues, felt this was a mistake and to some extent undermined PCS strength as an independent trade union able to pursue its industrial aims on its own should it need to do so. A period of gloom was ended with a successful strike on May 10^th.

Earlier this week, Mark Serwotka addressed the PCS Revenue & Customs Group Conference on the way forward for our pension and other campaigns. I felt that there was a subtext to his comments, which could be interpreted as moving towards a merger with UNITE. He said the pension dispute cannot be won by PCS taking action alone and without the support of other unions. The PCS is now, due to job cuts in the Civil Service, losing both members and subscription income. This means the Union must review its spending and how it undertakes the task of representing members. The threat of privatisation and the introduction of private sector providers to undertake Civil Service, means a further decrease in membership. However, this could be prevented by recruiting the workers in those companies into PCS. We would need the help and experience of unions that organise in the private sector, and guess who that would be – UNITE.

The National PCS Conference has debated a ‘closer working’ agreement with UNITE. In my experience, ‘closer working’ is a preliminary stage before a formal merger. Union mergers have often been driven by financial pressures. In principle, I am not opposed to a merger with UNITE. I would be concerned that PCS’ culture of being an activist or membership led union is at risk from the hierarchical and possibly autocratic set up of UNITE, in which most of the power and decision making is in the hands of National and Regional Full Time Officers.