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We are getting our message across

22 July 2010

Members rightly ask how successful PCS is, in getting its point of view into the media.

Two very recent examples show that we are effective in getting our message across.

The first is a piece by the General Secretary, Mark Serwotka, in the 20 July edition of Guardian. That can be read on the Guardian website. 

In reply to a recent Guardian editorial Mark makes the following points:

You also say, apparently without irony, that unions would do well to "borrow a line from the Conservative manifesto – we're all in this together". I'm sure your readers understand that it is this expression of solidarity upon which the union movement is built, and it is the Tories who have appropriated it.

And I would hope that – faced with a budget that penalises the low-paid and unemployed with a VAT hike to 20%, cuts to benefits and tax credits, and a public sector pay freeze – your readers already recognise the sheer hypocrisy of that particular piece of Tory spin. Unions like ours unite public and private sector workers, and we reject the government's attempt to play one off against the other. The real divide is between executives in the boardroom who secure massive pensions for themselves, and their workforces who are suffering repeated cuts.

The facts are these: the average civil service wage is just £22,800 and, far from fostering cushy jobs for life, the civil service has suffered six years of continued job cuts. When civil servants are made redundant their average payout is not even close to the eye-watering figures being bandied about by the government. And when they retire, their average pension is just £4,200 – more than 100,000 people currently receive a civil service pension of £2,000 or less.

These are not even copper-plated terms, still less gold-plated, or any other lazy tabloidese you care to come up with.

Mark concludes his piece by saying:

We would welcome a fair discussion in the media about these issues, and about the alternatives to cuts – including some, like tackling the widening tax gap, that the Lib Dems once supported. Sadly this doesn't always happen, and it isn't necessarily our fault.

Another recent example of the union’s media work is an interview that Mark gave for the World Service of the BBC. You can hear it on the BBC Website. (The General Secretary’s interview starts at 4 mins 44 seconds)

We are under no illusions that all of the media will fairly report the Union’s views but provided some do then we will get our message across.
 

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