Public and Commercial Services Union

• Phenomenal Display of Solidarity
• Members demonstrate anger over removal of allowances

One day strike 19 December 2009

The morale, camaraderie, high spirits and a unified sense of purpose amongst members was outstanding.

• Massive numbers of members strike.
• Shifts decimated.
• ADs deployed to the control in desperate attempt to maintain Border security.
• Dunkirk operates with only two members of staff for much of the day resulting in major security breaches as office is left unmanned.
• Chaos in Calais.
• In a bizarre incident on the evening before the action a strike-breaker from Gatwick appears at Calais PAC asking for a lift to her hotel, while another from Heathrow gets lost in the port. Understandably the question “does anyone want to volunteer to take the scab to her hotel” resulted in a nil response.
• Using the threat of disciplinary action, Management force PCS members in Customs to cover for striking members – a move that is likely to only widen and deepen the dispute through a ballot of Customs members.
• Senior managers ‘oversee’ the day of action from the comfort of Martello House.
• Senior managers disgracefully attempt to force the FN shift at Coquelles to work beyond their contracted hours by threatening the withdrawal of official transport. This threat of being stranded in France was particularly distressful for the mother of young triplets.
• Senior managers tell staff working in Martello House not to look at or speak to members on the picket line - perhaps they hoped, like young children covering their eyes and ears, that if they could not see or hear us we weren’t really there!

The action

The road to the day of action has been one of twists and turns but members have been magnificent in their solidarity and determination to make the Department aware of the strength of feeling over this very emotive dispute.

Members have been rightly outraged by the communications and propaganda distributed by the SMT throughout the dispute particularly that ‘conditions have improved since the inception of juxtaposed controls’. Perhaps they should explain how exactly that is to the F and G shifts on the 18th who, due to the travel disruption, were forced to remain in France overnight, and to the FN shifts who didn’t reach the UK until after midday. The Calais F shift had to sleep in the detainee area, and the Coquelles G shift were finally put up in a hotel at 2am, some four hours after their shift finished. This is a very timely example of why members feel so betrayed by European Operations SMT.

The turnout

On the 18th, John Linehan collected the D shifts on his magic PCS bus. Over 95% of staff on duty were PCS members taking action on the A shift. This high turnout was replicated throughout the rest of the shifts on the 19th and finished with members scheduled for the FN and A shifts on the 20th boarding two PCS coaches en masse, and in extremely high spirits. Only three members of staff travelled on the official transport.

PCS would like to thank Tom Dowdall for the constructive discussions, which resulted in the two coaches being boarded on the shuttle through Longport, thus avoiding lengthy queues at Dover.

Picket lines

Despite the sub zero temperatures, and the travel difficulties, the picket lines at Longport and Martello House were well attended. Spirits and good humour remained high throughout the day, despite the ever present threat of frost bite.

There are so many members who have put in time and effort leading up to, and during, the strike day, that it would be impossible to name you all individually. On behalf of the PCS BEC, we would like to offer our gratitude and thanks. We could not have organised this action without you. Thank you.

Special mention must go to Fred Perry for his commitment and dedication as he remained at the Longport picket line from 0600 to 1830 and then attended for a Dunkirk FN- a 28 hour stint. Special thanks also to Sue Harvey and Lilian Fortun for providing delicious cakes, sandwiches and hot drinks, and to Stuart Manger for his liaison with the French hotels.

One of the significant moments of the day was the refusal of a customs team to cross the Martello House picket line.

What next?

This was a highly successful day of action and we intend to build on that by increasing the pressure on the Department in two ways:

1. PCS has served notice on the Department that members will now take action short of a strike until the end of the dispute. PCS has issued guidance on what format that should take and will distribute it by home email and hard copy. We urge you to participate fully in this action.
2. PCS reps will be talking to you over the next couple of weeks about the setting of further strike dates. We want to make sure that we are fully reflecting how the membership wants this dispute to be taken forward.

PCS hopes that management are now in no doubt as to the strength, solidarity and determination of members.

PCS calls upon the department to listen to its workforce and engage in meaningful negotiations with PCS to end this dispute.