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TUC 2009 - Thursday morning

17 September 2009

PCS received unanimous support for our campaign to protect the civil service compensation scheme on the final morning of the TUC conference.

Moving emergency motion 2, general secretary Mark Serwotka condemned the tearing up of civil servants’ terms and conditions and accused Gordon Brown of “using his own workers as a cheap party political broadcast.”

Mark told delegates that the government’s claim that the cuts would mainly affect senior civil servants was a “damned lie”: less than 1% of the civil service were employed on the senior grades; 73% are front line workers, 20% earn less than £15,000 and the average pension is £4,200.

Mark also accused the prime minister of twice derailing negotiations on reforming the scheme. “This is a disgrace,” said Mark. “Brown says ‘every redundancy is a tragedy’ but then announces cuts that will allow a future government – Labour or Tory – to cut jobs on the cheap.”

The motion was seconded by Prospect, whose speaker Geoff Fletcher described the proposals as a recipe for “slashing redundancy and pension payments when the risk of job cuts are at their highest. They will also make civil servants’ redundancy payments the lowest in the public sector.”

The FDA also offered support saying: “We want to negotiate a good scheme – this affects all civil servants, not just senior civil servants. The proposals allow for the prospect of serious cuts. There are also implications for other public servants if they go ahead.”

Brian Caton for the Prison Officers Association said the POA “totally supports” our campaign and called for “full, fair, free negotiations.”

The motion was passed unanimously.

A fairer electoral system

Assistant general secretary Chris Baugh moved the following amendment to motion 83 on ‘democratic renewal’: “Congress recognises that democratic renewal also requires elected politicians to be properly representative of, and accountable to, their constituents and therefore calls on the general council to instigate a debate within the trade union movement on change in the current parliamentary electoral system towards a system of proportional representation.”

Chris emphasised that we welcome and support the First Division Association’s (FDA) proposals for better governance and a restoration of trust in the political process but “we also need a serious debate in the trade union movement on electoral reform.”

Chris outlined the main reasons why we had tabled the amendment: the experience of PCS members shows the main political parties are all committed to public sector cuts; the ‘first past the post’ system distorts our political process and the expenses scandal has added to the public’s disaffection with many politicians and parliament.

Describing the five years of cuts PCS members have endured under the Labour government, Chris said “the vague promises of benign cuts ring hollow.” He described our Make Your Vote Count campaign’s efforts to dispel the media caricatures of civil servants and condemned the threats posed by a potential Tory government after the general election.

“No system of election can be satisfactory if it does not give all parties the opportunity to obtain representation proportional to their voting strength,” Chris said.

Delegates overwhelmingly supported the need for trade unions to explore the case for a fair electoral system.

Free Palestine

Speaking in the debate on Palestine, deputy general secretary Hugh Lanning said motion 76 provided a clear framework for taking the campaign forward and described it as a “landmark” moment.

“This is the trade union movement deciding that it’s time for action. Resolutions are not enough.”

Telling delegates that he is the chair of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Hugh added: “PSC makes an offer to every union in this country to help build the campaign in your industry.”

He said with the occupation continuing, settlements growing and the Palestinian people under attack, we need to make sure we know whose side we are on.

“Until there’s a free Palestine there cannot be peace in the Middle East.”
 

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