Public and Commercial Services Union

Members will be aware of the three successful Make Your Vote Count (MYVC) campaigns that PCS has run since 2007 in local, parliamentary, assembly and European elections.

 

MYVC allows us to raise our industrial issues with candidates standing in elections and publish their responses to our members so that they can consider them before they decide who to vote for.

 

We are running the campaign again this year – the first during a General Election - to raise issues which affect our members at work with prospective parliamentary candidates. 

 

Campaign materials will be produced and distributed to branches to enable activists in each of the North West’s 76 parliamentary constituencies to deliver on a period of intense lobbying, campaigning and activity which is intended to challenge candidates to declare their position on five key pledges which have been formulated by the National Executive Committee.

 

They are:

 

1.     I pledge to work to ensure that public services are properly resourced and delivered by the public sector and that there are no further local office closures, public sector job cuts or privatisations.

2.     I pledge to support measures aimed at closing the UK tax gap, including recruiting HMRC staff and ensuring tax loopholes are closed.

3.     I pledge to support civil service national pay bargaining and to press the government to offer pay increases to public sector workers at least in line with inflation.

4.     I pledge to urge the government to honour the 2005 commitment on public sector pensions and to defend the rights of existing members of the civil service compensation scheme.

5.     I pledge to campaign to ensure any changes to public services are only made after proper equality impact assessments have been conducted and their findings implemented.

 

So as to focus our effort and maximise our impact, we are specifically targeting up to seven constituencies across the region. These will be announced shortly but have been selected based on criteria including their marginality, the proportion of PCS members registered as residing there and areas where significant civil service industrial issues exist.

 

All members are strongly encouraged to contact or visit your current MP to raise these pledges directly and to encourage them to support Early Day Motions 251, 837 and 838 which seek to protect the terms of the Civil Service Compensation Scheme. 

 

You can find your MP’s contact details and constituency surgery venues at the 'They work for you' website.