Industrial Action in the Civil Service!
- Thread starter Guineveretoo
- Start date
KeyboardJockey
Clowns to the Left of me
First of all to the ignorant privatising tories on here fuck off.
Secondly my observation and experience of the 'strike' is it was an utter fucking disaster. Previously I said that during the last strike in 2004 I said that 75% of the staff in my govt department scabbed. Today it was more like 90%
The only people who went on strike today in my place today were the union officers.
There has been to my knowledge at least 15 resignations from the PCS in the last week alone and mine is going in tomorrow for reasons of the union doing fuck all for the staff and being far too close to management especially at the branch and departmental level. I'm going to see if I can join Unison thats a union that is more interested in the members rather than posing.
We are losing 50% of the staff at my grade and we have been told that we have to apply for the remaining posts or we get made redundant in effect weare having to re apply for our own jobs.
Dedicated knowledgeable civil servants who passionately care about the area they work in (I cant say too much because of the OSA ) are being replaced by an untested IT system that could end up as a fraudsters charter.
We have Trade Union officers who are based in the HR office with all the conflict of interest tht implies.
Staff are absolutely terrified of upsetting management in my place and we know that if we had struck we would have had our re applications binned.
For the first time in 21 years I crossed a picket line and I feel totally shit for having to do it but I really had no choice, myself along with others cannot affordto lose a days pay especially at this time of year when we are struggling with paying for the December holiday season and increased fuel bills etc.
We have had management ostentationally walking round and 'counting heads' to see who is in andwho isout and making notes of this fact.
I know the armchair revolutionaries on here are going to shout 'scab' but fuck you if you say that you obviously were not there and not facing what we are all facing. I was chatting to the pickets who said that they could totally understand why people are terrified and crossed the line.
I've been saying to the union officers of PCS in my branch for the last year that we needto build militancy and involvement in the branch but they just shake their heads and say 'we can't do that, people won't do that'. I've suggested doing more than just passing round leaflets about the union and organising social and educational events but to no avail.
It was made quite plain by managment over the last few weeks that staff are being watched and performance and attitude is being monitored to decide who stays and who goes.
Big up to those who did strike and I respect them immensely but things are not black and white and I would caution people about believing the self congratulationary guff coming out of the PCS leadership and the Swappies et al.
We couldn't strike as we would have been targetted for harrassment and removal and my local branch would have done fuck all about it just shrugged and said 'well what can we do.'
Secondly my observation and experience of the 'strike' is it was an utter fucking disaster. Previously I said that during the last strike in 2004 I said that 75% of the staff in my govt department scabbed. Today it was more like 90%
The only people who went on strike today in my place today were the union officers.
There has been to my knowledge at least 15 resignations from the PCS in the last week alone and mine is going in tomorrow for reasons of the union doing fuck all for the staff and being far too close to management especially at the branch and departmental level. I'm going to see if I can join Unison thats a union that is more interested in the members rather than posing.
We are losing 50% of the staff at my grade and we have been told that we have to apply for the remaining posts or we get made redundant in effect weare having to re apply for our own jobs.
Dedicated knowledgeable civil servants who passionately care about the area they work in (I cant say too much because of the OSA ) are being replaced by an untested IT system that could end up as a fraudsters charter.
We have Trade Union officers who are based in the HR office with all the conflict of interest tht implies.
Staff are absolutely terrified of upsetting management in my place and we know that if we had struck we would have had our re applications binned.
For the first time in 21 years I crossed a picket line and I feel totally shit for having to do it but I really had no choice, myself along with others cannot affordto lose a days pay especially at this time of year when we are struggling with paying for the December holiday season and increased fuel bills etc.
We have had management ostentationally walking round and 'counting heads' to see who is in andwho isout and making notes of this fact.
I know the armchair revolutionaries on here are going to shout 'scab' but fuck you if you say that you obviously were not there and not facing what we are all facing. I was chatting to the pickets who said that they could totally understand why people are terrified and crossed the line.
I've been saying to the union officers of PCS in my branch for the last year that we needto build militancy and involvement in the branch but they just shake their heads and say 'we can't do that, people won't do that'. I've suggested doing more than just passing round leaflets about the union and organising social and educational events but to no avail.
It was made quite plain by managment over the last few weeks that staff are being watched and performance and attitude is being monitored to decide who stays and who goes.
Big up to those who did strike and I respect them immensely but things are not black and white and I would caution people about believing the self congratulationary guff coming out of the PCS leadership and the Swappies et al.
We couldn't strike as we would have been targetted for harrassment and removal and my local branch would have done fuck all about it just shrugged and said 'well what can we do.'
Guineveretoo
Mostly bewildered
I am really sorry to hear that you had a bad experience today, and that you are so unhappy with your union, but please don't forget that it is just that - your union! You can't change it from outside, and you can't do anything about all your complaints and concerns unless you are a union member.
Is UNISON recognised at your workplace? If not, there is not going to be much they can do to organise the workforce, either, is there? If there really is apathy from the shopfloor, what have you tried to do about it? What ideas have you shared with the union activists? You say that you have pointed out things that they have done which don't work, but have you suggested anything which they could do, which might work? Have you had a go at doing that yourself?
Unions are only as strong as their local membership. Forget what the national leadership is up to, whatever that may be, and focus on the real issues at your workplace, with your workmates, and your terms and conditions. Talk to your workmates, get them organised, take over the branch, if that is what it needs, and change the ways things are done!
(Yeah, I know, it is easy to say from the outside...)
Is UNISON recognised at your workplace? If not, there is not going to be much they can do to organise the workforce, either, is there? If there really is apathy from the shopfloor, what have you tried to do about it? What ideas have you shared with the union activists? You say that you have pointed out things that they have done which don't work, but have you suggested anything which they could do, which might work? Have you had a go at doing that yourself?
Unions are only as strong as their local membership. Forget what the national leadership is up to, whatever that may be, and focus on the real issues at your workplace, with your workmates, and your terms and conditions. Talk to your workmates, get them organised, take over the branch, if that is what it needs, and change the ways things are done!
(Yeah, I know, it is easy to say from the outside...)
exosculate
a stagger with a beat
Goes withou saying
Solidarity
I offer to all PCS today.
You'd have to be talking utter cobblers to say anything else.
Solidarity
I offer to all PCS today.
You'd have to be talking utter cobblers to say anything else.
KeyboardJockey
Clowns to the Left of me
To add to my previous post.
We have had all leave blocked from the moment that the potential date of the strike was announced before even the vote was taken. Refusal to cross the picket line is being treated as unauthorised absence. Sick absence on the day of the strike would have been impossible as it would have been 'looked at' quite closely and in this case I believe that self certification would not have been accepted because of the 'co-incidence' of a sickie on a strike day.
I had my countersigning officer come up to my workstation on Monday and say 'you'll be in on wednesday won't you? ' in a very pointed and definite way.
My observations of the main part of my department was that the majority of people were working today not just in my very specialist area. I've also had contacts with another major department of state where loads of people were working as well.
I think the PCS have shot themselves in the foot badly over this. It would have been better to give out more information about the issues over a longer period and a better time of year. It didn't help either that a lot of us are still in shock over the job cuts that were announced a week earlier.
Yes I know it is said that it is a 'duty' to strike but it is also the duty of the PCS to look after their members which they are not.
We have had all leave blocked from the moment that the potential date of the strike was announced before even the vote was taken. Refusal to cross the picket line is being treated as unauthorised absence. Sick absence on the day of the strike would have been impossible as it would have been 'looked at' quite closely and in this case I believe that self certification would not have been accepted because of the 'co-incidence' of a sickie on a strike day.
I had my countersigning officer come up to my workstation on Monday and say 'you'll be in on wednesday won't you? ' in a very pointed and definite way.
My observations of the main part of my department was that the majority of people were working today not just in my very specialist area. I've also had contacts with another major department of state where loads of people were working as well.
I think the PCS have shot themselves in the foot badly over this. It would have been better to give out more information about the issues over a longer period and a better time of year. It didn't help either that a lot of us are still in shock over the job cuts that were announced a week earlier.
Yes I know it is said that it is a 'duty' to strike but it is also the duty of the PCS to look after their members which they are not.
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
I've never crossed a picket line myself, KBJ, but if the PCS have been that shoddy then I can understand why you did so. If your local branch has been colluding with management and the national office hasn't censured them, then fuck 'em, you only owe them loyalty as long as they honourr their loyalty to you.
This is what fucks me off about many trade union heirarchies in the last 10-15 years, they're more interested in political careers and fat paypackets than they are in representing the grievances of the membership. There have always been a few cunts heading up unions, shitsuckers like Chapple or turncoats like Morris, but it's almost as though every second general secretary has sold their soul to the bosses and their membership down the Swanee.
This is what fucks me off about many trade union heirarchies in the last 10-15 years, they're more interested in political careers and fat paypackets than they are in representing the grievances of the membership. There have always been a few cunts heading up unions, shitsuckers like Chapple or turncoats like Morris, but it's almost as though every second general secretary has sold their soul to the bosses and their membership down the Swanee.
KeyboardJockey
Clowns to the Left of me
exosculate said:
Thats armchair revolutionary bollocks - solidarity doesn't exist in my place.
exosculate
a stagger with a beat
KeyboardJockey said:
Thats a shame, my real world solidarity has been expressed today too.
KeyboardJockey
Clowns to the Left of me
Guineveretoo said:
It really was worse than the 04 strike.
Guineveretoo said:
I don't know if Unison is recognised. I've tried talking to the Branch secretary about building up involvement but he don't want to know. I've suggested social and educational stuff, making the publicity and information less strident and 'swappie-like' so that it doesn't frighten people, doing fun stuff outside the workplace to get people involved but all to no avail. I've offered tohelp organises said stuff but I get rebuffed by the officers who are of the 'moderate' faction of pcs.
I did think about standing for a union office but I'm involved in so much other voluntary stuff that does far more tangible good that I don't see why I should do such a thankless task. btw our union branch sec is up for the chop as well. I went to him yesterday (Tues) and said that I was in the horrible position of thinking about crossing the line and how I didn't feel comfortable about it and he said 'don't worry about most people will'
Guineveretoo said:
The local membership is shit and apathetic and scared of management and the pcs is haemorraging members at an accellerating rate and most people see pcs as an irrelevance or only there if there is a grievance. Its just such a low profile branch.
Taking over the branch is an option but by the time the vote comes around most of us will have been sacked anyway. What bothers meis the very very low profile way the branch elections are carried out whichy is why we have such shit leaders.
exosculate
a stagger with a beat
KJ - I am aware of very active PCS branches - it cant be true over the whole union.
KeyboardJockey
Clowns to the Left of me
exosculate said:
I'm glad it worked out in your branch. In my department the Trade Union side officers sit at the same desks with HR people. Thats not condusive to solidarity.
You can't just have a union that only communicates with people when there is a strike or when there is a postal ballot you have to have dedicated people doing stuff every day and that is not happening.
KeyboardJockey
Clowns to the Left of me
exosculate said:
It was like that over virtually the whole department from what I could gather.
My local branch is piss poor and the departmental branch aint much better.
Guineveretoo
Mostly bewildered
If you would like to PM me your Department, I may be able to point you to a full time official who may be able to support you, or at least I would be able to tell you whether or not UNISON or any other union is recognised there....
Guineveretoo
Mostly bewildered
treelover said:
How does this person know which paper they are from, if they are not sure as to whether or not they are professional photographers, other than that they have posh cameras?
How come this person doesn't know that there is no such thing as DHSS?
Not terribly well informed, is it?
Guineveretoo
Mostly bewildered
treelover said:
Gosh, it must signal a complete failure of the strike - someone made a phone call today
Do you even know if it was a PCS member who called you?
DIY Manual
New Member
I work in local government, and have only started recently, but reading all this makes me want to cry and also run for branch secretary . Unison, and heard nothing about a strike at work, or even had a steward make contact with me .
. Unison, and heard nothing about a strike at work, or even had a steward make contact with me .
Guineveretoo
Mostly bewildered
Is there currently a strike in local government, then?
belboid
Exasperated, not angry.
well, i'll get the Star tomorrow - it being jobs day. I do suspect that this story is complete bollocks (especially after glancing through some of the posters' other posts over there).treelover said:
The Star is a funny paper, ownership resolutely anti-union, but I suppose it has to tailor itself to its (semi-capitive) readership who do, sometimes at least, have significant union sympathies. As do a number of its journos.
poster342002
PROPER leftwing socialist
And what about elsewhere? The civil servants I happen to know who don't work at those above departments all pretty much said it was business as sodding usual. Just like the last sodding time.belboid said:
poster342002
PROPER leftwing socialist
That's pretty much what I heard, too. It won't stop trotty cries of "it was massive, brillient and fantastic! There was loads of anger" blah blah yadda yadda.KeyboardJockey said:Secondly my observation and experience of the 'strike' is it was an utter fucking disaster. Previously I said that during the last strike in 2004 I said that 75% of the staff in my govt department scabbed. Today it was more like 90%
The only people who went on strike today in my place today were the union officers.
I ask again: what are trade unionists going to do about situations like that mentioned above? Ignore it? Downplay it? What?
poster342002
PROPER leftwing socialist
Even where that is done, it can make fuck all difference if there's a general workpalce culture of reactionary petit-bourgoeise aspirationism and filled with corporate ladder-climbers.KeyboardJockey said:
I've long since come to the conlcusion that some workplaces are simply unsalvageable and beyond hope.
KeyboardJockey
Clowns to the Left of me
poster342002 said:
Yup got it in one. There was a bus load of swappie types screeching into a megaphone going down Victoria Street urging people to stand up and fight for their rights etc etc etc. If you want to have a strike you must have support. This strike was not supported for the reasons that I gave above and others.
poster342002 said:
I think the trotty tu's will probably ignore it and call it a 'victory'.
KeyboardJockey
Clowns to the Left of me
poster342002 said:
Sounds like you've been working at my place.
I'm beginning to come to the conclusion that there is no point in belonging to the union for all the good it does.
When you go onto the BBC Have Your Say page and see all the 'unions should be banned' posts and very very few people countering that view it makes me think that the union movement is dead in the water.
KeyboardJockey
Clowns to the Left of me
My resignation letter to PCS.
Dear xxxx xxxx
It is with great sadness and some anger that I write to you to inform you of my intention to resign my membership of the PCS. I don't feel that Department of XXX staff have been served well by the Union and am concerned by the apparent closeness between XXXTUS officers and management.
The performance of the XXX TUS officers who visited regarding the cuts made me feel that there was a conflict of interest and a situation where the HR and TUS are too close for comfort or probity. I understand that PCS has been excluded from TUS activities and instead it is run by Prospect and FDA but surely someone from PCS head office should have visited us even if you yourself couldn't take part for the reasons you gave earlier.
I believe that the Union suffers from a lack of willingness at departmental and branch level to confront management over issues of staff cuts and the general welfare of staff in the Department.
I have been shocked by the poor communication between XXX TUS officers and members over the issue of staff cuts.
There is very little connection between the rhetoric shouted by the Unions top leadership and the situation at local and branch level. Calls for action at national level are being ignored at local level to the extent that the last one day strike in 2004 had approximately 2/3rds of the members scabbing.
This strikes me as a symptom of a lack of commitment to building workplace solidarity on the part of the departmental section of PCS.
I am currently approaching Unison with regards to continuing union membership but not in PCS. It is a shame that the militancy of the national leadership is not implemented at a departmental level.
I really don't want to have to leave the union as in the current circumstances I may need it one day but I along with many of my colleagues are voting with their feet and leaving.
I feel that PCS as a whole is behaving in a shoddy manner towards its members and cannot expect my loyalty as it has none to me and others in my position.
21 years ago I crossed a picket line on a matter of principle as the union in dispute was telling me who to work for when I was self employed and I thought that unacceptable. Yesterday I crossed a picket line because of fear of management and I saw that there was nothing the union is going to do about the climate of fear that is growing.
Best Regards
KBJ
Dear xxxx xxxx
It is with great sadness and some anger that I write to you to inform you of my intention to resign my membership of the PCS. I don't feel that Department of XXX staff have been served well by the Union and am concerned by the apparent closeness between XXXTUS officers and management.
The performance of the XXX TUS officers who visited regarding the cuts made me feel that there was a conflict of interest and a situation where the HR and TUS are too close for comfort or probity. I understand that PCS has been excluded from TUS activities and instead it is run by Prospect and FDA but surely someone from PCS head office should have visited us even if you yourself couldn't take part for the reasons you gave earlier.
I believe that the Union suffers from a lack of willingness at departmental and branch level to confront management over issues of staff cuts and the general welfare of staff in the Department.
I have been shocked by the poor communication between XXX TUS officers and members over the issue of staff cuts.
There is very little connection between the rhetoric shouted by the Unions top leadership and the situation at local and branch level. Calls for action at national level are being ignored at local level to the extent that the last one day strike in 2004 had approximately 2/3rds of the members scabbing.
This strikes me as a symptom of a lack of commitment to building workplace solidarity on the part of the departmental section of PCS.
I am currently approaching Unison with regards to continuing union membership but not in PCS. It is a shame that the militancy of the national leadership is not implemented at a departmental level.
I really don't want to have to leave the union as in the current circumstances I may need it one day but I along with many of my colleagues are voting with their feet and leaving.
I feel that PCS as a whole is behaving in a shoddy manner towards its members and cannot expect my loyalty as it has none to me and others in my position.
21 years ago I crossed a picket line on a matter of principle as the union in dispute was telling me who to work for when I was self employed and I thought that unacceptable. Yesterday I crossed a picket line because of fear of management and I saw that there was nothing the union is going to do about the climate of fear that is growing.
Best Regards
KBJ
belboid
Exasperated, not angry.
No idea, only know of the ones that were there, for what should be fairly obvious reasons. Other than them, I'm not even sure what oter civil servants there are in the city.poster342002 said:
As ultra-pessimism & gloom is your default position, you'd make exactly the same comments if everyone except one bloke and his dog weere out. Which makes your comments even less worthwhile than those of the 'shouty trots'
poster342002
PROPER leftwing socialist
That's nonsense and you know it. I'd be the first to ecstatically cheer with delight if there was a mass walkout in any type of strike.belboid said:
DIY Manual said:I work in local government, and have only started recently, but reading all this makes me want to cry and also run for branch secretary
Local Govt are not Civil Service. UNISON were not on strike. So don't worry
The PCS strike was the most well supported ever.
As for the scabs on this thread I hold them and their pathetic excuses for scabbing in utter contempt. Fortunately the vast majority of PCS members supported the strike, loads of people joined PCS. Sure there are areas in central London where there are plenty of FDA and PROSPECT members and where PCS grades are top heavy with higher grades and sure there are areas where the local or Dept reps are not doing the business (stand against them then!); but these represent a small minority of PCS organised workplaces, and none of them are anything like as bad as presented by the little scablets here.
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