National Gallery rally - 30th May

https://www.facebook.com/events/1579839878956813/

Conference daily reports

Thursday, 21 May

• Stronger workplaces key for PCS in challenging government
• Complaint to TUC about Unison
• Solidarity with US anti-racism campaigners

Wednesday, 20 May

• Fringe meeting: union's voting reform campaign an inspiration
• John McDonnell: industrial action will be necessary to defeat Tories
• Join the fight to end austerity
• PCS life membership awards presented
• Candy Udwin thanks conference for support
• Conference acknowledges inspiring PCS reps
• Conference gives National Gallery members rousing welcome
• Fight benefit sanctions
• Union to act to stop Forestry Commission break-up
• GoCos on way to privatisation

Tuesday, 19 May

• Video: watch Mark Serwotka deliver the PCS annual report
• General election has made direct debit number 1 PCS issue
• Mark Serwotka: we must unite like never before
• Janice Godrich: let's keep fighting
• Fringe meeting: unite to defend human rights
• Union rep time for members under threat
• Help members - find out more about mental health issues

Monday, 18 May

• Fringe meeting: changing PCS in a hostile environment
• Mark Serwotka: members are our lifeblood
• Conference ovation for Candy Udwin
• DWP Garston dispute shows campaigning gets results
• Press release: Unions must show people we can win
• Nightmare for call centre staff
• HMRC branch's big PCS Fighting Fund donation

Branch award at #pcsadc 2015

Breaking News #pcsadc

PCS DWP Wigan branch receive team award for the members efforts in getting DD ready. A massive thank you to all members who have made the switch.

National conference and DWP Wigan branch delegation.

Get DD-ready and Glastonbury tickets could be yours

Sign up to pay your subs by direct debit before Wednesday, 3 June and you could be off to Glastonbury this summer.

All members who have signed up to pay their union subs by direct debit will be automatically entered into a prize draw to win a pair of tickets, worth £500, for the world’s most famous festival, which this year features performances by The Who, Florence and the Machine, Alt-J and hundreds more. 

Civil service departments have either already stopped you paying your union subscription out of your salary through check-off or are actively considering doing so. As a result your PCS membership is under threat. 

We need every member to sign up to direct debit to stay protected at work – it’s quick and easy and you can do it online.

Unless you’re registered to pay your subs by direct debit, once your employer ends check-off your membership will stop and you will no longer be protected.

PCS makes a real difference for you at work. Together we have:
 

• Won equal pay for agency workers
• Stopped privatisation at the Land Registry
• Fended off plans to offshore IT jobs at Hewlett Packard
• Won more than £1 million for fixed-term staff made redundant by the Department for Work and Pensions
• Seen off attempts to privatise security jobs at the Palaces of Westminster
• Secured hundreds of new jobs at the Passport Agency.

Range of benefits
 

As a PCS member you are entitled to a whole range of benefits, including:

• representation at work
• a free legal advice line on any personal or domestic issue
• access to ethical loans through the PCS Credit Union
• cheap car and home insurance
• shopping discounts.

Ask a colleague

If you’ve already signed up you will automatically be entered into the prize draw, but why not ask a work colleague to register for direct debit? The more members in your workplace the stronger the union, making us more able to campaign for better pay, conditions and services.

Act now. It’s a very small price for peace of mind. Register now to pay your PCS subs by direct debit.

People's Assembly demo calls for end to austerity

Tens of thousands of people are expected to join the national People's Assembly demonstration on 20 June to tell the Tory government to end austerity now.

With a Conservative majority government we know exactly what to expect. More nasty, destructive cuts to the things ordinary people care about: the NHS, the welfare state, education and public services.

PCS has agreed to support the demo organised by the People's Assembly a campaign group which opposes privatisation and cuts to:

• public spending and services
• pay, and
• pensions.

Make your pledge

So far 45,000 people have pledged to take to the streets on June 20 and are meeting at noon outside the Bank of England in Queen Victoria Street in the City of London. 

We demand an alternative to austerity and to policies that only benefit those at the top

Unions, campaign groups, trades councils and local People's Assembly groups are arranging transport.

Find out more information on the event.

Invite your friends to the Facebook event.

Austerity is damaging mental health

Hundreds of counsellors and psychotherapists have signed a letter underlining the profoundly disturbing psychological and quality-of-life implications of the coalition governments cuts.

In a letter to the Guardian today, counsellors and psychotherapists in the public and private sectors said the past 5 years have seen a radical shift in the kinds of issues generating distress in their clients. They say they have seen "increasing inequality and outright poverty, families forced to move against their wishes, and, perhaps most important, benefits claimants (including disabled and ill people) and those seeking work being subjected to a quite new, intimidatory kind of disciplinary regime".

The experts also highlighted the fact that the "profoundly disturbing psychological and quality-of-life implications of the coalition government’s cuts and policies" have yet to be mentioned in the election campaign.

The letter went on to label 'get to work therapy' as "manifestly not therapy at all" and described the news that Maximus (the US company replacing Atos to do work capability assessments) will also be managing the new national Fit for Work programme, as time for the field’s key professional organisations to wake up to "these malign developments, and unequivocally denounce such so-called 'therapy' as damaging and professionally unethical".

In conclusion, the experts describe the fact that society has been thrown "completely off balance by the emotional toxicity of neoliberal thinking". 

Signatories include Dr Richard House of the Alliance for Counselling and Psychotherapy, Nick Totton of Psychotherapists and Counsellors for Social Responsibility and Linda Burnip of Disabled People Against Cuts.

As part of our general election campaigning we are asking for well-funded public services, delivered by valued public sector staff and for privatisation and offshoring to be opposed. We also support a well-resourced publicly-delivered social security service that provides a decent standard of living, and support the removal of the sanctions regime.

The government claims that the cuts are not affecting public services. But a major survey of PCS workplace representatives and members in departments, agencies and non-departmental public bodies show that the cuts are adversely affecting our members and the important services they provide. 

Find out more about our campaigning in the run-up to the general election on 7 May.

Not a PCS member? Join today for protection at work.

Worst 5 years for living standards in 50 years

New analysis shows that the Tory-led, pro-austerity coalition has presided over the worst 5-year period for living standards in over half a century.

The latest economic figures published today also show that far from experiencing a strong recovery the UK is now experiencing the slowest rate - just 0.3% - of quarterly growth since the end of 2012.

The TUC says 2010-2014 is unique in seeing a drop in real household disposable incomes, which combine wages, benefits, taxes and inflation.

It is the worst 5-year period for living standards for at least half a century (directly comparable records begin in 1960).

RHDI – a yardstick of living standards that takes account of incomes, benefits, taxes and inflation – was 0.6% lower in the half-decade ending in 2014 than in the 5 years ending in 2009, when it rose by 6.9%.

Austerity to blame

The TUC says this provides further evidence that the government’s austerity programme, which began in 2010, is more to blame for the loss of living standards than the financial crisis that preceded it. The government’s deep and rapid cuts killed off the recovery, causing growth to flat-line and wages to remain in decline for years longer than official forecasts.

PCS has consistently campaigned for an alternative to austerity calling for:

• investment in public services
• job creation
• investment in renewable energy and infrastructure
• affordable housing to be built
• an end to privatisation of public services
• the £120 billion annual tax gap to be closed.

All of this would generate revenue – people are billed for electricity, buy tickets to travel on public transport, and pay rent for council housing.

Research by Richard Murphy (of Tax Research) has shown that the state recoups 92% of the cost of creating new public sector jobs – through lower benefit payments and increased tax revenues.