2017 National Conference

PCS Home Office Group and National Conferences are where the priorities and direction of the union are set for the forthcoming 12 months.

The national conference ran over 23 - 25 May in the Brighton Conference Centre. All of those attending from the branch are doing so their own time.

Day 1

Jobs: A1 - Carried, A307 - Carried, A308 - Carried, A309 - Carried, A4 - Carried, A5 - Carried, A6 - Carried, A7 - A8 Guillotined.

Pay: A9 - Carried, A11 - Fell, A10 - Carried, A12 - Remitted, A13 - A14 Guillotined.

Pensions: A15 - Carried, A16 - Carried, A17 - Carried, A18 - Carried.

After holding a minute’s silence for, and paying tribute to, the victims of the Manchester terrorist attacks of the previous night, Janice Godrich (PCS President) said the conference would now be a “solemn and serious affair”.

She went on to say that events of the past year had changed the political landscape.

As well as the “unbelievable happening” with the election of Donald Trump as US president, the Brexit referendum had “shaken the foundations of mainstream politics,” she said.

While members would have differing views over Brexit, she said it would inevitably “affect our working lives” and “we must work to strengthen our union to deal with the challenges it throws up”.

But doing everything possible to avoid another Tory government in the General Election was the most urgent priority for trade unionists, she said.

She paid tribute to the “great determination and bravery” of PCS members who had taken industrial action in the last year, including members at the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) who are on strike this week as part of an ongoing dispute over budget cuts, job losses and the sacking of eight members of staff.

‘They are fighting not only to defend their members’ rights, but also against the government’s cuts to essential services,” she said.

Among other successes of the past year, she also highlighted the union’s campaigns on office closures, an upcoming legal challenge over cuts to the Civil Service Compensation Scheme, and victory in winning further compensation for DWP activist Lee Rock. Conference would be marking the 20th anniversary of the successful lifting of the Tory ban on trade unions at GCHQ, she said.

The President gave thanks for the tireless work of newly-elected PCS vice presidents Zita Holbourne and Fran Heathcote, and also to outgoing VP John McInally, a “dedicated, committed trade unionist and socialist”.

In welcoming general secretary Mark Serwotka back to full-time work she said it was “difficult to believe that just over five months ago he had received a heart transplant”.

“His spirit has never failed,” she said, “he’s now returned full of optimism and confidence in the union”.

Day 2

Finance: A19 - Carried, A20 - Carried, A21 - Remitted, A22 - Carried, A23 Guillotined.

Personnel Policy: A24 - Carried, A25 - Carried, A310 - Carried, A26 - Carried, A27 - Carried, A287 - Remitted, A28 - A30, A298 & A32 - A37 - Guillotined.

International: A38 - Carried, A303 - Carried, A317 - Carried, A39 - Carried, A40 Guillotined.

Environmental and Climate Change: A41 - Carried, A42 - Carried, A43 - Carried, A44 - Carried, A45 Guillotined.

Organising: A46 - Carried, A47 - Carried, A48 - Carried, A49 - A55 Guillotined.

Political Strategy & General Election: A304 - Carried, A305 - Carried, A328 - Fell, A306 - Fell, A57 & A200 Guillotined.

Services & Structures: A62 - Carried, A224 - Carried, A64 - Carried, A65 - Carried. A66 - Carried, A67 - Carried, A68 - Remitted, A69 - Remitted, A70 -A71 Guillotined.

Delegates to the union’s national conference voted for a motion that condemned the newspaper and said it was “appalled that it is being sold on Civil Service premises” such as Benton Park View, near Newcastle.

Motion A22 also committed to donate £100 to the Total Eclipse of the Sun campaign.

Moving the motion, Kris from R&C Liverpool said the tabloid was “an enemy of the working classes and an obscene publication”.

Speaking in support, Mairtin from DWP Greater Glasgow branch said there was no logic in supporting a boycott from shops while accepting the Sun could be sold in members’ own offices.

Calling the tabloid a “vile rag” he said: “We don’t want that stuff spewed out in our workplaces.”

“No one is saying you’ll have someone patting you down at work or asking you if you read the Sun. All we are asking is that you don’t allow them to make profit from our members while they continue to attack the trade union movement of which we are all a part.”

Phil of R&C Bottle, seconding the motion, said only this week the Sun had used the Manchester terrorist attack to “find a way to use it for political gain and try to blame Jeremy Corbyn”.

“The very sight of it makes me sick,” he added.

Speaking for the NEC, Lawrence Dunne said the newspaper had “had enough chances and should go the same way as the News of the World”.

“Let’s rid our workplaces of the scum and the lies,” he said.

The 1989 Hillsborough disaster left 96 Liverpool FC fans dead and 766 injured. The Sun made “vile allegations” - later proved to be lies - that Liverpool fans had pick-pocketed, sexually abused and urinated on their own dead, and had abused police and emergency service workers.

Boycott campaigns have long existed on Merseyside and have grown again since new inquests last year found that the fans had been unlawfully killed and that match commander, Ch Supt David Duckenfield, was "responsible for manslaughter by gross negligence".

Subsequent apologies from the Sun were “insincere” and “too little, too late”, said the motion.

“The 96 victims… should never be forgotten and the Sun newspaper should never be forgiven,” it said.

Day 3

Affiliations: A72 - Lost, A73 - Carried, A74 Guillotined.

Rules: A60 & A61 Guillotined.

Social & Economic: A75 - Carried, A300 - Carried, A76 - Carried, A77 - Carried, A78 - Carried, A79 - Carried, A80 - Carried, A81 - Carried, A392 - Carried, A82 - A84, A299, A86 - A90, A301 A91 - A97 Guillotined.

Guillotined motions: A298 - Carried, A23 - Carried, A32 - Remitted, A5- - Carried, A29 - Carried, A74 & A45 Guillotined.

On Brexit, a motion said there was concern the White paper formally setting out the government’s EU withdrawal plans said nothing about the resources the Civil Service and related areas would need to cope with the process.

Meanwhile “ministers remain wedded to spending cuts that would mean tens of thousands of job losses”, said motion A75, which delegates overwhelmingly supported.

Highlighting a section noting “deep concern” that there had been a sharp increase in racism, xenophobia, and related hate crime since the Brexit vote, PCS vice president Zita Holbourne said the union needed to “counter the myths and lies that point the finger at migrants”.

“Congress condemns right wing politicians and media for channelling the injustice felt in many working class communities into blaming migration and migrants for low pay, unemployment, housing shortages and poor public services,” said the motion.

Delegates agreed that the union should also campaign to defend the jobs of EU nationals and their right to remain in the UK.

Speaker Ian from R&C East Midlands said research by one their branch officers suggested there were around 5,500 EU nationals working in the civil service, who would be concerned about the “loss of dispensation that allows them to be UK civil servants.”

Speaking in support of the motion, Fern from Defra Northern said the Brexit result had been a “sombre day” in the department, because the EU directly affects an estimated 85% of their work.

Conference instructed the NEC to continue calling for a halt to job cuts, and demand that the government engages with trade unions on ensuring sufficient resources are put in place to deliver Brexit in government departments.

It also said the NEC should:

• Campaign for an alternative economic policy as part of the Brexit process, including ending public spending cuts and privatisation, and the re-nationalisation of essential public services.
• Campaign for workers’ employment rights to be guaranteed after Brexit.
• Step up anti-racist campaigning that promotes the benefits of migration and the freedom of movement of workers, opposes the exploitation of migrant workers as cheap labour by seeking to organise all workers in trade unions, and combines anti-racist campaigning with anti-austerity campaigning.