PCS boss urges unions to 'fight like never before'
The leader of the biggest civil service union has urged trade unions to join forces to head off attacks from the new Conservative government.
By John MoylanIndustry correspondent, BBC News "We don't have to accept defeat as an inevitable state of affairs for the next five years," Mark Serwotka told the PCS union annual conference. Mr Serwotka said members should oppose spending cuts and the expected attacks on pensions and public sector pay. "We need to be prepared to fight like never before," he added. Trade Unions coordinated industrial action in 2011 over public sector pensions. But Mr Serwotka said that unity didn't last long enough. He urged other unions "to step up to the plate". "We need this time to not just call for united coordinated action across the trade union movement but it needs to be united in every sense" he said. "Common demands, common negotiations and common industrial action strategies". Job loss fears The PCS union represents civil servants in Whitehall and around the UK in job centres, tax offices, the courts and immigration. It is one of the biggest public sector unions with around 225,000 members. But quoting a newspaper report that suggested government cuts could lead to 100,000 further job losses in the civil service, the PCS leader called on delegates to fight back. "We need to commit ourselves to opposing the cuts, the closures of the offices, the privatisations and the further attacks we are expecting on pensions and in public sector pay" Mr Serwotka said. Mr Serwotka said that the message from the election was not that the Conservatives won but that Labour lost by refusing to advocate ant-austerity politics. And he said that proportional representation would help anti-austerity politics take hold in the UK. He also criticised government plans to tighten strike ballot rules. "They don't want to change the balloting laws to have more people voting to make it more democratic' he said. "They want to change the balloting laws to stop us from going on strike". Falling membership The PCS union has seen its membership fall in recent years, hit by cuts in Whitehall and across the public sector. In total, around 90,000 jobs were cut across the civil service during the last parliament. The PCS has also seen numbers drop due to changes in how it collects subscriptions from members. Several government departments including the Home Office, HMRC and DWP have ended the so-called "check-off" system which automatically deducted union subscriptions directly from salaries. That's led to lapsed memberships as the union attempts to re-recruit people to pay by direct debit. Mr Serwotka admitted that the union was still on course to lose "thousands and thousands" of members. That's hit the union's finances forcing it to save £6m this year.