A PCS Activist
Over a thousand staff at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) are set to strike Monday 1 September, followed by targeted strike action to be taken by just under 200 staff in key roles. The targeted action will last for four weeks and aims to bring the department, and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, to the negotiating table.
Rayner’s staff are striking over office closures, mandated office attendance and location-restricted job opportunities. Staff in the offices earmarked for closure struck back in April and all Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union members have been taking action short of strike for the past two months.
Those not participating in the targeted strike action through September will continue with their action short of strike, refusing to cover for striking colleagues or work additional hours.
PCS members taking extended strike action from 2 to 25 September include the Resilience & Emergencies Division (RED) whose role is to provide government support for local authorities in times of emergency such as flooding, terrorism, cyber-attacks and infectious diseases.
Despite staff having been in dispute with MHCLG for many months, their union reports that Angela Rayner (allegedly a former union rep herself!) has refused to meet with staff representatives.
The union has highlighted Rayner’s House of Commons speech for her Employment Rights Bill, where she not only declared herself ‘a lifelong proud trade unionist’ but went on to proclaim the ‘biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation’.
For all Rayner’s talk about how the pandemic showed us ‘we could work in different ways’ and ‘the best employers know this and do it already,’ she refuses to apply these principles to her own staff. Instead, office closures are forcing MHCLG workers onto long commutes to meet the department’s mandated level of office attendance.
PCS General Secretary, Fran Heathcote, commented that ‘Angela Rayner talks the talk regarding workers’ rights; she must now walk the walk and intervene to resolve this dispute.’
Rayner’s commitment to trade unionism is, however, a distant memory for the Deputy Prime Minister. As Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, she could have intervened to resolve the long-running Birmingham Bin Strike by bringing the council back from bankruptcy, but instead condemned the striking workers.
When Unite the Union’s conference voted to revoke her membership over her handling of the strike, she responded by claiming she’d already quit. So much for the ‘life-long trade unionist’ boast.
A PCS rep in MHCLG told Workers Power that the four-week strike will cause significant disruption to Rayner’s department, but that their employer’s refusal to negotiate has forced them into this escalation. If Rayner wants to stop the strike, she ‘could intervene today to provide staff with the protections they need… Her continued refusal to do so speaks volumes.’
The PCS branch will bring any serious proposals to union members to determine whether the concessions are sufficient to call off the action ahead of a formal ballot on the deal. This approach puts power in the hands of union members and should be universally applied across the trade union movement. In the meantime, the PCS MHCLG is preparing to re-ballot its members to continue taking action if no agreement is reached.
