Members 250,000 | Country United Kingdom | |
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Full name Public and Commercial Services Union Affiliation TUC, ICTU, STUC, NSSN, PSI, EPSU Key people Mark Serwotka, general secretary
Janice Godrich, president Office location 160 Falcon Road, London | ||
The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) is the sixth largest trade union in the United Kingdom. Most of its members work in UK government departments and other public bodies although some work for private companies.
Contents
History
The union was founded in 1998 by the merger of the Public Services, Tax and Commerce Union (which mostly represented the executive grades of the Civil Service) and the Civil and Public Services Association (mostly representing the administrative grades). The General Secretaries of the two unions, John Sheldon and Barry Reamsbottom respectively, became Joint General Secretaries of the new union. In 2000, Mark Serwotka was elected General Secretary and has held the position since: he was elected unopposed in 2005 (no other candidate received enough valid nominations from PCS branches); he was re-elected in 2009 for a five-year term, and in 2014 was re-elected for a further five years.
Membership and organisation
The union had 247,345 members at the end of 2013 and is the largest trade union representing civil servants in the UK.
PCS is organised into groups that deal with different bargaining units such as Revenue and Customs, Work and Pensions and Law and Justice.
PCS Credit Union
PCS Credit Union Limited is a savings and loans co-operative established by the trade union for its members in 2011. It is a member of the Association of British Credit Unions Limited, authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the PRA. Ultimately, like the banks and building societies, members’ savings are protected against business failure by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
2004
In November 2004, PCS workers across government departments undertook a one-day strike in protest against government plans to cut the Civil Service by 20%. This action was followed by further one-day strikes on 31 January and 1 May 2007.
2007
Three one day strikes over pay in National Museums Liverpool.
2010
On 8 March 2010, 270,000 civil servants began a 48-hour strike over government changes to redundancy payments.
2011
The union voted for a one-day strike on 30 June 2011.
There were stints of hour strikes during the summer months of 2011 but these were not full walk outs.
A further strike was voted for by members for 30 November 2011, over pensions negotiations with the government.
There was a three-hour strike on 12 December 2011 over privatisation of call centres, with further action planned for 16 and 31 January 2012.
2012
Action was planned for 16 and 31 January 2012. Although original hopes of a national strike on 28 March, only a London strike materialised, due to lack of support from other unions rejecting national strikes. The PCS later joined a national strike on 10 May alongside UCU, NIPSA and Unite (Health)
2013
Strike action was organised for New Year's Eve 2013 for all Metropolitan Police Service Civil Staff due to a pay dispute. Taking strike action on this day was deemed to be most effective because of the busy nature of the day for police. The MPS offered a below inflation wage increase of 1%. Another strike ballot was announced on the 6 February 2014 for strike action on 12 and 13 February 2014.
2014
PCS announced a strike on 10 July over pay.
Equality networks
PCS has a network for young members (aged 27 and under).
PCS has a network for LGBT members.
PCS has a network for associate and retired members.
Affiliations
Organisations to which PCS is affiliated include Abortion Rights, Amnesty international and the Cuba Solidarity Campaign.
Structure
It is headquartered south of Battersea, next to Clapham Junction railway station.