Mod Pay 2008 Update from PCS MOD Group

To: All Members (1:10)

PCS Pay Update Number 3 – October 2008

Dear Colleagues

MOD PAY – DELAYED UNTIL 2009!!

The Department has confirmed that our pay award will not be paid until 2009!! The cat was let out of the bag in the MoD ’60 second digest’ where MoD stated that they have made “progress” meaning the pay award might be paid in “early” 2009. How this represents “progress” was not made clear.

The causes of the delay are clear – MoD incompetence and the disgraceful public sector pay restraint policy imposed by the Government. Hundreds of PCS members have already contacted their union to make clear their anger at this appalling news – and their determination to do something about it.

At a time of rising prices (inflation has hit 5.2%, while food, utility bills and fuel are increasing by over 10%) the stark reality is that many of us are struggling to make ends meet. Ministers and the senior mandarins responsible for this disgraceful delay should hang their heads in shame and offer to compensate members affected by the delay (but won’t).

The MoD role in delaying your pay
The MoD remains wedded to bureaucratic methods of putting together its business case on pay, without the resources to deliver. Our union has consistently warned that the department pay timetable was in reality a fiction and that timescales were slipping badly.

The Department has also dithered for far too long over the content of the business case – despite our union submitting our pay claim 6 months ago and making it clear what staff want from the 2008 pay award.

The Treasury role in delaying your pay
However, the bulk of the blame for the delay in our pay award should be laid at the door of the Treasury.

A key delaying factor has been the Government policy of limiting public sector pay increases to well below the rate of inflation. Gordon Brown intends to apply this policy for 2009 and 2010 too – and wants to force department to impose 3 year below inflation awards on all civil servants.

The Treasury insist on strictly monitoring all pay offers. In MoD they have insisted on agreeing the award with the Department in advance of any meetings with our union. They have instructed MoD that the pay award cannot be altered without their permission. The Treasury require any pay offer to be worth less than the rate of inflation, making nonsense of the concept of genuine negotiations between management and our union reps.

What is PCS doing about it?
We are making clear the anger of members at the highest levels of the Department and we continue to make this point at every opportunity.

PCS is seeking national solutions on pay, and meetings with the Cabinet Office, Treasury and Ministers are taking place. As you know we have sent ballot papers to all members on action over pay across the Civil Service and public sector organisations – we urge every member to vote to take action.

Finally, we have signalled to MoD management that our union will co-operate and do whatever necessary to expedite proceedings. What this could mean will be become clear over the next period, but we want every member to know that we will do whatever we can to get the final award into pay packets.

What can I do about it?
It is clear that MoD senior management have been stunned by the level of anger of our members at this unacceptable delay. We need to continue to make our voice heard. If Gordon Brown can find £500 Billion of our money to bail out the bankers and the City fat cats then he can afford to pay us fairly! Support the campaign:

1. Write to the Secretary of State John Hutton protesting about low pay and job security. His address and some helpful facts about MPs pay are available on our website www.pcs.org.uk (click on where you work and then MoD).
2. Vote yes in the Ballot on action on pay and attend any meetings called by your branch to update on our dispute
3. Support the forthcoming action called by our union – it’s time to say no to low pay and unfair pay across MoD. 20,000 staff earn less than an £8 per hour, and on 1 October 1,496 MoD staff woke up to find that they were once again earning the National Minimum Wage!
4. Talk to your friends and colleagues and ask them to join PCS – the more members we have, the stronger we become and the more MoD has to negotiate with us to achieve fair pay. Application forms are available on our website or from your local representative.
5. Get active – we need more distributors and people to help us win on pay and job security.

Yours sincerely


Paul Barnsley Group Secretary
Chrias dando Group President
K C Jones Vice President

Black Hawk Down

If you’ll permit me I need to preface this piece with a few remarks and riders.

Firstly I make no apologies for taking time here to pay my regards to two American servicemen. We have many heroes of our own I know, I have been lucky enough to meet one or two during the course of my career. As time goes by I will pay homage, in the magazine and on the blog, to as many of them as I can, and as their ‘anniversaries’ come up.

Whatever your views about these two servicemen, and US foreign policy you’ll notice that however badly a military operation is conceived and planned, and however dubious you may feel the intent is, the outcomes are so often the same. Ordinary men and women, doing the duty, looking after their comrades and so often dying doing it.

In 1992 the United Nations supported by U.S. armed forces had arrived in Somalia in a joint operation known as Operation Restore Hope. The intention was to restore order in a country destroyed by civil war and brought to its knees by famine. Despite an initial agreement of a ceasefire 24 Pakistani UN troops were killed in an ambush in an area controlled by Mohamed Farrah Aidid. The UN Security Council called for the arrest and trial of those responsible, issuing resolution 837. Then in July 1993 a 20 minute US helicopter attack killed 73 Clan elders and not the militia who were the intended target. So by the time of Operation Gothic Serpent (of which The Battle of Mogadishu was part) Mogadishu was at boiling point and US popularity at an all time low. Six months and 48000 tons of food and medical aid had not helped the situation, half a million Somalis were dead and three times that number displaced, and it was felt that drastic action was needed.

The plan for this stage of Operation Gothic Serpent was simple enough, fly in, arrest key members of the warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid’s regime and get out in a road convoy. As we know, it went horribly wrong, leaving 18 American servicemen dead and 73 wounded, whilst casualties amongst the Somalis were hard to estimate. Combined figures for civilians and armed militia range from around 1000-3000 dead to twice or even three times that number wounded. These figures themselves have brought questions about a lack of restraint by US forces, on the other hand the killing of the UN troops, and alleged abuses of the bodies of the dead and wounded were fresh in the mind. Whilst the US forces were better armed and extremely well trained, the Somali militia in the area numbered in the thousands.

Everybody has an opinion about this and it is not my intention the challenge any of those. Nor is it my intention to make any judgements as to the rights and wrongs of the operation. All I can do is offer my sympathies to the families of all of those that died in Mogadishu.


Randall Shughart and Gary Gordon

The real purpose of this piece is to pay tribute to two extraordinarily brave men.

Sergeant First Class Randal Shughart and Master Sergeant Gary Gordon both lost their lives on October 3rd 1993 protecting the lives of the crew of Black Hawk helicopter Super Six Four commanded by Mike Durant.
Super Six Four had been shot down by a rocket propelled grenade, Shughart and Gordon were in another Black Hawk, Super Six Two commanded by Mike Goffena, which had taken up a holding pattern above the crash site.

From this position Shughart and Gordon were providing suppressive fire and sniper cover. It soon became clear that despite the fact that militia men in their hundreds were converging on the crash site no ground rescue was imminent. Shughart and Gordon repeatedly requested permission to be dropped near Six Four’s crash site in order to provide protection from the ground. The first two requests were rejected but finally granted on the third request, the pilot of Blackhawk Super 62, Mike Goffena set them down about 100 metres from the crash site. From there they fought their way past shacks and through narrow passage ways, under constant fire and with the numbers of militia growing steadily.

The accounts of exactly was happened next vary from teller to teller but they all agree that Randy Shughart and Gary Gordon showed uncommon bravery and devotion as they tried to protect the pilot and crew of Super Six Four. In a fire fight that followed Randy Shughart and Gary Gordon patrolled the perimeter of the crash site repelling hundreds of armed gunmen, and putting themselves in grave danger.

Make no mistake here, whilst many of the hundreds of armed Somalis converging on the crash site were effectively untrained civilians they were, mostly, well armed with automatic weapons and not short of shooting experience. And amongst their number were well organised bands of local militia. Additionally many were furiously angry over the death of their clan leaders and with what they saw as an occupying force. Shughart and Gordon could have opted to stay in the Black Hawk and used it’s Miniguns to indiscriminately spray the entire area with bullets, but they didn’t.

Finally Gary was killed. It is not absolutely clear which man died first, and I don’t suppose it matters much now, but to continue this version of events, following Gary’s death Randy returned to Mike Durant, now the only survivor of Super Six Four, giving him Gary’s weapon before returning to patrol the area. Very shortly afterwards, his ammunition depleted, Randy was shot and fatally wounded.

Having attacked the bodies of the fallen with knives, machetes, stones and various other weapons the militia descended upon pilot Mike Durant, fiercely beating him before being told to stop by a local militia leader, arriving at the scene, who claimed him as a prisoner.

The time that Randy Shughart and Gary Gordon had bought Mike Durant had saved his life. No one will ever know exactly what went through their minds when they volunteered to protect Super Six Four from the ground. But they were above the area at the time and could clearly see the numbers of armed persons that they would be facing and that were converging on the crash site from every angle. Whilst you couldn’t say the action was a forlorn hope it was certainly close to one. They must have known that their chances if survival were small. But they didn’t hesitate to step in.

In recognition of the extreme heroism and devotion to duty Randy Shughart and Gary Gordon were posthumously awarded the US’ highest award, the Medal of Honor.

Please take a moment to read the citations on the official web site here;

http://www.medalofhonor.com/Somalia.htm

Of the two men the surviving pilot Mike Durant said -

"Without a doubt, I owe my life to these two men and their bravery.” “Those guys came in when they had to know it was a losing battle," "There was nobody else left to back them up. If they had not come in, I wouldn't have survived.”


The true way to mourn the dead is to take care of the living who belong to them.
- Edmund Burke