The following are Dougie Brownlies speakers notes from this mornings members meeting at Norcross.
Firstly, I want to thank the branch for inviting me here today and to all the members here and across the country for coming to these meetings and participating in and supporting our campaign.
As has happened previously, our union is totally dedicated to seeking the input and views of members in all the campaigns that we run. In little over a week, we managed to set over fifty MoD all member meetings up and down the country. In the MoD group we are totally committed to supporting the national campaign, but we will also link that into what we are doing in our department.
Since the coalition government has been in place, it seems to be attack after attack on public sector workers. The government’s motto and unfortunately now a catchphrase is that, “we are all in this together”.
You will see and hear pithy comments from the likes of David Cameron who stated just after he took office, “I believe deeply in public service” or new defence secretary Liam Fox who said last month “Our greatest asset is our people”. These laudable words are not however matched by the actions so far of the ConDem coalition government.
Whether it is the pay freeze, the threat of tens of thousands of job cuts, attacks on our pensions or the further pressure on our compensation payments we do not have far to go to find our next fight. “There is no alternative to pain” - this is the deafening drumbeat of the government.
But there is an alternative, and I’ll detail today what our union believes that alternative should be.
However before I speak about the alternatives our union is putting forward, I want to quickly touch on a couple of subjects that are frequently raised at all member meetings such as these – PCS working together with other unions and the media coverage of ours and other trade union’s campaigning.
I’ll start with where we are with other unions. In the MoD, our main sister union is Prospect and it is welcoming to come here today and tell you that at MoD group level we have started discussions with Prospect on how we can jointly campaign against cuts in our department.
These talks have started positively as both sides recognise that it would be reckless to campaign separately, especially when there will be no division as to where job cuts will fall. It is quite clear that job cuts will be across the board and will affect the full spectrum of workers across the Ministry of Defence.
Similarly at a national level, where we have sometimes struggled to get a united front, PCS and Unison have now pledged to forge a powerful alliance to fight back against the coalition government's cuts to public sector jobs and services. The unions are joining forces to campaign, co-ordinate and, where possible, take action in unity and support of each other.
Working together we can build an effective fighting machine to combat the cuts and protect vital jobs and services. At the launch of this alliance PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "The millionaires in David Cameron's cabinet insist that we are 'all in this together'. But low-paid public sector workers and other vulnerable members of our society do not share this view when they can see the government's plans seek to punish them for the mistakes of bankers and financial speculators. Our alliance with UNISON is a crucial first step towards building the kind of united opposition that will be needed to oppose the government's spending cuts that will tear communities apart and destroy the public services we all rely on.”
It is not just Unison that we are looking to jointly campaign with; we are looking to build similar alliances with other public sector unions such as Unite and the GMB. Dependent on how the TUC vote in September, this looks like leading to a nationwide Spring 2011 demonstration against the cuts.
It was similar nationwide demonstrations in the early 90’s, organised and supported by the trade unions that saw the back of the poll tax and finished Thatcher. If seven million plus trade union members in the United Kingdom mobilise in a similar way it could have a repeat effect on the twin toffs coalition government.
Moving onto the media, I want to start by giving an example of the media work we do, and how it is picked up and used or in most cases not used by the media.
The quote I used earlier from Liam Fox – Our greatest asset is our people – came when he spoke to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors on Friday August 13th. The contents of the speech were widely leaked to the media the night before, but needless to say, our union was not privy to the contents of the speech.
The first we heard about it was on breakfast TV and radio and we immediately started to put together briefings and a press release to get our point across. Our union has a full time media officer and alongside two GEC members he worked tirelessly all day getting our briefing together and then out to the media.
Lo and behold we got offered an interview for the BBC six o’clock prime time news. Hugh Lanning, deputy general secretary rushed across London to do the interview that lasted about 20 minutes.
Dr Fox’s speech was the lead item on the news and they did show part of Hugh’s interview – 8 seconds!!!
The result of 3 people working flat out all day and Hugh rushing about London was 8 seconds air time.
I think that example gives some idea of the kind of thing we are up against in this country. Our campaigning work does get plenty of coverage in local or regional papers and on regional TV and radio, but mainstream national TV and the vast majority of the written national press deliberately choose not to give us air time or column inches.
It is no coincidence that many of the newspapers in this country are owned and run by right wing tycoons or conglomerates and it should be remembered that they will never support our (or any other) trade union, regardless of how good our arguments are.
To sum up on the media, we will strive to get our stories heard and our campaigns publicised, but if you do not see it in your morning paper, please remember it is the choice of the editorial of your favoured newspaper rather than a lack of effort on behalf of our union.
Media coverage brings me onto everybody’s next favourite topic – our elected members of parliament who all seem to love a quote or two and their pictures in the paper. I’m being a bit flippant here, whilst there are undoubtedly some like that, the vast majority are in Westminster for the correct reasons – to represent their constituents.
Whilst we may have to accept that media coverage of our campaigning is limited, the opposite can be said about campaigning with our MP’s.
After the expenses debacle, the May 2010 intake of MP’s saw the highest amount of new entry MP’s for a generation, and whilst the majority of them will have party loyalties, the hope is that they will not simply blindly vote as per the party whips instructions, but will listen to their constituents, listen to the arguments and then make an informed decision.
Our union has launched the use of e-actions via the PCS website. This can ask MP’s to sign early day motions that are PCS sponsored, but can also be used to write to MP’s on specific subjects.
One such subject is a PCS MoD drop-in briefing that is going to be held on Wednesday 13th October between 12.30pm and 2.30pm. I’m going to talk in a minute about the alternatives to the cuts our union is putting forward, but before I do I want to spend a bit of time urging you to contact your local MP and ask them to attend this drop-in briefing.
As you will be aware, we are in the midst of the party conference season, and the first week back at Westminster for MP’s after the party conference season will be the week of the drop in briefing.
As it is on a Wednesday afternoon, it will also be immediately after Prime Minister’s questions so not only will the House of Commons be full, it will be full of MP’s hopefully with renewed vigour to make a difference to society – well that is what they all say they become politicians for!!
Seriously, though we have a prime time slot just a week short of the SDSR announcement. There is a chance that, if enough MP’s attend the drop in briefing then act upon the information we give them, then many of the worst scenarios that could happen may be averted.
As I said, the e-motion is on the website, just go to ‘where I work’ then click on Ministry of Defence and it is on the right hand side of the page. Complete this simple form and it will be sent directly to your MP.
One thing I would ask that you do is to keep us informed where you have lobbied your MP, especially when he or she says they will attend. After the drop in briefing we will report back on which MP’s did attend and what actions they promised to take.
However the drop in briefing is just one strand to our campaigning. I’ll talk firstly about what we are doing nationally and the ‘There is an alternative’ campaign.
Our first proposal is ‘tax justice’. At a time when this coalition government is attacking benefit fraud that is estimated at £1 billion a year, each year, more than £120 billion of tax goes uncollected, evaded or avoided by large companies and wealthy individuals. By just collecting the tax that is rightfully ours we could avoid public service cuts.
Of course benefit fraud should be eradicated, but should our priority be sending snoopers with binoculars to council estates to criminalize single mothers cleaning offices on the side to feed and clothe her children, or investigating tax havens in places like the Cayman Islands where the rich of this country hide their money to avoid or evade paying their fair share of tax to support our country.
A 'Robin Hood tax' on financial speculation could also raise an additional 400 billion dollars globally. The banks that we bailed out are again now advising their wealthy individuals or corporations on how to avoid tax liabilities. We bailed them out and instead of paying us back, within months they go back to their massive bonuses, lavish lifestyles and ensuring they look after their own. It certainly does not appear that they are included in the ‘we are all in this together’ message.
As well as bringing in a fairer tax system, we believe the government should be creating jobs to boost employment and tax revenue, not cutting them. Cuts will damage the economy. By cutting public sector jobs, unemployment will increase – increasing the costs to the government – and lower consumer spending will mean fewer transactions and less tax revenue through VAT. It will also result in the private sector cutting back because there is less demand.
Alongside the national campaign, the MoD group has launched its own campaign entitled ‘Defence Cuts Cost’.
In our department, we have seen civilian numbers slashed by approximately 22% in just over six years whilst, since the last defence spending review in 1998, military posts have actually increased by 4.7%.
Our union fully understands and agrees that there is an indisputable requirement for military personnel to do some non-military roles. However, not all military-held posts demand military expertise. We are arguing not for civilian job losses, but that the department actually increases the use of civilian workers in non-deployable posts to ensure frontline support is maintained.
Until you look at the facts, increasing civilian numbers may sound like a foolish idea and I have no doubt that is how it will be reflected in the right wing media. However our union will use the facts to prove that we can give the same if not better support to the front line but at a much cheaper cost. In many cases, military personnel driving desks cost twice as much as a comparable civilian. As an example for every wing commander that is replaced with a B2 (a full grade higher in equivalency) the MoD saves approximately £20k per annum in wages alone.
If we really are all in this together, then Liam Fox and his government must accept that where defence outputs can still be delivered, but delivered at a fraction of the cost by civilians, then it is a decision that must be taken.
If you have been to union meetings like this over the years, you will be aware that our union has asked members to provide us with details of waste across the MoD. We still badly need examples of MoD waste as we will use these with MP’s and ministers to show them where savings could be made. To give a taster, here are just four typical examples provided by members –
· Privatisation - “EDS made $10 million worth of errors in 2008/09 most of which was written off. Because the penalty clauses had been triggered, under Treasury rules the agency could spend the virtual monies that had not been collected – essentially doubling the impact on the public purse.”
· Consultants – “While working as the IT Manager within an IPT member overheard two consultants talking about how one was buying his sixth house from the money he was making out of contracting for the MoD. While civil servants on wages that don’t allow them to get one mortgage let alone six it sickened me that the MoD is paying others with no loyalty high payments to have work undertaken”.
· IT – “On DII, Atlas are charging £1,500 for moving one printer port – a matter of 20 to 30 foot of wiring.”
· T&S – “Since the MoD mandated the use of HRG to source travel & accommodation, the MoD is charged approx 10% commission on every booking whether booked over the phone or through the contractor’s site. HRG don’t always have the same availability as a carrier’s site and even when they do the MoD still fork out the 10% commission over and above the costs. One example is when going through HRG to visit MoD Head quarters it was set to cost £245, after calling local booking agent was able to cut the price to £65.50.”
Our union is sure this is the tip of the iceberg as regards waste in our department – if you have any more examples, please let your local PCS representative know, or alternatively email wastereport@pcs.org.uk.
For many months now, our union has been trying to ascertain what cuts will be proposed in the MoD. Unfortunately, this has been a very difficult exercise, as it appears that it is the National Security Council, chaired by the Prime Minister and not the MoD who will be making the final decisions. Until we get definitive proposals, all of the purported cuts are at present pure speculation.
That said, there is little doubt that whatever is proposed will be deep and wide ranging. We understand the National Security Council is meeting on 17th and 28th September ahead of 20th October comprehensive spending review announcements. The final decision on where the Trident budget will sit is also expected by end of September.
Our union is quite clear on what the priorities must be for the MoD in the months and years ahead –
1. We believe that we need more not less civilian staff to ensure the front line is properly supported.
2. We will demonstrate how much waste, such as the examples just cited, there is in the MoD and that this should be eradicated before a single job cut is contemplated.
3. We will explain how cuts kill communities e.g. if Lossiemouth and Kinloss were closed this would add 16% onto an already high level of unemployment in the area.
4. We will give examples of how the privatisation agenda is flawed e.g. Although DERA was performing well, in 2003 the government decided to privatise part of it, and a Private–Public partnership called “QinetiQ” was created, after which the 10 senior civil servants responsible for taking the company into the private sector saw their total personal investment of £540,000 transformed into £107 million. The PCS General Secretary called this “obscene”, but the UK Minister for Defence Procurement described it as “a model for future privatisations.”
These are just a few quick examples of waste in our department. I want to talk now for a couple of minutes about the other issues affecting members at present, namely pay, pensions and the compensation scheme.
Starting with pay, the pay freeze is a direct attack on civil servants as we face a double whammy of not getting a pay rise and also not having pay progression – pay progression that is still available widely across other parts of the public and private sector such as the NHS.
Our union totally condemns the arbitrary £21,000 pay freeze level, especially as this figure is also to include any location and skills allowances and also part time staff whose full time salary is over £21,000.
Along with our sister public sector unions we will be campaigning for a fair and decent living wage for all members of staff. In the MoD group, our pay sub committee will be meeting shortly to start drafting our 2011 pay claim following on from the imposed 3 year pay offer. We will be looking to address those areas where we are still in dispute with the department, identify further areas of inequality that remain within the pay system that need addressing and deal with the proposed pay freeze.
Average civil service pay remains over £2,000 less than in the private sector, with basic civil service pay 3.5% below inflation since 2007. Freezing the pay of millions of public sector workers will actually worsen the deficit, as workers will spend less, therefore affecting retail jobs and thus deepening the recession.
Public sector pay freezes are again part of the coalition ‘we are all in this together’ agenda, but before any pay freeze is blindly accepted I’d ask members to remember the following – less than a year after our taxes bailed out the banks, the Royal Bank Of Scotland paid bonanza bonuses of more than £1 million to more than 100 bankers on top of their already bloated salaries. Therefore, those who advise their and the Cabinet millionaire’s friends how to avoid paying tax are once again raking it in whilst public sector workers on £21,000 are told to take a pay freeze for a minimum of two years.
On pensions, apart from some generic comments from the ConDem coalition about ensuring public sector pensions are affordable, we have not as yet seen definitive proposals to slash our pension entitlements, as the issue is currently the subject of a review by former Defence Secretary John Hutton.
However I’m sure nobody will be putting their heads in the sand regarding threats to our pensions. If and when they do come, I’d urge members to remember the following – the TUC Pensions Watch survey, which examined the pension arrangements of 329 directors from 102 of Britain's biggest companies, showed the value of director's pension pots jumped £400,000 in the last year to £3.8m, providing an average annual retirement income of £227,726. Remind yourself of this when again you are told ‘we are all in this together’.
The most recent industrial action we have had to take in our union was in defence of our compensation scheme. Allied to our legal action, these three superbly supported days of action ensured that the previous government’s proposals were defeated.
However we now have a ConDem government determined to punish our union for fighting for our members, whether that be through industrial or legal action. This government’s use of a monies bill – the Superannuation Bill – is simply an abuse of parliamentary power to eradicate the terms and conditions of civil servants.
Although it was welcome that Labour had a three line whip and all Labour MP’s voted against the recent 2nd hearing of the bill – it is interesting to note that the Labour party is easier to work with now they are in opposition – our union is now having to mount a further legal challenge and will seek a further judicial review if necessary. It is welcome that other civil service unions are currently supporting this.
Our union has also written to the speaker of the House of Commons asking that he reconsider whether this is in fact a money bill and that he withdraws it. From research our union has done and also advice from the PCS parliamentary group, it is hoped that this will be successful.
I want to conclude today by saying simply that this is going to be the fight of our lives. It is vital we all do everything we can to persuade the government to think again. Cutting jobs and services will plunge millions of people into poverty and cause enormous damage to our living conditions and the service to the front line in all departments, but particularly to our front line in the Ministry of Defence. Our message is that the government cannot cut its way out of the recession.
When ministers talk about progressive cuts, and tell us 'we're all in it together', we must expose this for the nonsense that it is. Let's be clear about this: cuts always hit the poorest, most vulnerable, most disadvantaged people.
Cutting 600,000 public sector jobs will also lead to 700,000 private sector job losses. We know this, because the document telling George Osborne this came from his own Office for Budget Responsibility and was
leaked to the Guardian at the end of June.
We should be creating jobs, not forcing thousands of workers onto benefits. Our union urges every PCS member to get involved and to encourage your colleagues to do the same.
Both the national and the MoD group campaign need your full support. Unchallenged at least 1 in 4 MoD jobs, if not more will go by 2015. Sites, communities and families will be ripped apart if we do not win this battle.
It may sound clichéd, but it never has been more important to stand together and put a united front up against these Dickensian proposals.
This united front may and probably will include industrial action. We have already seen
London tube strikes against job cuts, fire-fighters are currently balloting over modernisation plans (always a euphemism for cuts and job losses) and
BBC employees have called strikes later this month over attempts to get back their pension entitlements.
Industrial action will and always will be the last resort. Nobody takes industrial action lightly. Our members are at the heart of our communities, and especially in the MoD, our members are extremely loyal and care passionately about the integrity and the quality of the services they provide. But we are entitled to be clear. The ConDem government is pursuing a political programme but faced with attacks on jobs, pay or pensions; if our members take a democratic decision for industrial action, they will have the support of our union and the wider trade union movement.
As I said earlier, both at national and MoD group level, the various unions are starting to work together to fight against these cuts. You can help too – we all know colleagues who are not yet members of our union – speak to them today, tell them the challenges we face, tell them what our union is doing and ask them to join.
I’m going to finish now by recounting two stories in the news on Monday 13th September. Firstly it was opening day of TUC Congress with almost universal support for united action in the face of the most brutal cuts package since Thatcher. Buried away was the second story, possibly buried as somewhere, somebody within the political and right wing media classes does actually have a conscience.
It was reported that FTSE 100 executive bonuses are now close to pre-crisis levels with average bonuses for directors of FTSE 100 firms amounting to 100% of their basic salary, rising to 140% in the top 30 public companies.
I’ll let you work out the link between the 21 millionaires in the cabinet and this story. In my opinion, this is undoubtedly a government of the heartless for the benefit of the selfish, but together, united I honestly believe the trade union movement can and will make a difference.
There is an alternative; our union is making the case for that alternative both at national and MoD level.
Thanks very much for listening to me today; I’m more than happy to answer any questions you have.
Thousands of people from across the EU are set to march in Brussels today in protest at harsh austerity measures by their governments.
