DSG 29 May action briefing 1 - All Out On 29 May

As part of our Fair Deal in Defence campaign that is intertwined with the PCS national campaign to safeguard pay, pensions, terms and conditions, PCS Defence Sector members will take one-day strike action on Wednesday 29 May.

Our union’s general secretary, Mark Serwotka, rallied members when announcing this further wave of group action at this year's conference in Brighton. Mark praised the "magnificent" contribution members have made in the Budget Day strikes and rolling programme of group action, saying: "Our range of tactics have so far been very effective, demonstrated in efforts management have tried to make to disrupt our action."

Mark continued by talking about a 16% cut in members’ living standards over the last five years, at least another two years of a 1% pay policy in the pipeline, an unprecedented number of job cuts in the public sector, privatisation, closures, attacks on terms and conditions and pensions,

Giving up is not an option

In his opening speech at national conference, Mark said, “"This government believes it can carry on doing what it's doing without anyone stopping it. It's not going to stop unless we stop it."

"Because giving up will condemn our members and people who use our services to years and years of misery we will never get back if the government gets away with it," he said.

"With our national one day strikes, regional rolling strikes and short-term disruption we are giving it a real go and catching the employer on the back foot with our tactics. But our challenge now is to deliver a campaign that gets Francis Maude off his arse and around the negotiating table. We are in the battle of our lives but now we have to dig deep.”

Mark concluded by saying, “We need to step up our campaigning and organising and deliver our alternative. We must show real commitment and carry on fighting."

Conclusion

In the Ministry of Defence 24,000+ staff have left in little over two years. Nobody, whether it be defence ministers, senior MoD management, PCS reps or PCS members has been able to give any detail as to how the loss of these staff has been balanced by a corresponding reduction in defence outputs.

For those remaining – the survivors – the reward is attack after attack on their loyalty:

• Pay frozen for two years and now indefinitely set at rates below inflation – in other words, continuous pay cuts.
• Two pension contribution increases already with more to follow. The ‘reward’ – work longer and get less.
• Threat after threat to our terms and conditions. It has started with flexible working for new starters; if we don’t make a stand it will be attacks on flexible working for all employees, attacks on leave entitlements, attacks on sickness absence limits and many more.

Government ministers refuse to talk to our union nationally and we are treated with contempt in the MoD as we try and get a Fair deal in Defence. We now need to take strike action so that we can give every member a Fair Deal in Defence.