Northern Ireland Civil Service Pay Dispute

national | worker & community struggles and protests | opinion/analysis Wednesday April 05, 2006 13:51 by The Parvenu

Where Next?

NIPSA’s right wing is attempting to re write history and is deliberately distorting the facts of the Civil Service pay dispute. This can only have the effect of compounding any negative outcome of the dispute with disorientation and demoralisation of NIPSA members. TFC is fighting against this by initiating an open and honest discussion about all aspects of the dispute. In this way a stronger united union can be built. This is intended as a contribution to a wider discussion amongst TFC activist and NIPSA members.

NIPSA’s right wing is attempting to re write history and is deliberately distorting the facts of the Civil Service pay dispute. This can only have the effect of compounding any negative outcome of the dispute with disorientation and demoralisation of NIPSA members. TFC is fighting against this by initiating an open and honest discussion about all aspects of the dispute. In this way a stronger united union can be built. This is intended as a contribution to a wider discussion amongst TFC activist and NIPSA members.

The significance of 6000 members being prepared to vote for all out action indicates a change in the mood plus the anger and determination of a huge section of the membership. A vote like this would not have
been possible even a short time ago and it points to what is going to happen in the future especially if the government misinterpret this result as indicating that NIPSA members are not prepared to fight. Nevertheless those who voted ‘yes’ for action will be bitterly disappointed and many of those who voted ‘no’ did so with a heavy heart. For activists, particularly that working with TFC, and the knowledge that only a few hundred votes made the difference between a yes and no vote is particularly galling. 500 votes going the other way would have meant that NIPSA had returned a yes vote for all out strike action for the first time in the history of the Civil Service. If a solid vote for strike action had been returned we would have fought the most momentous strike in years. A complete reorganisation of NIPSA would now been necessary to prepare for action. The Public Officers Executive was due to meet in emergency session to discuss how
best to deliver support and an appeal could have been issued to the other trade unions seeking their support. If such action had gone ahead the face of trade unionism in Northern Ireland would have been completely changed The campaign and the vote will raise many questions in the minds of NIPSA members. The right wing played a completely negative role, having argued on the Executive for all
out strike it quickly became clear that they where setting a trap for members hoping that a ‘no’ vote would be the outcome of such a drastic position (another section of the Executive argued for all out action from an entirely different and positive position). The right wing EC members, along with right wing branch officers, then smothered the campaign in areas of the union where they retain influence. For large sections of the membership, a jump to all out strike was not conceivable at this stage. The defeat suffered in last
years struggle was still in the minds of many members and the failure of the union to campaign on other important issues such as job cuts and privatisation left doubts about the ability of the NIPSA to deliver on pay.

THE ROLE OF TFC
TFC can be justifiably proud of its record in this campaign. From the beginning of the dispute our position stood out as different from the right wing We recognized that although large sections of the membership were prepared to move to all out action immediately, a significant section remained to be convinced and would have been more likely to respond to action if we could have demonstrated that a solid strike was possible. We therefore argued on the CS Executive for a one day strike to build for all out action. In hindsight such an approach may have produced a better result. However, once the CS Executive had taken the decision to go for all out action TFC activists correctly threw themselves into the campaign with vigor, speaking to thousands of members, leafleting, discussing in the workplaces and fighting for every vote. In effect, less than half the CS Executive – TFC, Uncivil Servant, and one independent – actively worked for a yes vote. A left majority on the Executive and more active TFC supporters in the Branches could have made the difference between a yes and no vote.

THE NEXT STEP
All the conditions that led to this dispute, endemic low pay, below inflation rises and cuts are still in place. There can be no doubt that this is a struggle put on hold, it has got gone away. To prepare for new struggles activists must reorganise and unify all those who want to develop a fighting democratic union. One thing is clear; we must fight against the idea propagated by the right in the trade unions that the members will not fight. The real issue here is one of confidence in the leadership both at a branch and Executive level.