Today (25 July) PCS received a letter from Capita, confirming the beginning of formal union recognition talks from the start of August; with the aim of recognition beginning on ‘Day One’ of Capita’s Civil Service Pension Scheme contract.
It’s the strength of feeling that we’ve demonstrated in the first three weeks of the strike, that’s sent a signal to both our current employer and our prospective employer, that we want to be a trade union workplace.
At the recent Public Accounts Committee meeting, the MyCSP CEO said:
“if I recognise the union now, there will then be an assumption that the union will be recognised by Capita. I need to make sure that Capita is comfortable.”
It’s obvious that Capita are “comfortable” with the idea of recognition, so there’s no excuse for MyCSP not recognising the union as well.
The letter from Capita is great news for the future; but with the TUPE transfer talks already underway, we still need to fight for the present. Following a discussion at today’s members’ meeting, we’ve asked our PCS HQ Officer to ask the union’s national leadership for permission to extend the strike, if we need to. Hopefully we won’t need to, but having the option at such a crucial time in the transfer, will mean our hand is even stronger.
Out and about
A new member has spoken to us this week about their decision to join PCS and support the strike. We were told:
“I joined PCS to support the picket lines. I have never been on strike before so I was a little scared but knew it was for the right reasons. It didn’t feel right for me to be performing high standards in the workplace when I wanted to support the strikes.
Now that I have signed up and joined the picket lines, I am proud of my decision and knew it was the correct decision.”
It's great news that as the dispute goes on, workers are coming to the view that the best way to defend everyone is for us all to stand together.
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