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After our brilliant two day strike...

ESCALATION CAN BEAT

BACK THESE ATTACKS
I

T IS BRILLIANT THAT STRIKES AT THE

Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency
(DVSA) is being escalated this week
with rolling strike action for operational
grades across the UK this Tuesday,
Wednesday and Thursday, followed by a
national strike on Friday.
Our action can win.
This is a nasty government, but it is also
weak. Osborne has been forced to backtrack
on tax credits and Jeremy Hunt has been put
under huge pressure by the junior doctors,
after they announced three days of strikes.
Hunt has now said that he will
temporarily remove the threat to impose the
new contract and the BMA has agreed to
suspend strikes until 13 January for talks.
Hunt will be hoping that the doctors lose
momentum.
Our rolling national strikes this week
follow the very well supported two day
strike in November by members of PCS
and Prospect.
In a strike ballot, 91 percent of PCS
members had voted for strikes and
97 percent for non-strike industrial action
on a 65 percent turnout.
It is vital that we take a strong stand. In
the Government Spending Review DfT
have a massive 37 percent cut and DVSA
are over 350 staff short currently which
is why they are making staff work longer,
harder and for less.
These are part of wider brutal cuts across
the civil service. The are having another
go at privatising Land Registry and theyre
pushing huge cuts in HMRC.

Recruited

There can be no doubt that our action has

shaken the employer, but their response has
been to ramp up attacks on staff.
As part of the dispute members were
asked to take action short of strike,
including a work to rule and overtime ban,
until the dispute is resolved.
DVSA has met that action by bullying
and harassing members, threatening to dock
members pay and have sent home and
suspended members for daring to stand up
for their terms and conditions.
Given this, it is right that our action must
be escalated. Members have stood up to this
and shown their strength, PCS has recruited
hundreds of new members, we have many

DVSA pickets at Mill Hill

new union reps and advocates and our

picket lines and strikes have been testament
to the support we have for each other.
This is a management who claim to
represent moderation and say they want to
listen.
But it is a management who in the Civil
Service People Survey finished 98th out
of 98. As a leadership they got the lowest
mark in the civil service, and yet they try
and claim they are listening!
Well so much for listening! DVSA
management continue to refuse to talk to
the unions and claim that they want talks
with ACAS, but they want us to surrender
first.

Curtail

They have offered no concessions but want

us to suspend action while they continue
their assault. It is now clear that they want
to bust the unions. We cant let them do so.
It is management who are desperate to
break us. They are on the defensive, and we
must continue escalating our action in order
to protect our jobs terms and conditions.
Faced with an intransigent, bullying
management at the National Gallery in

London, and faced with the sacking of

one of their reps, PCS members ended up
striking for a total of 111 days and they
won!
The Tories autumn statement means
even deeper attacks across the public sector
and they are attempting to drive through
their anti-trade union legislation to further
curtail our ability to fight back.

Movement

We need a lead from our unions to resist the

attacks and that means national coordinated
strikes.
The election of Jeremy Corbyn means
that we have a Labour leader who is
prepared to support strikes and speak out
against austerity.
But the current debates on Syria show
that the Parliamentary Labour Party has
Blairite elements who are prepared to
defy not just Corbyn but 75 percent of the
Labour Party membership who are against
airstrikes on Syria.
We need to build a movement strong
enough to stop war, beat austerity and fight
racism. That cannot just come from inside
the Labour party.

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