Great Britain: PCS public services union keeps mobilizing against austerity while laying down the groundwork for a merger with Unite

The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union has decided at is annual conference to continue its fight against the austerity policy, which is particularly hard on its members.  The meeting took place shortly after the union’s three-month long national campaign of action over jobs cuts, pay freezes and increases in employee pension contributions.  The Conference also confirmed the management’s position on a merger with the largest union in the UK, Unite, and the members have given their terms.  (Ref.  130346)
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In his keynote address, general secretary, Mark Serwotka, told members they can either surrender to austerity or fight for a better future because, he argued, which ever political party wins the 2015 general election austerity will continue under the ‘full fat’ version from the Conservatives or the ‘semi-skimmed’ version from Labour. Thus, he argued: ‘We [PCS] can take the defeatist, fatalistic route of managed decline, capitulation and quiet irrelevance; or we can map out together a vision of

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