Civil servants continued their industrial action on pay cuts, pension reform, and job losses with two half-day strikes in April.
The campaign began with a national strike on 20 March. A half-day strike involving all Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) members, apart from HMRC and Home Office staff, followed on 5 April, with HMRC staff striking from 1pm on Monday 8 April. A planned 24-hour strike of Home Office workers due for the same day was postponed following a legal challenge.
The campaign, which involves rolling and selective action as well as national strikes, is a departure from PCS’s usual “strategy” of holding incidental one-day strikes separated by long periods of inactivity.
But rank-and-file civil servants need to make sure the strikes are controlled from the workplace level up, and that they are fought for real, concrete demands, rather than just to win further negotiations.
