What happened?
The teachers' union NUT put back their ballot until January.
Unison in the NHS said that their offer was the "best that could be achieved without industrial action". The union leaders put out a leaflet supporting the deal and threatened branches and activists campaigning for a "no" vote with disciplinary action. The result was to accept the offer.
Unite and GMB balloted their members in local government over the slightly revised offer of just under 2.5 per cent (still a pay cut) saying, "It is the best that can be achieved without industrial action." The offer was accepted.
Unison in local government last month voted: 74,631 members (or 51.6 per cent) for action, and 70,088 (48.4 per cent) against, on a 24.4 per cent turnout. Unison's national joint council endorsed a statement that read: "However, in all the circumstances, including the narrowness of the majority and the size of the poll, this result does not constitute the basis for viable industrial action to beak the government's pay policy." So it accepted the offer.
In the civil service union PCS, 68 per cent voted in favour of action on a 34 per cent turnout. The leadership voted not to call national industrial action, despite admitting the "Cabinet Office has so far refused" to rule out compulsory redundancies.
So both the PCS and Unison members voted for industrial action but their leaders called it off - so much for democracy!
Meanwhile, the CWU leadership is selling a deal that is the exactly what the management wants, and what the members rejected back in April.
So what happened to the concerted public sector fight back? It was undermined and defeated by the trade union leaders.
And what is the left saying?
Janice Godrich, president of the PCS, is a member of the Socialist Party, which also dominates the Department for Works and Pensions group that is most under attack. Instead of criticising the calling off of industrial action in the PCS, Godrich signed up to it. The SP has even gone on to say: "On May Day, successful PCS strike action shocked the government and was a warning of further action if cuts continue." (The Socialist) But it hasn't, the union leadership caved in, with the SP supporting the decision.
Meanwhile, in the CWU, Socialist Workers Party member and union president Jane Loftus voted against the union leadership's acceptance of Royal Mail's rotten offer - but then refused to campaign against the deal among the membership!
I say listen to your paying membership and fight the cause
