Civil servants vote to strike
Socialist Press1981 1981-05-14Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 8 →
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The conference of the biggest civil service union the CPSA, voted today for an all-out one week strike by civil servants in a bid to press home their pay demands.
The vote, by a large majority, was carried despite the vocal opposition of the union's right wing-ted Executive.
it commits the union to fighting for a total stoppage of ports and airports and of benefit offices as well as of computer centres and revenue collection.
And the strike call follows on a 118-3 vote by the conference of the Inland Revenue Staff Federation for "any intensification" of the long-running pay Leaders of the Society of Civil and Public Servants are tomorrow 'tabling resolution to their conference for an all-out 45 week stoppage beginning at the end of May.
With pressure building up from the ranks for decisive action to defeat the government's rigid stance, the right wing led CPSA executive is feeling the heat.
Annual elections have reflected a shift to the left on the union's various sectional leaderships, and the results of the national executive poli, to be announced tomorrow seems also likely to show heavy losses by the right wing.
An all out stoppage by civil servants would certainly show the strength of feeling on the pay issue. But if prolonged, the strike could rapidly hit millions of claimants, denying them vital state benefits.
Clearly civil servants, irritated by partial actions and by the lack of support from the labour movement, feel that such desperate remedies are the only answer to their problems.
Rather than blame the strikes, trade unionists should focus their criticism on the TUC leaders who have left the civil servants to fight alone while themselves retreating from any fight to defeat the Tories.