First Encounter

      My first encounter with the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) begins not long after my employer Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) inform me they are going to charge me with being an extremist for heckling the British National Party (BNP) at a peaceful protest in Burnley.
      This is what’s called a first to first meeting, like Solicitors have with their clients, where a man or woman in a pin stripe suit greet you with a friendly handshake and reassuring smile.
      So what do you think my first encounter with the PCS was like?
      Hordes of PCS officials scurrying forward to shake my hand and welcome me with words of comfort?
      Immaculately dressed lawyers falling over themselves to assure me there is nothing extremist about heckling the BNP?
      The PCS Chairman leaping from his chair and promising I have the full support of the union.  
      Er, not exactly.
       Today I turned up to discuss my case and there wasn’t a single person waiting to greet me.
      I don’t mean I had turned up late, or got the wrong date. I mean nobody from the PCS had bothered to turn up, despite the fact I paid my annual fee’s.
      Let me just spell that out again: my employer Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs were charging me with being an extremist for heckling the British National Party at a peaceful anti racist protest in Burnley, and the PCS HAD NOT BOTHERED TO SEND ANYBODY TO DISCUSS MY CASE, despite the fact I paid my union fee’s.
      Yes, there were plenty of PCS officials who worked in the department, there were even some who worked at the Tax Credit Office in Preston were I was based. But as for any of them being here, in person, on hand and willing and able to discuss my case, there wasn’t a single sole. The Union which claims to put its members interests first, was clearly not itching to put forward mine.
   Even if they had turned up, I doubt they would have been much use: there should have been three PCS officials here today, all who worked for the department. But one was at a union conference, one was at some union jaunt and the other had gone on holiday.
     I have always thought that some PCS officials were rather too paly with senior management, so I checked the local pub at dinner time. Sure enough, there they were sitting together, laughing and joking and having a merry old time.
  Our department is one of the biggest in the Civil Service, and we have PCS reps on every floor. Union business is the subject of meetings at the highest level. In fact, union business is so important that once a month we are given time to sit back, put our feet up and read the union newspaper. It’s called PCS news, and it assures members that it will provide first class representation whenever they need it. I don’t think that they do.
      It is a widely held view amongst the press and public that Civil Servants have jobs for life. Civil Servants could commit murder and they still wouldn’t get sacked for it, runs the argument. ‘Furthermore, they would never be charged with being an extremist for  heckling the BNP. If they were, the PCS would be up in arms and would represent them to their best of their ability.
  I like to ask people about how many Civil Servants do you think HMRC have sacked for heckling the BNP and they say none. The thing is, I also ask them to tell me how many do they think the PCS have refused to represent who have been sacked for heckling this Neo Nazi group, and they also say none. The problem is their wrong, and on both accounts.