Picket line verdict

Around 3,000 Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) workers in the PCS civil servants’ union went on strike on Wednesday and Thursday of last week over pay. Picket lines sprang up across England and Wales after management tried to impose a deal workers had rejected by 82 percent in a ballot.

‘There’s a bad feeling against management. They’re getting a £10,000 rise. We’re getting £155,’ Michael Webb, a messenger in CPS headquarters, told Socialist Worker. ‘Management have implemented it without negotiation.’ ‘It’s a really positive strike,’ said Peter Olech, the national branch assistant secretary. ‘We’re prepared to escalate the action. The work to rule continues and then we’re going to use selective strike action.’

PCS members in the British Library have also rejected a pay offer, and government offices workers are to be balloted over industrial action after management tried to push the pay deal through.

Lobby the National Pay Forum, Thursday 1 February, 9.30am, PCS Headquarters, 160 Falcon Road, London SW11 2LN (Clapham Junction station).