MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

CHAPTER SIX
CASE STUDY – MANAGERS IN THE PUBLIC AND COMMERCIAL
SERVICES UNION
About the Union
6.1. PCS, the Public and Commercial Services Union, was formed in 1998
from a merger of PTC, (the Public Services, Tax and Commerce Union)
and CPSA (the Civil and Public Services Association). PTC was itself a
merger between IRSF (the Inland Revenue Staff Association) and
NUCPS (the National Union of Civil and Public Servants). PTC had
only had about 2 years of existence before the second merger took
place. PCS instantly became the largest civil service union with over a
quarter of a million members.
6.2. It was a controversial merger. There had been several previous
attempts to merge and a previous attempt at amalgamation of civil
service unions had been unsuccessful. CPSA NEC voted against
continuing with the merger. This illustrated the principal area of
controversy which concerned the power of activists. CPSA had a
tradition of left wing activists dominating its lay structures, particularly
its Annual Conference. Those fashioning the merger were given a
legislative opportunity (because on merger rules can be changed
without activist approval if they are supported in a ballot by the
membership) to address this. They saw it as a major issue and
conducted a campaign for the adoption in the new union of a set of
aims and values. These included a set of ‘principal’ rules which could
only be changed by ballot of the membership and which provided (inter
alia) for a biennial conference (since changed), the biennial election of
the National Executive and which also ensured that ‘on any issue which
the National Executive Council considers a matter of major policy’, a
decision of Conference would not take effect unless endorsed in a
membership ballot. They went ahead to a membership ballot on the
merger despite the decision of CPSA Conference. The members voted
to merge but the merger did not take effect until after the conclusion of
an unsuccessful court challenge by dissentient activists.
6.3. In the merger which created PTC, many members of the merging
unions had remained in their old buildings. Some IRSF staff did move
to NUCPS buildings with common services; there was some trauma
both for those who moved and joined merged teams and those who
stayed and felt abandoned. IRSF had a relatively modern building in
Victoria. It was ring-fenced in resource terms for the Inland Revenue
group because the old union had been worried about NUCPS’s
finances and did not want its principal asset thrown into the PTC ‘pot’.
NUCPS had a warren of old buildings in Southwark Street, near
London Bridge. So although considerable thought was given to merger
management activities (the unions worked closely together for 2 years
before merger and IRSF brought their senior managers to Cranfield),
the managers and staff did not physically move. Upon the creation of
PCS, it was decided to move the whole union to the head office of
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