The usual tricks in PCS election deployed?

One of the candidates has issued a statement that reflects a problem that happened every year there was an election. The house press would feature all the candidates who were in situ and people you never heard from suddenly issued circulars to members and reps. During one general Secretary Election in particular the number of photos of Mark Serwotka appearing in the PCS View Magazine was so excessive it even embarrassed some of the man's supportrs.

Problem is control of a unions bureaucracy can so easily be manipulated and one sees it in a lot of organisations not just the PCS union. It's become part of the "game" so to speak but should it be? Shouldn't all communications during an election be anonymised or signed and issued by other officials. Serwotka does have an Assistant General Secretary.

Bev Laidlaw's statement: 

I won’t appear in every single PCS press release

One of the big changes that PCS needs to enact is an overhaul of its communications.

We need a communications strategy thatis more vibrant and flexible, making efficient use of all available technologies and media platforms. This includes everything from making our

leaflets and briefings stand out more to better use of things like textbroadcasts to social media content not being decided by committee.

We also need to give local branches more control of their own communications, allowing them to get out messages without needless bureaucratic hurdles or attempts to over-manage the content that in effect strip out the local flavour.

The most basic change that I will implement if elected is that I won’t insist on being front and centre of every single communication that the union puts out. Of course, I will comment and respond to the issues where necessary, but I will also be conscious of when to step aside and let others in our union take the spotlight. The members directly affected by an issue, the reps doing the work, the officials to whom credit is due on whatever issue we’re talking about.

I want to build a truly mass movement to change our union, and as part of that I want to be a General Secretary who realises that it’s not all about me.

Go to: bev4gs.com for more information.