The ballot of PCS Union member on who will be the next General Secretary and Assistant General Secretary of the union has been completed with Fran Heathcoate and John Moloney being elected to the respective positions.

The reports on the elections are below, and by my reckoning Fran Heathcoate was elected with 51.2% of the eligible votes and John Moloney with 58.9% of the eligible votes.

For my part, I am delighted with General Secretary election result but disappointed with the AGS vote, given I think Paul O’Connor has been responsible for overseeing a marked improvement in PCS’ litigation strategy with the recent Judicial Reviews over immigration policy a highlight. Still, I wish all the successful candidates congratulations. The result is interesting in that, at a time when a ‘right’ moderate faction has been all but defeated at national level this is the first election for a major role in which the Independent Left and BLN have joined forces and the closeness of the vote augers interesting times ahead when it comes to filling the soon to be vacant Union President position.

Fran is quoted saying:

“It’s a huge honour to have been elected as general secretary of this successful campaigning union. Thanks to Mark for all his fantastic work over the last 23 years.”

“I was proud to be PCS president during our successful campaign in 2023 which beat the government’s pay policy, and I am now determined to lead the fight as general secretary to keep driving up our members’ pay and deal with the cost-of-living crisis.”

The reference to Mark Serwotka’s departure is well-said. He has been a fantastic General Secretary and this blog wishes him well for a long, and richly deserved, retirement. As a trade union legal blog it is fitting to end the post with a shout out to the legal victory that secured his ascension to the General Secretary position after the then ruling clique sought to disenfranchise its union members and overturn his election. After the shenanigans, a good summary of which is set out by the late Paul Foot, it was the High Court in Godrich and Serwotka v PCS Union (2002) who ruled that the election was valid and the outgoing General Secretary did not have the power to defy the vote of the union’s members. Whatever may be said between the factions of PCS union it is, thankfully, very unlikely there will be a repeat with this change of the guard. Thankfully!