Opposing the negative narrative
On Transgender Day of Visibility, Lexie blogs about how PCS's current industrial action campaign can help to support a diverse and inclusive culture and workplaces for our members.
We are aware that there is a narrative coming from the government which is unhealthy, discriminatory and dangerous towards the transgender community and is being weaponised to score points. This, alongside their continuous driving down of our pay, terms and conditions is having a direct impact on the transgender community as we see many people living with complex needs such as homelessness, addiction and poor mental health, struggling to pay for medication. Physical attacks are ever on the increase.
Unions are rising to collectively say “Enough is Enough”, we have seen workers who put their lives on the line day in and day out to keep this country safe, to ensure the most vulnerable received vital payments and services, clapped one day then told to forget about their good work and accept minimal wage the next.
The risk of compulsory redundancies looms with the threat of office closures, cuts to services and mass job cuts within the civil service. At the same time they want to cut our redundancy pay. No matter the talk of removing the threat of the cull of 91,000 jobs, we know from the budget that we will see the death of services by a thousand cuts as funding is axed.
This government is happy to promote a negative narrative about our community – it’s time for us to not stay silent, to have our voices heard. The best way we can do that is to cast our vote in the re-ballot.
People may be scared about voting but to not cast a vote either way is to stay silent, and to stay silent is to show compliance with government.
Now is our time! It is the year of the trade union movement, we are on the rise, we must continue to build and grow our union to be stronger than ever before.
To do that we must use our collective voice, so let’s think about the intersectional needs of our workforce and make the government not just hear us but listen to us.
Time is running out. Today is our day to be visible, to be loud, and proud, so use your voice, check your post and cast your vote TODAY!
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