More after 1 February (John Moloney's column)

By the time you read this, PCS, along with other unions, will be on our one-day strike on 1 February, or will have been.

As I write on 31 January, for the PCS the indications are that the strike will be well supported. We are aware of at least 350 pickets being planned; over a thousand members attended a digital meeting with our General Secretary last week; and in a meeting of branches who are on strike, over 140 delegates attended. These numbers are unprecedented. In conjunction with Trade Councils and other unions or on our own, we have set up rallies across the country.

Following 1 February, we must think urgently of what next. To begin that discussion, there will be an emergency National Executive Committee (NEC) on 7 February.

My consistent position is that along with as much selective action as we can afford — through a temporary increase in subs, we are generating extra hundreds of thousands of pounds a month for such action — there must be as much mass action as possible. I would like to see a further all-out strike in February followed by strikes in March. Where we can these should be held in conjunction with other unions, but of course PCS must work to win on its own if necessary.

We also now need to make a decision regarding a reballot of members. The strike mandate ends in May, and therefore if we are to have seamless action we will need to start the re-ballot in April. I am in favour of that though that still leaves questions of whether it should be one ballot, rather than disaggregated, whether action short of strike action should be included as a question, etc. For now though, all out on 1 February!

• John Moloney is assistant general secretary of the civil service workers’ union PCS, writing here in a personal capacity