PCS Union: Ten years on

This year, one of the largest trade unions in the UK - the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) - celebrates its tenth birthday, having formed from the merger of CPSA and PTC. Whether you agree with the idea of a trade union - or not as the case may be - here's a number of statistics for the record.


1998

• 38% of civil servants earn £10,000 to £15,000.
• A loaf of bread costs 51 pence.
• Strike days are at their lowest levels for a century.
• Families with children make up less than one in four households - down from 38% in 1961.
• The number of civil service staff falls by 37% from its peak in 1976.
• House prices rose by around 7% compared with the previous year.

2008

• Average civil service salaries are approximately £20,000.
• More than three quarters of people say the gap between rich and poor is too large.
• 32% of public sector workers say it is very important to them that their job is useful to society, compared to 15% of private sector staff.
• More than three quarters of couples say the woman usually does the laundry, a similar proportion to 1998 and 1978.
• Nearly one in five civil servants works part-time.

[Source: PCS Union 2008]