CIVIL servants are out to “win big” over the next year, PCS vice-president Fran Heathcote said yesterday as the union unveiled a new strategy to smash wage restraint and boost its membership and influence.

Delegates at the PCS conference in Brighton agreed on a new industrial strategy to beat the 1 per cent public-sector pay cap and fight for private-sector wage rises.

Noting that PCS membership has stabilised despite massive job cuts over several years, the motion discussed plans for the union’s revitalisation, including plan to increase membership to 200,000 by 2020.

PCS head of organising and communications Nick McCarthy said that the aim could be summarised by the phrase “building, growing, winning.”

He said the past year had been one where “significant progress” was made in rebuilding the union, but it was a lesser achievement than he would have hoped for.

The aim of the union this year, Mr McCarthy said, was to “go beyond stabilising and to start going on the advance.”

Laying out a plan to encourage branches to recruit new members and develop a new generation of representatives, Mr McCarthy claimed that the strategy would soon “bear fruit.”

Moving the motion on behalf of the union’s national executive, Mr Heathcote said: “PCS has a reputation as a campaigning union – winning equal pay for agency workers, securing proper bargaining, getting real victories.

“Our strategy is to grow so that we can win – and win big.”