HISTORIC STRUGGLE: Campaigners against the GCHQ trade union ban received standing ovations at the PCS annual conference today.

Brian Johnson, one of the 14 employees who were sacked for refusing to renounce their union membership after the ban was imposed in 1984, told delegates: “You now have another fight on your hands with these minimum service contracts business and it’s up to you in the future to see that battle is won.”

Trade unionists in January held a “protect the right to strike” march and rally through Cheltenham on the 40th anniversary of the ban, which was not lifted until 1997.

RETIREMENT: The PCS conference decided today to oppose rises in the “classist” state pension age.

Delegate Sean Fegan said: “Many working-class people increasingly don’t get to the retirement age or if they do are infirm and on average die shortly afterwards.

“Pension age is a class issue and therefore a trade union issue that we should be interested in and, vitally, campaign on.”

HORIZON SCANDAL: PCS will campaign for public ownership of the British branch of Fujitsu, the tech giant that provided the Post Office with the faulty Horizon IT software that led to the wrongful prosecution of hundreds of subpostmasters, delegates decided today.

They passed a motion saying that no compensation should be provided to shareholders “except on the basis of proven need.”

The conference also called on shareholders to repay dividends from the Horizon contract to the compensation scheme for victims of the scandal.