MARK SERWOTKA unmasked Prospect and the First Division Association yesterday as the two unions who said PCS had “brought attacks on themselves” when he had appealed for solidarity.

Mr Serwotka revealed in an article in yesterday’s Morning Star that two “smaller unions” had declined to support PCS’s campaign against union-busting in the Civil Service.

But he left the culprits a mystery until his address to his union’s conference yesterday, when he blasted the “disgrace” of the replies from the leaderships of Prospect and FDA, which both also organise in the Civil Service.

“It’s a funny old world when your colleagues in the trade union movement blame the victims,” he said.

The ending of the check-off system of collecting members’ subs has plunged the union into financial crisis, but Mr Serwotka said about 80 per cent of members had been signed up to direct debit payments in the departments affected.

He said the union had “done better than anyone thought” but would still “take a hit.”

Yesterday the conference endorsed the union executive’s decision to cancel group executive elections this year in a bid to save cash.