Delegate Minutes 21st September 2023; Wolverhampton, Bilston & District Trades Union Council.
- Present (delegates registered from affiliated branches in bold): Penny Welch, Edda Nicolson UCU University, Warinder Juss GMBx13; Graham Childs CWU; Michael Vaughan UNISON Staffordshire; Marie Taylor UNITE LE/372; Nick Kelleher, John Clarke, John Oakley, Keely Hodgkiss & Rob Marris UNITE WM/6150; Carol Hyatt & Ali Rahimi Unite Community
Apologies Bob Deacon, Di Weaver, Dane Cross - Minutes of last Delegate Meeting (July) & Matters Arising
- EC Report items of note:
October delegate meeting speaker Edda Nicolson GFTU History. Liz Millman agreed to do Black History Month talk Sat 14 Oct 3pm for us, seek more info and publicise.
Workers’ Memorial Day plaque restoration/replacement – council officer to be contacted
Sun 1st October Unite Community branch sponsored coaches to Manchester demo against Tories. Agreed we will cover ticket cost for non-unite delegates
TUC Midlands Equalities Conference Sat 21 October 2023, 11am-2pm, Unite office, Birmingham, B7 4EH – on our website
Trans rights forum – proposer no longer believes viable.
Enslavement links project – Website domain name to be decided. New meeting to plan next steps to be arranged. Sec to write to branches to seek additional funds, only Unite WM6150 have donated to the follow up research so far.
Telford Arms fair – open letter to oppose to be circulated. Malvern had cancelled due to public pressure.
request for copyright payment – discussed, considered as spam and noted - Reports, strike updates and discussion:
delegate reports and strike updates:
ASLEF next strikes 30 Sept (picket from 9-30) and 4 October (pickets from 8-30)
GMB – Warinder Juss reported on national closure of Wilko. Unknown which branch Wilko members in Wolverhampton were; branch not affiliated. Political Fund ballot starting soon. Local Government pay strike ballot 12 Sept – 24 Oct. has resulted in delay of pay claim payments agreed for UNISON members.
Amazon recognition request submitted with over 1,000 members at Coventry, more strikes expected November.
UCU – 5 day national September strike, but with individual agreements for strikes and Wolverhampton branch had voted not to take part. Reballoting to continue industrial action so the marking boycott has ended.
UNISON local government pay ballot had not got 50% threshold on turnout so pay claim agreed.
Michael Vaughan proposed a future discussion on the differences of how each union organises.
UNITE – Strike at Altrad (Babcock), B’ham New Rd,Tipton. Carol Hyatt reported a strike at ArcelorMittal Strawberry Lane, Wednesfield which Unite Community branches had been informed of.
UNITE WM6150 delegates who had only just found out, informed delegates of the death of Caroline Crolley on 25th July. She had been a UNITE full time official for the last 31 years, based in the Wolverhampton office. Michael Vaughan and Rob Marris had worked with her in the past. Sect o post tribute.
Labour Party report – Congratulations given to our long standing GMB delegate Warinder Juss who has been selected as the parliamentary candidate for the Labour Party for the new Wolverhampton West constituency (from 12 October =South West constituency + Oxley and Blakenall wards). The NE constituency with LP candidate Sureena Brackenridge will include three Walsall wards and Pat McFadden’s South East constituency will span parts of Wolverhampton, Walsall and Dudley
Di Weaver SWCLP TULO: The CLP Exec has been silenced, effectively suspending us without actually doing so. As [CLP] Secretary I have lost access to members and Regional office attempted to cancel our last All Members Meeting with 4 hours notice. Which would have stopped us from sending a motion to Conference. The meeting went ahead and a motion in support of scrapping the 2 child benefit cap was agreed and submitted.
Midlands TUC EC and Secretary report (circulated)– Nick Kelleher
Wolverhampton Palestine Solidarity Campaign – several delegates had attended Wolverhampton Crown Court over a seven-week trial and the sentencing when anti-Elbit campaigners received suspended sentences.
- AOB-none
- speaker at 8pm – TUC Congress report given, edited videos to be produced for the two motions 76(failed 1.85m for 3.137m against) and 77(passed) which related to trades union councils.
view here https://wolvestuc.org.uk/trades-union-councils-debate-at-congress-2023/