Foreword from the TUC JCC
This Trades Union Councils Programme of Work, flows from the TUC’s Strategic
Priorities, the resolutions agreed at the Trades Council Conference and the annual
Trades Union Congress held in September.
The Trades Council Conference was held in Congress House on June 18 and 19. The
conference debated 18 motions and held workshops on fighting back against the
government’s immigration policy, campaigning against the government’s anti-trade
union and anti-strike legislation and on building stronger trades councils. Guest
speakers were Garfield Hylton from the GMB organising campaign at Amazon and
Mike Arnott, representing the STUC General Council. Eileen Turnbull from the
Shrewsbury 24 campaign spoke at the Saturday evening reception.
The Conference voted to send a motion “National trades unions’ support for trades’
councils’ solidarity work” to Congress and elected Liz Payne-Ahmadi from Taunton and
West Somerset Trades Union Council to represent the Conference at the Congress in
Liverpool. The motion was carried unanimously at Congress.
Two resolutions from the Conference mandated the TUIC JCC to update the rules and
standing orders of Trades Councils, County Associations and the Trades Council
Conference.
The JCC has formed a working group which will draft a revised set of rules and
standing orders. Trades Councils and County associations will be consulted throughout
the process and a final set of proposed rules and standing orders will be brought to the
2024 Trades Councils Conference.
The resolution on “County Associations and Trades Councils” removed the requirement
for trades councils to be affiliated to a County Association before they were able to
register with the TUC or take part in the Conference. This rule change came into
immediate effect.
Steve Gillan, General Secretary of the POA and member of the TUC General Council
has continued to Chair the majority of the meetings of the TUC JCC and during the
year Carl Roper replaced Kevin Rowan as Secretary to the JCC.
During the year the JCC has continued to promote the work of trades councils and
encourage local union branches to affiliate and draw on the support available to their
campaigns from trades councils.
During the last year the TUC launched the Solidarity Hub, which aims to provide
support to unions and union reps involved in industrial action. Of course, trades
councils were the original solidarity hubs, based in communities across the country. So,
it is appropriate that the Solidarity Hub website will host the new online directory of
Trades Union Councils and County Associations. The JCC encourages all trades
councils and County Associations to use the new online registration form to register
and appear in the online directory. The link is available from Carl Roper at
croper@tuc.org.uk
Trades Councils Conference 2023
Resolutions
This section contains the motions carried at the 2023 Trades Council’s Conference,
which was held in Congress House on 17 and 18 June 2023. The motion that was
chosen by the Conference to be sent to Congress is the first resolution listed below.
The motion was carried unanimously at Congress.
NHS Privatisation
At the 2022 Labour Party Conference, the Health Composite Motion stated that Labour
would adopt “a position of outright opposition to and commit to vote against any and all
forms of privatisation of the NHS” and “commit to returning all privatised portions of the
NHS to public control upon forming a Government”. It also banned Labour MPs from
accepting donations from private companies interested in outsourcing NHS functions.
This Conference rejects recent statements by Wes Streeting, the Shadow Health
Secretary, that seem to contradict this policy, and raises dubious proposals like self-
referral to specialists. We call on the trade union movement to:
· Strongly oppose the privatising Health and Care Act 2022 and its break-up of the
NHS in more than 40 Integrated Care System organisations.
· Demand safe staffing levels across the NHS, particularly in maternity, where every
human life starts.
· Educate activists on how the 2022 Act “Americanises” the NHS, enabling increased
privatisation.
· Demand a significant rise in wages for our NHS staff, restoring pay to 2010 equivalent
levels
· Provide a workforce strategy to address training, recruitment and retention so that we
are not reliant of recruiting from other countries that desperately need to retain their
health workers
· Demand a publicly-owned, free at the point-of-need social care system
· Support full renationalisation as the only remedy for our struggling NHS. This would
mean bringing back a publicly funded, publicly provided service, run by properly
remunerated, fully qualified medical staff, delivering high quality care to all; kicking out
private providers; cancelling PFI debt; addressing NHS provision of dental and optician
care; integration with a new National Social Care Service and getting rid of the hugely
wasteful internal market.
ACTION – Trades Councils and County Associations are urged to support local
campaigning against NHS privatisation and local disputes by NHS unions.
Housing
This Conference notes:
· That some of the poorest households in Britain are facing severe economic hardship
· That the rise in rents, service charges, gas, electric, fuel, tax will throw many of the
poorest into a financial crisis.
That the failure over many decades and by successive governments to build council
housing has resulted in:
· An increase in the long-term use of temporary accommodations with many councils
using the private rented sector to fulfil their duty to accommodate from their housing
needs register.
· Housing associations and other housing providers consistently fail in maintaining
good quality of repairs and services. Whilst pushing up rents and service charges
which increases the risk of evictions.
· That many families are living in squalid accommodation comparable to the 1950s.
· There are increasing reports of racism and discrimination.
· That there are nearly a quarter of a million empty homes in the UK with an equal
number being used as Air BnB and / or with no permanent resident.
· That the issue of cladding and fire safety highlighted four years ago by the horrific
scenes of the Grenfell fire remains a serious issue as demonstrated by the Campaign
for Fire Safety Justice. Still no Justice.
This conference believes:
· That the Tory Government will continue to put the interests of developers, planners,
and housing providers before the needs of ordinary people.
· Without safe and secure housing, every other aspect of people’s lives is blighted.
This Conference further believes:
· That central government funding to local authorities should be substantial increased
and ring fenced to build 100,000 council homes a year for twenty years, under council
control, to meet the local housing needs.
· That local authorities should receive central government support to renovate. Insulate
and retrofit expropriated empty homes within a climate emergency framework. Central
Government funding should also be made available to retrofit and insulate all social
housing properties, including leaseholder properties, whether empty or not.
· That the right to buy should be ended.
· A united housing movement supported by the Trade union movement can help build a
campaign for a programme of council house building and can develop strategies for
positive housing polices to provide secure affordable housing for all.
ACTION – Conference urges all Trades Councils to work with organisations such as
Homes for All, the Campaign for Fire Safety Justice to achieve these aims.
Card only transactions and access to cash
Conference notes that during the pandemic many organisations introduced card only
transactions in an effort to reduce the circulation of cash and the risk of infection.
Conference further notes that this practice is becoming more widespread, which has
the potential to cause serious difficulties for those on limited incomes, not least
vulnerable and older people. In addition, many people use cash or cheques as a way of
controlling their budget and find the use of cards reduces their ability to do this.
These moves are another example of how many older and more vulnerable people are
becoming digitally excluded from important aspects of society.
However, Conference also notes that some retailers and other outlets have stopped
taking cash for the safety of staff who may have to take large amounts to banks which
may be some distance away.
Conference therefore resolves to:
1) Instruct the TUCJCC to request the General Council to work towards ensuring that
this matter is raised in the forums in which the TUC is represented, with a view to
pressurising the government to act against this practice, and to
2) Work within those forums to seek to ensure that the government, against a
background of rapidly vanishing bank branches and cash points, honours its pledge
contained within the Budget of March 2020 to bring forward legislation to protect
access to cash.
3) Urge Trades Councils to campaign for access to and universal use of cash, involving
local councils and MPs in the process; and
4) Urge the TUC to publicise our efforts in appropriate national outlets and Trades
Councils to engage the local media in this process.
5) Continue to support unions working to protect staff who may be asked to handle
large cash amounts as part of their work.
Trades Councils campaigning on bus services.
This National Trades Councils Conference applauds the work that many Trades
Councils have been engaged in, working with community groups on campaigns such
Better Buses South Yorkshire and Better Buses West Yorkshire etc.
Our privatised and deregulated bus services are in the final throws of crisis: services
cut back or axed, frequencies trimmed, reliability a joke and fares out of reach for our
less well-off communities. Everyone can see that traffic congestion is worse in our
towns and cities now than before COVID, and our much-reduced bus services are
emptier than ever as passengers have deserted a malfunctioning and unattractive bus
service provision.
Community campaigns such as Better Buses South Yorkshire have brought together
an impressive alliance of pensioners groups, environmentalists and climate activists,
trade union branches and community groups etc and have welcomed and appreciated
the invaluable input from Trades Councils. In turn, Trades Councils have ensured the
interests of bus drivers and bus workers have been understood and kept to the fore.
We encourage other Trades Councils to engage in this invaluable collaboration with
civic society, boosting these highly popular campaigns to bring back public control of
our bus services as a first step to returning to being fully publicly owned. We have also engaged the community in climate activism and the need for a world class green public
transport system.
Finally, we commend Yorkshire and Humber Pensioners Convention for hosting a
National Conference Saturday 17th June “Campaigning for outstanding bus services”
and encourage Trades Councils to participate.
ACTION – Trades Councils and County associations to work with community
campaigns and transport unions.
Wealth Tax
Conference notes:
· The desperate financial position that the working class find themselves forced into.
· The massive impact that inflation is having upon pay packets.
· That the UK now has a record number of billionaires with 177, according to the new
Sunday Times Rich List. That’s up six from 2021 and the combined wealth of the UK’s
billionaires stands at £653bn, up more than £55bn (9.4%) on the total wealth of the
billionaires in last year’s Rich List.
· The government introduced over £400bn into the economy with no plan to take it out.
· That on Thursday 17th November the chancellor did nothing to ease the burden on
the working class. Even the Treasury’s own analysis shows half of British households
will be worse off next year – with taxes hiked to the highest levels since the end of the
second world war, the country in the grip of recession and inflation remaining high.
· The UK faces major economic challenges, with soaring living costs and a warning
from the Bank of England that the country is facing its longest recession since records
began.
· The disastrous mini budget of former Prime Minister Liz Truss and her then
chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, that has led to market turmoil and cost £30bn.
We believe that
· There is wealth, but it is all in the wrong hands.
· The working class cannot suffer any further burden
· The burden should be borne by those most able to bear it, especially those whose
standard of living would not change whatsoever.
· To drive the economy, we need investment that will create jobs of the future, reduce
our dependence on fossil fuels and drive spending, tax and NI through wages.
We call upon the TUC to:
· Campaign for the Government to introduce a wealth tax
· End Non Dom status
· Aggressively pursue all tax due and bring an end to sweetheart deals
· Introduce real terms pay rises for the Public Sector
Climate tipping points
Conference recognises:
· Humanity’s future is dependent on a living planet;
· Without more urgent decarbonisation we are on the verge of irreversible tipping points
leading to “an uncharted territory of destruction” in our lifetimes;
· The increased incidences of extreme weather events such as heatwaves and
flooding, threatening members’ working conditions, health and safety;
· The need to retrofit workplaces, homes and schools and heat them with renewable
energy to reduce emissions;
· The UK government policy failure is increasing fossil fuel exploration, increasing fuel
poverty and inequality through failing to insulate homes and workplaces, ignoring IPCC
warnings and Paris Agreement obligations in a threat to all our futures.
Conference asks all unions to:
· Urgently decarbonise their union. reviewing all campaigns and procurements through
the process of just transition, involving staff, members and officers to ensure fair,
workable changes:
· Promote union environment publications, promote green reps in all workplaces and
branches, highlight the interconnection between decarbonising and decolonising for an
inclusive future;
Encourage all branches to campaign locally, with green reps, safety reps, members
and Other unions, for:
i) sustainable and retrofitted schools and workplaces-and homes by 2030,
ii) safety protection against extreme weather including heatwaves, flood and wildfire,
iii) maximum legal workplace temperatures,
iv) a just transition protecting pay and conditions, and against new oil and gas
exploration.
v) Promote, educate and campaign on a just transition with other unions, the TLIC, the
ITUC and Education International, including for loss and damage finance to the Global
South.
ACTION – Trades Councils and County Associations should work with community
campaigns and relevant unions.
Campaign for the abolition of standing charges on utility bills.
West Yorkshire County Association calls on the National Trades Council to campaign
for the abolition of standing charges on utility bills.
ACTION – Trades Councils and County Associations should work with community
campaigns and relevant unions.
The fight against anti-TU laws
Conference reaffirms its solidarity with the current actions of trade unions and the
coordinating work carried out by the TUC and regional TUCs and supports the calls to
continue to build further protests including a further national demonstration for the
repeal of all anti-trade union laws.
We recognise that the fight to defeat the anti-union laws is a key part of the whole
struggle to overcome the attack on workers’ pay and conditions and on services and
jobs. We further recognise that there is also a wholesale attack on health and safety
standards both at work and in the community as part of this attack and the massive
challenge presented by the fight for a sustainable environment to ensure all our futures.
To be successful this will require the building of bigger and stronger local campaigns in
which trades councils play a key role. The battle will not be an easy one but is crucial
for our whole future. That means we have to maintain the pressure to safeguard
workers and communities whoever the occupant of 10 Downing Street is.
We further request the TUC play a leading role coordinating strike action across unions
and protest action involving the wider population with the objective of generalised strike
and protest action against the government’s anti-trade union legislation and
Employment Act and to use the international courts if necessary. The TUC should
communicate more openly with trades unionists and others in struggle.
Legal requirements covering job advertisements
That the TUC should lobby its area Governments (England, Wales, Dependencies etc.)
to ban job advertisements that do not state what salary the applicant would earn for the
expected work. This would include prohibiting “pro-rata” and “up to” descriptions of
basic salaries or hourly rates. This should also mandate the employer or agency to
state in the vacancy or at the first stage of recruitment any deductions that may be
made for mandatory training or licences required for the role and also deductions for
the company/preferred pension scheme.
An applicant for a job should have a firm idea of what they will be paid without bonuses
etc., for the hours they would normally be obliged to work. This is so the applicant can
budget accordingly, without being surprised or having to guess until the interview or
contract signing stage what money they are likely to earn.
This lobbying of the Government should include legislating in its next budget,
recordable criminal sanctions from level five fines to being barred from being a director
of a company in the UK. These sanctions would apply for employers or directors of
agencies and the owner or management where the work would be carried out.
The remit for handling complaints relating to these offences, enquiries and subsequent
investigation(s) should be placed in the purview of HMRC, rather than an employment
tribunal as is the case in many breaches of employment relations law. HMRC should
seek and collate intelligence of such unlawful business practices referred by Crime
Stoppers, trade unions and other statutory bodies (Police, local authorities, DWP and
UK Border Force etc.). These measures are designed to safeguard applicants in low
paid and itinerant work from exploitative recruitment practices.
Workers’ personal needs
Conference believes that all workers should be able to pause their work for personal
needs (such as using a toilet). Some workers have ready access to facilities, but others, particularly mobile workers, but including some warehouse workers and others,
face significant restrictions.
Conference notes the recent RAIB investigation report into the death of a train driver in
Worthing. The accident was probably caused by the driver needing to use the toilet,
and in order to avoid delaying the train the driver waited until the train was in a siding.
This case highlights a lack of access to facilities. In many areas there is a lack of public
toilets. Where such facilities are provided it is often difficult to park close by. When the
need arises, it can take a considerable time to find facilities. Often there are no facilities
near the termination points of public transport routes.
Conference requests that:
· The TUC conducts research into the extent and effects of the problem of access to
toilets for workers.
· The TUC and affiliated unions initiate a coordinated campaign to make sure that all
workers have access to toilets during their shifts. This campaign should include asking
for a better network of public toilets and that it is possible to park vehicles near to toilet
facilities without charge while the facilities are being used.
Conference believes that Trades Councils should play a key role in both the research
and the campaign. “
ACTION – Trades Councils and County Associations should work with community
campaigns and relevant unions.
Fighting racism
This National Trades Councils Conference condemns the Tory government’s offshoring
and criminalising of refugees for attempting to reach the UK to claim their right to
asylum. We further condemn the “Rwanda plan” and relentless racist attacks on the
rights of asylum seekers as a deliberate attempt to scapegoat refugees to whip up
racism.
This National Trades Councils Conference believes the Tory government’s use of the
language of the far right, such as claiming there is an “invasion” of refugees, is
emboldening fascist groups to attack hotels housing asylum seekers.
This National Trades Councils Conference notes the rise of racism and fascism across
Europe, most notably in Italy where fascist Giorgia Meloni is Prime Minister, members
of the far right are in government in Sweden and the continuing threat from fascist
Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in France.
This National Trades Councils Conference stands in solidarity with Gary Lineker and
others in exposing the cruel and inhumane Tory policies and agrees it is right to say it
is the sort of language not out of place in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. When we stand
up, together we can beat back the racists.
This National Trades Councils Conference therefore urges Trades Councils to
campaign alongside Care4Calais, Stand Up to Racism and other anti-racist, pro-
immigrant organisations and mobilise support against fascist groups at hotels and
wherever they raise their heads.
Defeat the Far Right
The scenes of violence and intimidation against migrants outside the Suites Hotel in
Kirkby have shocked working-class people across the country. The tiny far-right group
Patriotic Alternative leafleted houses in Kirkby days before the protest about the cost-
of-living crisis leaving people freezing over winter. Around 450 people attended the
protest.
An anti-racist counter demonstration was organised at short notice and outnumbered.
This underscores the vital need for the trade union movement to take the lead in
mobilising for counter demonstrations.
The Tories will once again blame migration to try to distract working-class people from
the real causes of falling living standards and divide workers uniting in a fightback
against the cost-of-living crisis that their policies have caused.
A united trade union campaign for jobs, homes and services is the most effective way
of building a movement to cut across support for the far right growing. Local councils
need to meet the needs of refugees and the existing population.
Trades Council should write to affiliated unions and work with them to organise and
mobilise to defeat any attacks on refugees and to block the growth of the far right and
fascists.
Meetings should be organised under the banner of trades councils if a threat is raised
to show the organised working class are opposed and have answers to the struggles
faced by ordinary people.
For peace in Ukraine
Conference notes the massive recent protests for peace in Ukraine, in many cities in
Germany, Italy, Spain, France and in other countries. In London a first protest march,
organised by the Stop the War Coalition, took place on 25 February.
While we condemn the illegal Russian invasion, we note that the fighting in the east of
Ukraine actually began in 2014. As the TUC Congress observed at that time
(Emergency Motion 1), quoting the UN Refugee Agency, the fighting “has displaced
more than a million people” and “If the crisis is not quickly stopped, it will have not only
devastating humanitarian consequences, but it also has the potential to destabilise the
whole region … after the lessons of the Balkans, it is hard to believe a conflict of these
proportions could unfold in the European continent.”
Congress was also concerned then that “the crisis has also witnessed attacks on trade
unionists and the empowering of fascist groups,” including the massacre at the Odessa
trade union centre, and called for “an immediate, permanent ceasefire in Ukraine and a
peaceful, negotiated settlement”, and “opposition to the use of British forces in the
Ukrainian conflict.”
Over the past year it has become clear that this is a proxy war between NATO and
Russia, in which the lives and livelihoods of the Ukrainian people are being sacrificed.
It has been reported that in April 2022 Boris Johnson scuttled peace negotiations
between Russia and Ukraine. Now, Western aid to Ukraine is equivalent to what the
US spent on average annually in Afghanistan between 2002 and 2020, and, factored
into today’s prices, what it was on average spending annually on pursuing the Vietnam
War.
Our government can find £bns for the Ukraine war, but not for public services and
workers’ pay at home. But furthermore: the longer the war continues, the greater the
danger of forces from NATO countries being drawn in directly, with the potential for
escalation to a nuclear conflict. Conference therefore support’s the Stop the War
Coalition and CND’s calls for “Peace Talks Now – Stop the War in Ukraine” and “No to
the Russia Invasion – No to NATO – No to Nuclear War” and calls on Trades Union
Councils to affiliate to the Stop the War Coalition and to get involved with such
campaigns locally.
Peace is Union Business
This conference notes that:
· This government is committed to high levels of unnecessary military spending.
· This is happening despite the cost of living crisis, the squeeze on real wages being
applied to millions of workers facing a real pay cut and the austerity cuts to public
services continually applied by Tory governments since 2010.
· This is also happening in spite of the unstable nature of the world currently and the
likelihood of increasing military aggression and war internationally including the
manufacture and offensive use of weapons by the UK, as has been seen in recent
years.
· Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction, and the threat of nuclear war is
extremely high at present and in direct contravention of the UN Treaty on the
Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
· Meanwhile, the Conservative government is proposing to increase spending on a
new trident submarine etc.
· The siting of US nuclear weapons at USAF Lakenheath, and other bases, puts us at
greater risk.
· Spending on green jobs and increased wages in the public sector generates more
employment and benefits to UK communities than military spending. Whilst recognising
the need to protect all workers jobs, we believe that investment and trade union
support for green jobs and diversification would bring greater benefits to workers.
· Investing in war, arms and the military is highly carbon intensive and destructive to
the environment and will move us further away from meeting carbon targets and
preventing the destruction of the planet.
We call on the TUC to
· Support peace organisations calling for peace and an end to arm sales, war and
nuclear weapons.
· Campaign for higher spending on all public services, using measures such as the
closing of tax loopholes to ameliorate cost of living rises and improve the living
standards of all workers, as opposed to increasing military spending.
· Urge the TUC to back the diversification of military jobs and continue to develop and
implement a greener jobs agenda.
· Support protests against the siting of all US nuclear weapons at USAF bases,
including Lakenheath and the replacement of trident nuclear submarines.
· Call on the TUC to back peace as the business of unions, protecting workers lives,
jobs and a liveable environment in the UK and internationally; moving away from
weapon manufacture and arms sales that can result in dire consequences for workers
in other countries.
Using IT to increase participation locally and build our movement for the
future
Conference applauds the efforts of Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Trades Union Council
(BFWTUC) and other union groupings who continued to function during the COVID-19
Pandemic. They managed to maintain regular monthly meetings and still have a local
influence.
In the case of BFWTUC, utilising the equipment and software of a local UNISON
branch, BFWTUC was able to hold virtual meetings for its members with only minor
issues. They were able to accommodate people who did not have IT equipment and
those who did not have the IT knowledge to join the meetings via a video link from a
computer, tablet, smart phone, or indeed any phone by using the dial-in features
provided by most video conferencing software.
The setup has also been used to facilitate both trades council meetings and an
organising committee to build and deliver Blackpool’s “'Enough is Enough, these Crises
Demand Action” protest which took place on Saturday November 12th, 2022, the most
significant street protest in Blackpool people can remember. It allowed members of this
committee to attend wherever they were, including from the USA on one occasion.
The use of virtual and hybrid meetings by BFWTUC and others has increased
participation, especially from younger members and women, as well as bringing in new
faces. It assists those with caring responsibilities, shift workers, travel issues, and
those with disabilities that prevent them from attending, producing a more diverse
membership which provides invaluable inputs to meetings. It has also enabled
speakers from around the country, or indeed the globe, to attend with little effort or
cost. It has helped to re-invigorate the Trades Council and enthuse those who attend.
Conference therefore calls on local trade union branches to support their local trades
council by:
a) allowing them to utilise their video conferencing accounts.
b) allowing them to use their mobile data and mobile phone connections, especially
where Wi-Fi connections are problematic.
c) permit their delegates to local Trades Councils to use branch laptops and other IT
devices to facilitate these meetings.
Local Trades Councils to:
a) Look into the possibility of virtual and hybrid meetings.
b) Contact Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Trades Union Council if they wish to know more
about their set up and how they use it. [Maybe contact other TCs in their area and/or
their TUCJCC rep?]
c) Start holding hybrid and virtual meetings.
National trades unions’ support for trades’ councils’ solidarity work
Conference believes that solidarity with workers taking strike action is a fundamental
principle of the trade union movement. Therefore, Conference applauds all local trades
councils who have been working so hard during 2022 and 2023 to deliver picket line
solidarity with strikers from across the spectrum of trade unions – both TUC affiliated
and non-affiliated.
However, despite the best efforts of trades councils to reach out to unions, at local level
and through regional TUC structures, seeking information on local disputes, their
capacity to show solidarity and offer picket line support has in some cases been,
limited by less-than-ideal communications between unions and trades councils. Often
trades councils are the last to know about disputes, strikes and picket lines in their
areas, including when and where the picket lines will be. This makes coordinating
public support and inter-union solidarity more difficult and less effective than it should
be.
Conference further believes that provision of accurate and timely information is crucial
to every aspect of relationship building between trades councils, unions, and their
branches. However, many trades councils lack vital information about union branches
in their localities.
Conference therefore urges the TUC General Council to encourage all affiliated trade
unions to:
1. Ensure that all their media and communications officers and/or general secretaries
have up to date contact details for all UK (and as appropriate Republic of Ireland)
trades councils.
2. Ensure, as a matter of routine, that relevant information, including media releases,
are sent to all trades’ councils.
3. Ensure that in the run up to and during disputes (whether local, regional, or national)
trades councils are sent up to date information on strike dates and times; picket lines;
how negotiations, if any, are proceeding; and the outcomes of these disputes.
Conference also asks the general council to write to all affiliated unions, requesting
them to ensure that their regional officers are provided with the contact details of trades
council secretaries in their region, and that these officers send the names of the
relevant branches of their union to each trades’ council.
Support striking workers, oppose the bill, build trades union councils.
Conference salutes the dedication and sacrifice of the many workers who have taken
strike action over the past year. Mostly, they have been forced to do so because of the
dramatic rise in the cost of living and the determination by major employers and the
government to make workers’ pay the cost of the government’s handling of the Covid
pandemic.
The super-rich have done extremely well out of the pandemic, and there is plenty of
money to fund public services properly, including boosting staffing levels and providing
decent wages.
Trades unions have so far had to jump through legal hoops to get to the point of calling
industrial action. But with the Strikes (Minimum Services) Bill, the government plans to
introduce slavery by default, allowing employers to instruct workers to go to work, to
dismiss them for failing to do so, and to sue unions even though there has been a lawful industrial action ballot. Rather than introduce progressive taxation, the government is acting in the interests of the big shareholders and the super-rich. This is.naked class rule.
The trade union movement needs political, legal and industrial strategies to stop the
Bill, even if it is passed at Westminster. This is the latest and most serious anti-
democratic measure by the government, and resistance needs to be on the widest
possible basis: it is not just a matter for trades unions but for working people as a
whole. Likewise, it is in the public interest for services to be properly funded and
workers to be properly remunerated.
In this context, Conference therefore calls on all trades unions to strengthen their
community links so that the sympathy for strikers shown in opinion polls can be
translated into active support by public protests, pressure on MPs, letters to the press
etc. There are many worthy campaigning organisations with which trades union
branches can link up, such as the People’s Assembly; but Conference calls on the
General Council to encourage affiliated trades unions to give particular attention to
strengthening and rebuilding trades union councils as local solidarity links between
different trades unions, and between unions and the community.
Review of CATUCs and TCs
All County Associations and Trade Union Councils should be fully involved in the
TUCJCC’s review of procedures and processes and enough time should be allowed for
such involvement.
The review should:
· Include recognition that all County Associations and Trades councils across a region
ensure solidarity for workers taking industrial action.
· Take account of the role Trades councils play in building public support for trade
unionists in their localities by organising and supporting local campaigns against the
cost-of-living crisis, on issues like health, education, transport, equalities and housing.
· Pay attention to ways in which we can seek to improve union work and support for
trades councils at all union levels and this should be encouraged at each regional TUC.
· Consider the potential for CATCs to perform a coordinating and supporting role for
trades councils utilising local knowledge and contacts.
· Ensure support of local regional councils involving unions; this needs to take place in
a context of close involvement of the trade’s council movement in such plans, utilising
existing campaign methods and experience
· Fully consult County Associations and trades council representatives in discussions
on the future of trades councils.
· Encourage unions to get local union branches to affiliate to their trade’s councils and
elect delegates;
· Consider giving better funding to CATCs and trades councils in support of campaigns;
· Fully consult with CATCs in the organising of the annual trades council conference
including consultation on its location;
· Fully support trades councils in difficulty and where possible ensure their relaunch
and growth.
· Develop a plan to target trades council development in areas where they do not exist.
This comes at a time when trades councils are showing the key role, they play in
support of union actions over pay and conditions and the saving of jobs and services.
· Ensure the Annual Conference has a core part devoted to building up trades councils
and liaison with trade unions. A section of motions should be devoted to such practical
proposals for detailed work taking in the different set of circumstances in every area.
· Take account of the successful initiatives taken by some County Associations and
develop ideas for similar developments in county areas to build joint trades council
action.
· To review the process of electing reps to the TUCJCC in consultation with trades
councils and County Associations including considering electing reps at Trades council
conference. This consultation could lead to a redrafting of rule 7(c);
Conference welcomes the development and supportive roles of county associations but
believes that where county associations do not exist or are not functioning, the review
should consider the provision of direct representation to regional TUCs and for the
submission of motions, amendments, and election of delegates, directly from trades
councils to regional and national trades councils’ conferences and bodies.
This requires a more involving TUCJCC and TUC support. It means regular
communication with involvement of trades councils, with all initiatives open to trades
council input.
If this motion is not to remain a pious hope it must be embodied in an action plan. It is
therefore further proposed that an appropriate working party be constituted to study the
advice and aspirations it contains without delay. It should make recommendations to
each section and seek timely response therefrom.
County Associations and Trades Councils
The TUC Trades Councils Conference acknowledges the contribution made to the
work of Trades Councils by County Associations. Where they are active, they play a
valuable role in coordinating Trades Council campaigns and other activities across
wider geographical areas.
As part of the process of registering with the TUC, Trades Councils are required to
affiliate to their local County Association. Furthermore, Trades Councils wishing to
submit motions to the Trades Councils Conference must do so via their County
Association.
This presents Trades Councils, particularly those in areas where there is no active
County Association with a bureaucratic barrier that in the first instance can frustrate the
creation and development of new trades councils and secondly, restrict the
opportunities for existing Trades Councils to play a full part in the democracy of the
TUC Trades Councils Conference. This has led to the establishment of ‘county trades
councils’, which represents a two-tier system for trades councils across the TUC.
The TUCJCC seeks to increase participation of all trades councils in the democratic
structures of the TUC, whilst recognising the important campaigning role that County
Associations can continue to play.
To address this Conference agrees to.
· Remove the requirement for Trades Councils to affiliate to County Associations in
order to register with the TUC.
· From the 2024 TUC Trades Councils Conference, allow all registered Trades
Councils to submit a motion to the TUC Trades Councils Conference.
· Support the TUCJCC to consult with County Associations and Trades Councils on a
revised set of model rules and standing orders for Trades Councils and County
Associations and to bring these to the 2024 TUC Trades Councils Conference for
approval.
· Instruct the TUCJCC to write to TUC Regional Councils with a request that they
ensure that their constitution / rules are updated to take account of these changes to
the governance of Trades Councils. This should be by consultation with Trades
Councils, County Associations and Trade Unions in the region to bring about a revised
constitution allowing direct access by Trades Councils wherever possible.
Members of the TUC Joint Consultative
Committee
The members of the TUC Joint Consultative Committee are nominated by Trades
Councils and County Associations and elected at the Trades Councils Conference.
Northern Martin Levy – twcatuc@aol.co.uk
Yorkshire & the Humber Martin Mayer – martin.mayer@unitetheunion.org
North West Kevin Allsop – kevallsop@gmail.com
Midlands (East) Cecile Wright – c.wright230@ntlworld.com
Midlands (West) Nick Kelleher – wolvestuc@gmail.com
East of England Andrew Coburn – acoburn@blueyonder.co.uk
South East Pamela Fitzpatrick – pamelafitz@sky.com
South West Dave Chapple – davidchapple2020@gmail.com
Wales Katrine Williams – katrine.williams@btinternet.com
Trades Councils Conference 2024
The 2024 TUC Trades Councils Conference will be held on 1 & 2 June 2024 at
Congress House. Key dates for registration and the submission of motions and
nominations are below.
Friday 26th January 2024 – Deadline for Trades Councils and County Associations to
be registered to attend Conference and submit motions and nominations.
Monday 18th March 2024 – Deadline for receipt of motions and nominations to the
TUC JCC. Please note that nominations for the TUC JCC must be accompanied
by a delegate registration form.
Friday 19th March 2024 – Preliminary Agenda Published.
Wednesday 24th April 2024 (noon) – deadline for receipt of amendments
Friday 26th April 2024 – deadline for delegate registration.
Friday 24th May 2024 – deadline for nominations for delegate to Congress,
Friday 31st May 2024 (noon) – deadline for emergency motions.