GFTU BGCM Minutes 2017

Doug talked about Tony. Tony has helped us out within the GFTU recently

with lots and lots of work around technology. As you know, we have had

issues this last couple of years with malware and various other bits and pieces,

our network going down, not nice things to go through, but Tony has been able

to unravel some of the technicalities of that and rather than push the money

into the big black hole of the commercial world, we have done it sensibly and

we have done it progressively to make sure that every day we are a little bit

better. I would rather talk to somebody who understands the movement and

what we are trying to achieve and does not speak in mumbo jumbo and does

not have the agenda in the background which is about maximising the profit so

that we are driving forward. This is all about being stronger. We have got Mick

in the room as well. Some of you might have chatted with him. He has just put

some Buy British mouse mats and some notepads out. Mick has provided us

with all sorts of things for the GFTU, the power banks you got last night, all that

sort of stuff. One of the advantages that I see in that relationship is I know that

Mick takes this very seriously and June and the colleagues back in the office,

but they will go to factories and make sure that workers are not being ripped

off. If they are buying T shirts, they are ethically sourced. For me, surely, we

are about making sure that work is not made worse for people, that work is

made better.

There are lots of other examples of shared services that start off with a

conversation and lead us to a point where we are doing some work together.

We must get a phone call a week saying, “What you’re doing is great, we

recognise that the GFTU is an important player for affiliated unions, of which

there are 23, how can we access your information?” We do not readily give

away all of your member details or anything like that. However, if there is

something that is going to make the member offer better, more competitive,

more compelling, of course we will fetch that to you. We will have those

conversations. If we can do something that we only have to do once rather

than 23 times over as we all discover things, it has got to be good news, in the

same way as the specialist office and networks that are now taking place

provide us with an opportunity to share what is working or not working and find

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