GFTU BGCM 2019 Minutes

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Roy. Thanks very much. I call Ian Lawrence.

BRO IAN LAWRENCE (NAPO): Chair, conference, that is the most dreadful news. I

somehow feel as if the heart and soul has been ripped out of the British

economy. We have got a Government that can find £0.5 billion at the snap of

fingers to shore up failing probation providers, but cannot do the right thing by

our brothers and sisters in the industry and I think conference will obviously

want to express a strong message of support and solidarity, Roy, to yourself

and brothers and sisters in the industry and, of course, those that are going to

be impacted by the further demise of a manufacturing base. Although we have

not got a motion as such, I am sure we can record a statement and a formal

letter will go from the General Secretary to you and we wish you well and hope

common sense prevails.

I just say it is another example of the way this Government has mismanaged

the whole Brexit shambles, whichever standpoint you come from. Three years

with no progress and now we are starting to see the impact of that in this most

dreadful news. I do not think I am the only one that thinks isn’t it time we had a

Government that actually puts the interest of British workers first and foremost

and does not leave them to go to the wall? Maybe it is time. Thank you, chair.

(Applause)

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Ian. I call the General Secretary.

THE GENERAL SECRETARY: I was just wanting to underline really the importance

of the political point that Roy made about the centrality of manufacturing for us

all. It was not a point that you used to have to make at the GFTU, because

when my union first affiliated I think every other union was from the

manufacturing sector and if you look at the list of affiliates that Edda did for us

in your pack, you will find that 98% of those since 1899 were manufacturing

based unions, the skilled trades, the unskilled workers in the manufacturing

industry that made our country and our economy and that produced the wealth

that led to the country’s ability to provide the public services.

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