GFTU BGCM 2019 Minutes

We put forward a simple plan and I want to talk about the four points of that

plan and hopefully generate some debate around that plan. The four points

were point no.1, we have argued that we must start developing a common

bargaining agenda. We do not wait for political change to do that. There is

some great work going on around sectoral bargaining and stuff like that, but we

should be doing that ourselves. For example, in the sectors of the economy

why aren’t the unions that are in a particular sector of the economy coming

together and developing a bargaining agenda on three or four points (you can

still have your own priority within that) that challenges insecure work? That is

our first point. Let the TUC, let us all, let the GFTU work together to find a

common bargaining agenda that is going to challenge insecure work. Even

though that is in the 25% of people who are organised ultimately, what a

message that would send to the rest of the workers if we were harnessing our

collective strength on a common bargaining agenda. It cannot be beyond our

gift to say, “Yes, we have all got these problems, but let’s try and bring them

together and let’s try and find a popular way of developing this common

bargaining agenda”.

The second point is something that bugs me and must bug some of you

around the need for greater cooperation within the trade union movement to

organise workers. I am on record as saying when I took over the CWU that the

CWU is not against merger, but we are against takeover and I think the default

position in the trade union movement has become that you ultimately, great

unions, end

up having to merge for financial reasons because of everything that is going on

in the world of work today and I do not think that is a good enough response

from the trade union movement to allow that to continue. In saying that, that

does not mean I am against big unions, it is does not mean I am in favour of

smaller unions. I want us to have the debate as a movement about what is the

best way forward for workers. We talk a lot about competition. In our industry it

has killed lots of good jobs, in the postal industry, it is also obviously open to

the world of communications changing as well, but we have got internal

competition in the union movement at a time when workers do not really need

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