GFTU BGCM 2019 Minutes

IMPLEMENTATION OF RESOLUTIONS 2017

BRO RONNIE DRAPER (Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union): Chair, Secretary,

delegates and guests. Ronnie Draper from the Bakers Union moving the

implementation of motions section to the conference. Can I start by thanking

the General Secretary, the President, the Vice President and, of course, all the

staff of the GFTU who have made sure that the Executive have had the means

to implement the motions from 2017 and make sure that they become a living

set of documents rather than just some sort of dream. How many times have

we seen at trade union conferences or the Labour Party conference, TUC

Congress, where motions get talked through, really flowery speeches, only to

find that when they go away there is a period of inertia? Without being

supercritical of the role of the TUC conferences, they have had passionate

debates, unanimously agreed by delegates for nothing sometimes. Motions

that we put through do not get discussed until somebody goes back and

pushes them.

Looking at the motions in 2017, look at Motion 1 which was talking about the

thresholds for spending on art. This is far from the case with the GFTU where

we have not got inertia. These things have actually been implemented and you

can see that not only did we have some really big debates on art and played

really good time to it, we also then bought paintings, commissioned artists to do

work and if you have been round Quorn Grange you will see the pictures that

are up on the wall. No more going to B & Q and picking a print up with a bloke

or a woman stood on the wing of a swan or anything. We do the real thing. I

am pleased that we did that.

The motion from NAPO on training and greater interunion cooperation has in

the main been fully implemented and work to develop shared services has

become a key cornerstone over the last two years’ priorities. I have got to say

when I first joined the Executive, training was a little bit hit and miss, but now it

is the envy, I believe, of the trade union movement. We do not depend upon

which tutor is available. We now have academics delivering quality training to

the people that we represent and making sure that we can deliver training to

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