SERTUC Report

I attended the Council of the South and East Region of the Trades Union Congress on Saturday 18th July.


Megan Dobney, Regional Secretary reported on the wide range of campaigns and activity being undertaken on behalf of trade union members in our region, including:-

• Anti racist anti fascist action plan: The ARAFAP will be reviewed following the European and local elections on 4 June. SERTUC LGBT Network produced and distributed a leaflet highlighting the threat of the far-right to LGBT people. SERTUC staff supported Searchlight tube station leafleting on 2 June.
• Unionlearn with SERTUC: Unionlearn has agreed a site on the Olympic site for a learning centre. Funding has been received from BIS for Learning at Work Day in October. Details will be on the unionlearn website as soon as available.
• Keep the Royal Mail Public, CWU campaign: The Regional Secretary spoke at a meeting, “Keep the Post Public” in Norwich organised by the CWU, and Laurie Heselden and John Ball attended various events across the region organised by the CWU in support of its anti-privatisation campaign.
• Morning Star Conference: The EC supported this event (“Surviving Capitalism’s Crisis”) and the Regional Secretary spoke in the plenary session. SERTUC LGBT Network organised one of the seminar sessions and speakers were Tamsin Piper (Network Co-chair) and Denis Fernando (UAF).
• Workers’ Memorial Day 28 April: With support from Thompsons Solicitors SERTUC commemorated WMD with a film, “Pin the Pits” by Rachel Horne, Rodney Bickerstaffe (former general secretary of Unison), Phiroshaw Camay (director of CORE in South Africa), and Tom Jones (Thompsons Solicitors). The DWP announced a consultation on how the day could officially be recognised in the UK – we are seeking information as to progress on this.
• South East issues: Phil Wood has occupied the trade union seat on the South East England Development Agency for two terms and will retire in the autumn. The EC has agreed to support the application of Richard Ascough, GMB Regional Secretary, for this post.
  

There was a presentation from Kate Hudson, national chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, where she addressed a number of issues. Kate pointed out that opposition to the new Trident remained strong, and urged the Labour Party to take note of the fact that polls indicated that the majority of Labour supporters were opposed to renewal- and that opposition was strongest amongst 18-30 year olds and those in the C1-DE demographic. She suggested that this could be an opportunity for the Government to win amongst these traditional supporters.

Kate's presentation also dealt with issues around jobs, international moves towards global disarmament (including recent agreements made by President Obama in Russia) and the changing nature of "defence" in the post 9/11 world. She welcomed the government's delaying a final decision until 2010, and urged delegates to sign the various petitions and join the campaigns.

Claude Moraes, Labour MEP for the London Region was due to address the meeting but had to withdraw owing to serious family reasons: our thoughts are with him, and we hope to hear from him at a future meeting.

There was only one motion on the agenda, an item from Unison, addressing the issue of Shared Surfaces (for both road traffic and pedestrians) This has been a key campaigning issue for disability organisations such as the Guide Dogs for the Blind organisation, and was the subject of an Early Day Motion in Parliament.

There was a full and interesting debate, both on the motion and on an amendment by the Community union, which incorporates the long-established TUC-affiliate the National League of the Blind and Disabled.

In the event, the amendment to the motion was passed (I voted in favour) and the substantive motion was also heavily carried (again with me voting in favour)

General Secretary's Report

As promised, the official record of the General Secretary’s report to the June executive:

SATS Campaign and Ballot
The General Secretary reported on the latest meeting with the NAHT to discuss the joint campaign for a boycott of SATS in 2010. Neither union would accept any system of assessment that increased workload; this statement had been given explicitly in the agreed joint NAHT/NUT statement. Further discussions were being held to agree the ballot timetable, with the NUT pushing for an early timetable.
A meeting was being sought with Vernon Coaker MP, who had taken over from Jim Knight in the recent Government re-shuffle. A meeting was also being sought with Michael Gove, the Shadow spokesperson on education, concerning the Conservative Party’s recent statements concerning SATS. The NUT would oppose proposals simply to move KS2 tests to year 7. It would not be acceptable to base tables on tests taken in a different school. The NUT would meet with the Tories and respond to their consultation with the aim of ridding schools of a high stakes testing regime.

Early Years Education
The General Secretary reported on her recent visit to schools in Liverpool where there were good examples of negotiations having prevented the imposition of increased hours on teachers as a means of delivering the new early years entitlement. She also reported on an excellent letter to members sent by the Bradford Division. These, and other, examples of good practice would be given publicity. The NUT would continue to seek to reach early years teachers and to defend their conditions of service.

TUC Matters
The General Secretary reported on matters that had been discussed at the recent meeting of the General Council.
The details were not known, but the Lindsey Oil Refinery dispute had been resolved. It had become an official dispute as a result of the hardening attitude of the employers. The Executive agreed that congratulations should be given to Unite and GMB, particularly for having stopped the BNP from highjacking the dispute to their own ends.
The General Council discussed the election of two BNP MEPs following the recent elections. Arrangements would be made for some demonstrative form of action or event in Liverpool, during Congress, in opposition to the BNP. The General Secretary had asked the TUC to consider an event to be held in association with the Anthony Walker Memorial Foundation, named after a black student killed by racists in 2005.
The state of the economy and rising unemployment, particularly among the young, continued to be a focus for debate in the General Council. The TUC was pressing on the issue of jobs and government programmes aimed at young people. They were calling for full involvement of unions in developing measures to address the crisis. A welcome had been given to the increase announced in redundancy pay, even though it was only £30, and the Government would be pressed to implement the increase as soon as possible. The TUC would be strongly defending public services from any cuts. The TUC would be prepared to defend public sector pensions from attack; the issue was not that they were generous, but that pensions in the private sector were inadequate and not sufficiently protected.

Working with UCU
The General Secretary reported that the NUT and UCU would be holding joint events at TUC Congress and the party conferences. Work was also progressing on the development of a pledge card supporting education across all sectors.
The General Secretary reminded the Executive of the launch of the joint agreement between the NUT and UCU which would take place at Congress House on Thursday, 2 July. The two organisations, in partnership, represented some half a million members across all areas of education.

Climate Solidarity Project
The General Secretary reported that the NUT had been successful, as part of a voluntary sector organisations network, in bidding for grants from DEFRA to help develop environmental projects throughout England which would promote positive environment changes. The NUT would receive some £111,000 over two years for work in this area.

False Allegations Against Teachers
The General Secretary reported that the NUT, through Amanda Brown, Assistant Secretary, Employment Conditions and Rights, had given a commanding performance in giving evidence to the Select Committee on the system used to handle abuse allegations against teachers. Evidence was given of the devastating impact on teachers’ family lives and the blighting of future careers even where teachers were cleared of false allegations

TUC LGBT Conference

I was pleased to be part of the delegation from the Union to the TUC's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans Workers Conference at Congress House on 2nd-3rd July. NUT was well represented in a delegation that included National Vice President Gill Goodswen, Schools' Out co-chair Tony Fenwick and Jeff Evans of Oldham TUC, whcih has been leading the way in challenging homophobic bullying in schools, as well as Annette Pryce, Claire Jenkins, Tim Lucas, Nick Jones, Judy Moorhouse, Kendra Deacon and myself.

Our motion which was unanimously passed was proposed by me, and praised the work of Union Equality Reps in the workplace, while also recognising the need for these roles to be developed, and facilities (including time off) required to ensure that reps could do the job. We noted two items of NUT work in the motion- the Fairer Futures Project, which supports and develops the role of local Equal Opportunities officers, and the work done by Oldham NUT in their Prevelance of Homophobic Bullying survey. Many delegates from other unions took away copies of this survey, and we hope that they will adapt and develop it for their own unions.

We also amended an anti-BNP motion, strengthening the motion from GMB, to read that "Conference notes that the BNP is Racist and Fascist" The substantive motion was seconded by Nick Jones from Wakefield NUT, and this motion was prioritised by Conference as the motion to progress to the agenda of TUC Congress 2009.

Our delegation was amongst the most vocal at the Conference. Annette Pryce, Secretary of Buckinghamshire NUT spoke brilliantly in debunking the faith defence for homophobic behaviour. Tony Fenwick, co-chair of Schools Out spoke several times, including a well-received speech about dealing with Hate Crime, and Claire Jenkins spoke and asked questions to the Committee about progress with Trans issues. I asked a question about the progress with the DCSF commissioned research into gender based bullying in schools.

Ros McNeill and Saurav did terrific work in ensuring that the materials were prepared and that delegates were fully and informatively briefed. They were also responsible for our new Pride March banner, flags and t-shirts.

I was thrilled to be elected to represent NUT on the TUC LGBT Committee for 2009-10, and look forward to reporting the developments in this area to you.