(President) (In the Chair) ……………………… Held I
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GMB CONGRESS 2016 ……………………. SIS. MARY TURNER MBE (President) (In the Chair) ……………………… Held in: Bournemouth International Centre, Bournemouth on: Sunday, 5th June 2016 Monday, 6th June 2016 Tuesday, 7th June 2016 (Sectional Conferences) Wednesday, 8th June 2016 and Thursday, 9th June 2016 ………………………….. PROCEEDINGS DAY TWO (Monday, 6th June 2016) …………………………. (Transcript prepared by: Marten Walsh Cherer Limited, 1st Floor, Quality House, 6-9 Quality Court, Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1HP. Telephone: 020 7067 2900 email: [email protected]) ………………………………… 1 SECOND DAY’S PROCEEDINGS MONDAY, 6TH JUNE 2016 MORNING SESSION (Congress assembled at 9.30 a.m.) THE PRESIDENT: Will Congress come to order, please? I hope you are all bright- eyed and bushy-tailed this morning! Did you enjoy yourselves last night? (Confirmed) I am sorry you were late leaving but it was worth it in the end, wasn‘t it? That is my excuse and I am sticking to it! Right, good morning all and I saw many on the dance floor, even I attempted it but I was tired. I enjoyed it and thank you all for showing up. I have a couple of announcements to make. First of all, I have been joined on the platform by Lisa Johnson, our newly appointed Director of External Affairs – I do not know what affairs – and Training. Lisa, welcome. (Applause) I have been asked by Friends of Dementia to make sure that you all sign up. I have an appeal from the RMA: ―Mary, can you please announce that raffle tickets for the RMA can be obtained from the RMA stall and also if any region would like to donate a raffle prize this would be appreciated. Thank you. Jan Smith.‖ Okay, that is that one. I do have also an apology from Jeremy Corbyn. He asked me to tell the Camell Laird workers that he had not forgotten about them. It was only later on he remembered he had not mentioned them but he will keep the fight up on your behalf as well as for the others, the miners and so on. (Applause) He did not stay last night because he had been travelling for three days and he just wanted to get home, but we really did appreciate him coming and giving up that time. Thank you for all being so well behaved. It is not often you are well behaved but you were well behaved yesterday. Let‘s move into the business of the morning and that is, I will now be calling Motion 172, Yorkshire, 173, London, 174, Yorkshire, 176, London, 177, Wales & South Western Region. Will those movers and seconders please come to the front? Then I will be asking Dave Clements, on behalf of the CEC, to speak on the qualifications. Okay. POLITICAL: THE LABOUR PARTY HANDS OFF CORBYN MOTION 172 172. HANDS OFF CORBYN This Conference welcomes the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader. We note that he was elected by an overwhelming majority of Party members and supporters. We therefore consider that it is the duty of all Party members inside and outside the Houses of Parliament to support him. We condemn the campaign of vilification in the Tory media directed against Jeremy Corbyn, which is aimed at undermining and removing him. We furthermore deplore the actions of members of the Parliamentary Labour Party who, through their systematic attempts to 2 undermine Jeremy Corbyn, are deliberately sabotaging the work of the opposition, destabilising the Labour Party and playing into the hands of the Tories. We call upon our representatives in Parliament to provide us with a clear and unambiguous commitment not to participate in any such activities and to support the elected leader of the Party In the event of a refusal to provide such an undertaking, we will have no alternative but to move a vote of no confidence and set in motion a process of selecting somebody who is prepared to respect the democratic views of the membership. RIPON & THIRSK GENERAL BRANCH Yorkshire & North Derbyshire Region (Carried) THE PRESIDENT: You are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed this morning! Before you start, our colleague here is the convenor of Nestle and that is his present to all of you on your tables this morning. (Applause) Next it will be the Scottish Brewery! Okay, colleague. BRO. B. GOLDING (Yorkshire & North Derbyshire): (Cheers) I would just like to respond to what a delegate said yesterday about Nestle being evil. We have 8,000 people employed directly by Nestle in the UK and Ireland, many of them are GMB members right across the sites, we are Fair Trade, and we are a Living Wage employer. I would like people to be careful what they say about some of the companies our members work in, please. (Applause) Yesterday we heard Jeremy extolling what we want from a Labour Party leader, socialism and justice. Unfortunately, we do not get this from all in our Parliamentary Labour Party. We have collaborators with the Tories attacking the leadership at every opportunity. This must stop. If they continue, we must deselect them. I move. (Applause) BRO. G. JARVIS (Yorkshire & North Derbyshire): (Cheers) President, Congress, at last year‘s conference when Jeremy Corbyn was seeking support for his leadership campaign our Regional Secretary at the time, now our General Secretary, was the first to offer support. During the speeches and debates with the other candidates, Jeremy won over the vast majority of delegates whose allegiance was turned from the candidate the GMB was publicly backing at the time. After his resounding victory, the GMB finally climbed down off the fence to offer him their support much to the delight of many in our region, and beyond. But, empty words are meaningless. Actions speak much louder and action is what is required from us if we are to defend Jeremy in the next period. This Congress does indeed welcome the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Leader, that he was elected with an overwhelming majority, and that is the duty of all party members, inside and outside the House of Parliament, to support him. Attacks in the press are to be expected although not deserved but attacks from Labour MPs are totally unacceptable. (Applause) We must not be afraid to condemn those who do so. This motion sets out the detail of what that support should be. The message is clear, support our leader or get out. I second. (Applause) 3 THE PRESIDENT: Well done, Graham. 173, London. THE LABOUR PARTY MOTION 173 173. THE LABOUR PARTY This Congress congratulates Jeremy Corbyn on his success in rebuilding confidence in the Labour Party. Congress also resolves to give him the full support of the GMB in future, as have other major unions. GMB recognises that he represents the aspirations of the working class within the Party and is a sincere and long-standing supporter of trade unions. LOWESTOFT BRANCH London Region (Carried) BRO. G. DOUCE (London): President, Congress, colleagues, we heard from Jeremy Corbyn yesterday and I am sure you will agree that he has a refreshing approach in politics, he answers the question he is asked. That much was evident when we heard from him last year at the leadership hustings in Dublin. His leadership, however, has seen significant attacks from some quarters of the press and reports of attack from some within the Party and the wider labour Movement. I say reports because I have seen articles claiming that prominent Labour politicians have attacked Jeremy in a TV interview. I watched the interview on the iPlayer and I was pleased to see that the politician actually stuck to his brief, spoke about his election, his remit, and his proposals. He acted with professionalism, in my view, just what I suggest we would all expect from a GMB member who was recently elected as the Mayor of London. Thank you, Sadiq. Generally, there seems to be renewed confidence that the leadership of the Labour Party is becoming more in tune with ordinary working people like you and me rather than risking becoming out of touch but not quite as out of touch as the current so- called government. Therefore, colleagues, I call on you to support this motion subject to the CEC qualification. Our policies and priorities are front and centre in the minds of the current party leadership and as we were reminded yesterday by our CEC colleague from Southern Region, our President Mary will keep prompting them about their obligations to stand up for our policies and to help us stand up for our members. Colleagues, there are times at which individuals or organisations may disagree with their leadership but there is a time and place for debate. If what some people wish to do is openly attack a democratically elected leader, I would say to them, work constructively and collaboratively with the leader and any affiliated organisations such as ourselves. We all know what happened to those who disagreed so fundamentally with the Party, they went off and formed the SDP. Their experiment failed and they just ended up propping up the Tories for five years and then returned to irrelevance. By working together, colleagues, we can realise our shared goals and as the banner on the side there says, In Unity there is Strength. Colleagues, let‘s stand together and 4 fight our common enemy, and that is Dodgy Dave and his double-dealing chums. I move. (Applause) THE PRESIDENT: Well done, Gareth. Seconder. SIS. A. COUSIN (London): Seconding Motion 173. President, Congress, finally we have a Labour leader who will further the interests of working people, not suck up to big business, celebrities, and Murdoch.