GENERAL SECRETARY’S REPORT ANNUAL CONGRESS 2010 FLORAL HALL & CONVENTION CENTRE SOUTHPORT SUNDAY 6 JUNE 2010 to WEDNESDAY 9 JUNE 2010 9.30 am - 12.30 pm, 2.00 pm - 5.30 pm PAGE LEFT INTENTIONALLY BLANK 2 GENERAL SECRETARY’S INTRODUCTION Dear Colleagues Welcome to Southport I hope this week offers all delegates, whether this is your first experience of GMB Congress or, you are one of the staunch rank and file lay membership, who have helped carry our Union through the dark troubled times of the 80’s and 90’s out into these last five years which have proved to be amongst the most successful the Union has had in modern times. Our GMB is vibrant, growing, financially stable, and above all, has a clear vision of what a union should do! The GMB@WORK strategy which we adopted four years ago, has delivered much for us, and it will deliver much more in the years to come. GMB@WORK and our determination to never repeat the lazy mistakes of the past has carried us through a year of economic turmoil. Many of our members and their families have suffered hardship as a result of the bankers recession. The GMB fought the length and breadth of the land to retain jobs, boost government investment in jobs, get extra spending on capital projects like housing, apprenticeships and skills training. I write this forward before the general election and I don’t have a crystal ball. However the GMB will continue to campaign for our members, where ever they work. Over the last five years I have been proud and honoured to have been part of the revival of our magnificent campaigning GMB union. The camaraderie of our Officers, Staff, CEC, Senior Management Team and of course, you our lay membership, has been something we must keep at all costs, moving forward, facing challenges and changes. This year we are concentrating on enhancing lay members democracy and control, enlarging our Congress base to become more inclusive, to engage more members in our Congress, some which will be drawn from areas of diversity that are under represented at Congress. If we make these moves this year, we will give ourselves the ability to encourage and include more young members into our structures. Our future not only looks bright, it is bright! Have a wonderful time, work hard, relax and enjoy being part of a growing Union. Feel pride in being part of a process which is strengthening lay member democracy, fighting inequality and campaigning for a fairer society for all. Not bad really for what Mrs Thatcher called the enemy within. The GMB will face all the threats from employers and insults from politicians with the same response. We stand for what is good in this society. We seek change and improvement for others. We seek no glory for ourselves, just fairness and democracy for all. See you at the rostrum……!! PAUL KENNY General Secretary 3 CONTENTS A Framework for the Future of the GMB: Update ………………………………………………………... 5 National Organising Department ………..………………………………………………………………… 6 Communications Department ………………………………………….…………………………………… 7 Executive Policy……………………………………………………………………………………………… 13 Motions Referred to the CEC by Congress 2009 …………………….……………………..… 14 Report of Decsions made by Congress 2009 ………………………………………………. 16 Equality and Inclusion Department…………………………………………………………………………. 23 European Office ………………………………………………………………………………………….….. 28 International Report ………………………………………………….…………………………..……..…… 33 Health, Safety and Environment Department …………………………..………………………………… 36 Legal Department ……………………………………………..…………………………………………….. 42 Pensions Department ………………………………………..……………………………………………… 45 Political Department ………………………………………………………………………………….……… 49 Appointment and Election of Officials ……………………………………………………………………… 54 TUC Congress 2009 Awards ………..……………………………..……………………..………………… 55 SECTION REPORTS: Commercial Services Section……………………………………………………………………………..… 56 Manufacturing Section ……………………………………………………………….………..…………….. 68 Public Services Section…………………………………………………………………………….….......... 81 REGIONAL SECRETARIES’ REPORTS : Birmingham & West Midlands Region ……………………..……………………………………….……. 91 London Region ………………………………………………….…………………………………...……… 96 Midland & East Coast Region ……………………………..…….………………………………………… 101 Northern Region …………………………………………………………..………………………………… 107 North West & Irish Region …………………………………………………………………………………. 113 GMB Scotland …………………………………………………..…….……………………………………… 119 Southern Region ………………………………………………..…….……………………………………... 136 South Western Region ………………………………………..……….……………………………………. 145 Yorkshire & North Derbyshire Region ……………………………………………………………………… 152 4 A Framework for the Future of the GMB : Update This report audits the progress that has been made towards implementation of the 23 recommendations set out in the CEC Special Report A Framework for the Future of the GMB, and carried by Congress 2005. Where it has been previously reported to Congress that the recommendation has been implemented, the recommendation itself is no longer shown. Implemented 1 Implemented 2 3 The CEC will establish a special working group on young people, whose terms of reference will be to examine how to raise trade union awareness amongst young people, how to attract more young people into membership of the GMB and how to increase the participation of young people in the Union. Two members of GMB National Equality Forum (NEF) were lay representatives specialising in young member issues. They were able to raise concerns regarding young members and potential members. The two young member representatives organised fringe meetings at Congress 09 and the TUC. We continued to send a full delegation of GMB Young Members to the TUC Young members Conference in Birmingham and proposed topics for discussion ‘free school meals’ and ‘fighting the BNP’. Discussion continued with young members on improving engagement in GMB. In addition to this a negotiators guide for Officers on young members was drafted 4 Implemented 5 Implemented 6 Implemented 7 Implemented 8 Implemented 9 Implemented 10 Implemented 11 There will be a full examination of all nationally serviced branches by the Recruitment & Organisation Committee. This examination will be conducted with full consultation with the members of the nationally serviced branches and the Regions. Following discussion by the Organisation Committee and the Senior Management Team this review is currently on hold. 12 The CEC will examine the issue of “tidying up” some regional boundaries where any alterations to these could enhance and improve the service to GMB members . Further work required. 13 Implemented 5 14 Implemented 15 Implemented 16 Implemented 17 Implemented 18 The CEC recommends that the Finance Committee and Senior Managers review all the financial restructuring issues identified by the Task Group with the aim of identifying appropriate reforms that can be implemented immediately and, in the case of reforms requiring changes to Union Rules, recommending detailed Rule Amendments for the CEC to propose to the next GMB Congress. Senior Managers have already taken preliminary steps so that the financial restructuring review can proceed quickly should Congress 2005 accept this recommendation. Financial processes are being kept under review. 19 The CEC will look at all areas of expenditure to identify those that are unproductive and to make recommendations that these practices are stopped, to free up resources for direct servicing of members and ensuring the growth of the Union. GMB’s national procurement programme is still generating substantial savings. For example telephone land line annual credits generate close to £100k per annum savings compared with 2007. Energy savings generate around £127k per annum which will be greatly improved by the energy audit proposed by the Green Working Party and agreed by CEC. Savings can be diverted to our front line services fulfilling our commitment to recruitment and organisation through GMB@WORK. 20 Implemented 21 Implemented 22 Implemented 23 Implemented NATIONAL ORGANISING DEPARTMENT Our union has come a long way since 2005 and has changed its outlook dramatically on how we build our organisation. We have switched our focus onto sustainable membership growth in every workplace. We realised that selling the union as a set of personal services in return for a monthly fee produced a level of demand on us we could not meet. Too much of our Officials time was spent doing the Workplace Organisers job representing, advising and supporting individual members. We put an end to the notion that you could separate the recruitment, the retention and the servicing of members. We no longer believe that some of us should build the union while others maintain it. Every Official is now responsible for both functions. And we now know that the best person to get a new member to join GMB is the Workplace Organiser they work with every day. 6 In the end we decided to build the union wholesale not flog it retail. We now see our members as the union - not as mere customers of GMB services. GMB@Work Organising Strategy has 5 main industrial and political pillars: 1. The Workplace is the building block of the union . It’s at work, rather than in the community, or in the media that working people are most able to build the collective solidarity they need to tackle the injustice and inequality they face. 2. Each workplace should be organised as if a ballot for industrial action was due. We need our members to be match fit and ready, but we also need our organisation in each workplace to be democratic, transparent and accountable