GPM&IT NISC June 2018

This is my personal report, not an official one. It omits most of the industrial business, as this is often confidential. Other than that, if you are aware of any errors please let me know.

This was the first meeting of the new National Industrial Sector Committee (NISC) elected by the Regional Industrial Sector Committees (RISCs) for the 2018-20 term of office.

1. Steve Garroway was re-elected as chair.
2. It was agreed that as there were a number of new delegates, the election of deputy chair would be postponed until the next meeting, and for now Charlie Shieber would continue as deputy.
3. A number of corrections were agreed to the previous minutes
4. There is now a template for NISC minutes with an action plan as a spreadsheet at the end
5. Louisa Bull, the National Officer, has been working on a charter setting out where we are as a sector, subsectors, key areas of future work etc. The future work will include a full audit / mapping exercise of the sector, identifying membership density, areas of growth, combines, European Works Councils and experts etc. One of the aims will be to use the Work Voice Pay data to identify projects we want to do and extend collective bargaining, enhance subsectors and combines.
6. A draft of a booklet on apprenticeships was circulated for comments by 1 July.
7. The NISC's Organising Strategy Subcommittee was elected: Charlie Shieber, Gareth Lowe, Ronan Turley, Ian Allinson, Steve Garroway, Claire Lees
8. The joiners and leavers data provided to NISC members had gone from too much detail, not showing trends and changes, to not enough detail to be useful. Louisa explained that things like this were in flux following the GDPR data protection legislation. Louisa will produce a new template and email it out.
9. There was discussion about the fact that there are 170 different officers covering workplaces in the sector, most of them with only a small piece of GPM&IT in their allocation, and how this prevents focus or expertise. There are examples of different officers covering sites belonging to competing companies right near each other.
10. The issue of the Labour Party and even parts of Unite using non-unionised printers was discussed yet again. Louisa reported that she had raised it with Jennie Formby, now the Labour Party General Secretary. Louisa will forward to the NISC an email from Jennie confirming the policy on this set by the Labour NEC. Louisa has asked Regional Officers to produce a list of half a dozen small print shops they would happily recommend. It was agreed that this list should include what types of work the printers can do and that it should be circulated to RISC chairs and branch secretaries and Unite Political Officers as well as the NISC.
11. A team to work on content for the sector's web site and social media profile was elected: Helen Kerr, John Stuttle, Ian Allinson and Jamie Messent. Louisa reported that the web site was being revamped and she ws unable to get it updated. The NISC can still consider what it wants in terms of structure, sector and company pages, toolkits etc ready for when the site is usable again. Unite recommends that all RISC and NISC members have unitetheunion.org email addresses, which can be put up on the web site too.
12. The Unite briefing on the Gender Pay Gap (GPG) had been sent to all reps. A 5-day course covering this in Eastbourne is coming up, with the deadline soon. Delegates felt this was an important issue to raise, recruit around, and use as leverage to tackle the issue, even when there is no pay bargaining or transparency. A tool is being developed to show the GPG for every employer in the sector. There was also discussion about a successful equal pay case and the need to publicise such wins. Louisa will circulate a template grievance questionnaire for discrimination cases developed after the government scrapped the statutory questionnaire.
13. One area for potential growth is into the white collar staff and technical workers in workplaces where there is already shopfloor bargaining. In many workplaces the proportion of shopfloor workers is shrinking.
14. All activists should have received the activist briefing on the new GDPR data protection legislation and the document explaining how to report data breaches. The Executive Council have had training and all branch secretaries and chairs will get training via their regions in the next couple of months. Legal have been invited to do this at the November NISC as well. Some amendments had been made by the EC to the Unite Rulebook in response to GDPR. There was discussion about the fact that some officers and staff are refusing to share information with RISC members on grounds of the GDPR, unless specific consent is obtained each time. I pointed out that the Unite GDPR Guidelines make clear that reps and branch officers can have access to membership information for legitimate union activity and that the officers and staff were breaking rule 18.7 which requires RISC members to be given the identity, constituency and contact details of reps covered by their RISC. A situation where committee members can't even communicate with each other is absurd. Update: this still doesn't seem to have been resolved, with Unite legal advising officers and staff to break union rules on the pretext of GDPR. In the meantime, NISC members agreed to share their contact information with each other, and those absent would be asked to consent to this too. There was a discussion about how to ensure our use of data is GDPR compliant at branch and workplace level, and the risks of communicating or keeping information on employers' systems.
    
15. Barckley Sumner from the Unite Campaigns & Communications department gave a presentation about best practice for media content, producing content, use of photos etc.
16. Gareth Lowe was elected as editor of the GPM&IT quarterly newsletter which goes to all activists in the sector. Each RISC is asked to elect someone to liaise with him, to help ensure a good mix of content from round the UK and Ireland.
17. The NISC discussed ideas for content for the next newsletter, for which the deadline is 31 July. The newsletter will be shorter and more industrially focused, with the hope that activists will circulate copies in workplaces.
18. Work on the idea of piloting the "industrial hub" approach to organising in the corrugated subsector continues. Communication is being improved, and coordination around bargaining. The international union federations (IndustriALL and UNI) can help with research, and AGS Steve Turner has resources for the hubs strategy, which may be helpful as the sector isn't getting resources from the organising department.
19. Work to update the Stratum membership system records for GPM&IT workplaces to include subsector, national agreements, and which bits of workplaces are covered by agreements continues. Some Regional Officers are working on it, and some RISCs. Some NISC members volunteered to help too. Where possible, government codes for subsectors are being used. Louisa has a short description for each subsector which she will circulate. If the population isn't finished, the spreadsheets will be sent to RISCs to complete.
20. Louisa had attended 6 of the Regional Industrial Sector Conferences. She hadn't been invited to one (which clashed with another anyway), two were not quorate, and Wales is still not working. Reps from Wales who wanted to be on the RISC and NISC have been invited to the NISC as observers while this is sorted out. Most of the meetings were good in terms of attendance and participation.
21. Information wasn't cascading from the National Officer through the officers who act as secretaries to the RISCs to all the reps, so Louisa is now sending stuff directly to all officers who cover GPM&IT.
22. Louisa wants the NISC to produce a sector plan, then RISCs to work from that and identify how they can pick up those areas of work in their region, what actions they can take.
23. We hope to get NISC minutes finalised quickly so they can get to RISC members in time for the following RISC meetings. Louisa is emailing the RISC officers to ask them to put the NISC minutes onto their agendas.
24. There was discussion about the latest developments in the ongoing Fujitsu dispute.
25. The Print Futures award has been widened to include paper and packaging.
26. Ronan Turley, Steve Garroway and Claire Lees were elected as 2 delegates and a substitute to the Unite Manufacturing Combine.
27. Delegates were reminded that if they can't attend a NISC meeting, they should ask the RISC to send a substitute.
28. There was discussion about the push to "paperless meetings" in some organisations (e.g. UNI World Congress) and the fact that not everyone has the facilities or skills to engage effectively without printed material. Unite's policy is that individuals should be provided with printed copies of documents for meetings if they prefer that. For the NISC, documents will be emailed out, with printed copies posted to delegates who request it. Printed copies of the agenda, minutes and anything being debated rather than provided for background information will be provided on the day.
29. An emergency motion on Gaza for Policy Conference was agreed.
30. Louisa undertook to provide GPM&IT policy conference delegates with a list so they could communicate with each other.
31. Louisa will circulate a report from an IT delegation to a recent conference in Mumbai.
32. The NISC needs more women and BAEM members to join it, and there was a discussion about how to achieve this. Louisa will go back to the regions who have not sent a proportionate delegation.
33. The EC was asking the NISC to remit its motion on allocation of officers to sectors and it was agreed how this would be handled at conference.
34. The experiment with holding the NISC over one long day had caused problems for a number of shift workers. It was agreed to move back to a meeting split over two days.
35. Jonathan Hayward from the Unite International Department gave an update around European Works Councils (EWCs) and UK Information & Consultation (I&C) bodies. He said the main issue for EWCs at the moment was Brexit, which also has implications for the I&C regulations. The recasting of the EWC directive in 2011 has improved EWC functioning, particularly after Unite did a lot of training for reps and officers. There was still a need to push for more consultation and engagement, EWCs represent an opportunity to hold companies to account, e.g. they had delivered safeguards in the GKN/Melrose takeover battle. The European Commission says that from 29 March 2019 UK employee numbers won't count towards the thresholds for EWCs. Unite is advising reps to push for amendments to agreements now to ensure continued representation post Brexit irrespective of what happens - and has a document with suggested clauses. Employer responses are varying, often based on HQ country.
36. Jonathan explained that the UK government faces a dilemma over EWCs. They have promised that no employment legislation will be diluted by Brexit, at least in the short term. On the other hand they don't want the ECJ to have jurisdiction, so EWCs operating under UK law wouldn't be fully enforceable, even for EU citizens. Unite has proposed that the UK repeals most of the legislation that allows EWCs to be covered by UK legislation, but retain the right of UK employees to participate in EWCs based elsewhere. This would require some agreement with the EU, and EWCs currently based in the UK would have to move. German and French are best, while Irish is worst. Some EWC agreements have clauses saying it is under the law of the country with most employees, but companies usually want to choose. Sometimes the agreement allows the employer to choose from the top three countries by employer number. An update on all this will go in the sector newsletter, and Louisa will send something to our EWC chairs and NISC members.
37. Most companies are making contingency plans for various Brexit scenarios, and EWCs should be part of that debate. EWC reps should raise this now - though you don't always get good news. There is a document with questions you can raise.
38. The Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) made a useful recent ruling against Oracle over a failure to consult about a transfer of work. Oracle had held a phone conference with the EWC and then answered some later questions, and claimed that was adequate consultation. The CAC ruled that information and consultation is a process with more than one stage, and that the EWC had been unable to consider the information, discuss it with management and submit an opinion. They also ruled against the blanket confidentiality imposed by Oracle on the grounds that the information might damage the business by upsetting people. Since the wording of the I&C regulations on information and consultation is the same as the EWC regulations, the same arguments can be used there. This is potentially very useful for countering the talking-shop / focus group way of working that some employers favour.
39. NISC members discussed the idea of trying to incorporate the protections in the EU Social Chapter into collective agreements now, to retain them even if the Tories worsen the legislation.
40. The Unite materials were (again) criticised for not addressing the rights of non-UK citizens, many of whom are members and feel the union hasnt' focussed on them. My own branch had submitted Motion 13 to Policy Conference and another GPM&IT branch had submitted a supportive amendment. Jonathan explained that the International Department had picked up much of the work around Brexit, but the Equalities department had said they would deal with the issues raised. NISC members felt Unite needed to be more joined up to avoid such problems. Louisa agreed to write to Simon Dubbins (head of international department) to ask for a European migrant workers to have a focus group or their own committee.
41. There will be an update on European Works Councils and Information & Consultation bodies on Friday 5 June.
42. It was agreed to submit a second Emergency Motion to Policy Conference highlighting the demonstration against Trump on 13 July, the Unity demonstration against the far right on 14 July, and the need to do more to stop the FLA/DFLA using football links to build a racist movement.
43. We agreed to mobilise for the NHS demonstration on 30 June
44. The next meeting will be 4-5 October at Moreland Street, London

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Report from Unite GPM&IT national sector conference 2017

Last week delegates from each of Unite's industrial sectors met in Brighton for their National Sector Conferences. This report covers the plenary, shared between several sectors, and the conference for my own sector - Graphical, Paper, Media & IT.

Each day's plenary consisted of an address from Len McCluskey, the General Secretary, the Deputy General Secretary covering the sectors meeting that day, and Sharon Graham, head of Organising & Leverage presenting on automation.

Len's speech is here:

After the speeches from the General Secretary and Deputy General Secretary there was an opportunity for delegates to ask questions.

I asked a question about how effective support could be given to sectoral campaigns when Regional Officers work to regional rather than sectoral priorities. Len McCluskey said this shouldn't be an issue and that any problems should be taken up with the National Officer and if necessary the relevant Assistant General Secretary.

I had concerns about Len's comments about migration, which I took up in the sector conference (see below).

Sharon's speech is here:

If you haven't yet heard Sharon present on the likely impact of automation on jobs, you really should watch the video. Every sector and region will be discussing this in more detail over the next few months, to come up with agreed responses. [If you want a feel for the way new technology may affect not only what jobs are available, but the content and management of work, this piece on Deliveroo is well worth a read].

Outside the formal business of conference speculation and rumour were widespread about the Certification Officer's likely ruling on the General Secretary election. Most people seem to think the election will have to be run again, that McCluskey won't stand this time, and that there are quite a few senior officers jockeying for position, as well as Coyne hoping he can do better next time. Whatever the result of the legal process, I hope that the Executive Council will ensure a better process in any future elections.

Members were elected to the Standing Orders Committee for the next National Sector Conferences.

GPM&IT conference

There were discussions of reports from the three different National Officers we've had in recent months, culminating with Louisa Bull who is in post on an ongoing basis. The discussion generated a lot of points which Louisa will follow up with the National Industrial Sector Committee (NISC).

We had speeches from the UNI and IndustriALL international union federations about building solidarity and organising.

A speaker from the research department talked about the impact of Brexit on employment and in workplaces and the union response. I raised a concern that the presentation didn't mention the members whose jobs are most threatened - those without UK citizenship, and reported the discussion at our NISC about the need to include this properly in materials. I related this to Len's speech, where he had defended migrants by arguing "they" are just like "us" but talked about the way overseas firms had bought up "our" industry. I argued that workers who don't have UK citizenship are "us", thousands of them are Unite members and deserve proper representation. The researcher made a good point about the importance of having an independent union position in defence of migrant workers, not simply reflecting employers' concerns about their access to workers they can exploit.


The following motions were agreed:

1 Organise and Stimulate activism in the sector (GPM&IT NISC)

Historically, at least since the creation of Unite and the GPM/IT Branch Structures, membership levels in certain Branches within the Sector have fluctuated dramatically. This has not only contributed to member discontent, but also aided the lack of recruitment campaigns, plus inhibiting the development of future cadres within our Union. In view of this situation we call on the Regions to operate a greater transparency in line with the Unions and GPM/IT policy by:

1. Publishing a full list of ALL GPM/IT Branches within each Region, along with graphical details of size, officers (both Elected and Full Time Officers), also whether Company or Composite, to all GPM/IT RISCs. This should remove the problem of members placed into the wrong or inappropriate Branches.
2. All RISC members’ names, Branch, Workplace, circulated to all GPM/IT Branches, M/FOCs this to facilitate the fact that not all Branches are represented on the RISCs. This would allow RISC members to be more interactive with the members on the work carried out on their behalf within the Region, but also to be available to attend meetings on the Branches, Chapels request.
3. All existing Regional Branches be trawled as to members employment status, company etc, with members transferred in to either their appropriate Sector Branches, as in the case of GPM/IT, where there is an anomaly, consultation to take place with the member, Branch Secretary and RISC Chair. Members would stay in original Branches where it makes geographical common sense to do so.
4. That all members transferred out to other Branches, the originating Branch Secretary notified with an explanation why. This should alleviate the fluctuation of membership as at present.
5. All representation of GPM/IT members, either singular or collectively, by either FTOs or Lay Companions, notification given to both the Branch and the members RISC.
6. That all wage, terms and conditions negotiations consultation with the appropriate RISC, this to alleviate any infringement on National Agreements where they exist.

This resolution is an attempt to iron out the peaks and troughs within the GPM/IT Branches membership numbers, also to stimulate our activism in the Sector, to grow the Union and become more prominent within the Trade Union, Political and Community movements, not losing sight of the fact that we truly are a membership led Union.

2 GPM & IT Strategy for Growth (East Midlands)

Conference notes the key statistics for the print Industry from the most recent BPIF Facts & Figures report 2017.

In spite of the decline in some traditional print areas the report demonstrates the significant role the industry still plays in UK manufacturing and the rapid continued growth of sections such as packaging in the print industry.

UK printing industry:

• is the world’s fifth largest producer of printed products
• has a turnover of £13.8 billion
• has 116,000 employees
• consists of 8,400 companies
• has a gross added value of £5.8 billion
• made a P.A. capital investment of £700 million in 2016
• had a positive trade balance of £775 million in 2016

However despite the growth in the print industry which, is dominated by big multi-national companies, our union membership has been in steady decline. Our organising approach needs a coordinated strategy to organise and recruit the 80,000 people working in print that are not members of our union.

This conference calls upon the union to support the sector with all the necessary resources to:

• map our membership and research the companies in both GPM and IT Sections of the sector to identify potential campaigns and recruitment opportunities.
• formulate and support a nationally coordinated organising strategy for the subsectors.
• receive targeted support and resources from the Organising Department at National and Regional level to help deliver the organising of the sector.

3 Development of GPM & IT Sector (North East, Yorkshire & Humber)

The GPM & IT Sector is haemorrhaging members despite a number of medium and large companies being identified as having no members, no reps or being organised.

Conference calls upon the NISC and the union to:

• do a root and branch trawl of greenfield sites and region to identify firms;
• to build the Sector and grow;
• to target potential members and organize;
• to encourage and train reps in these workplaces.

4 Organising Strategy (North West)

Conference recognises that large sections of the industries in the GPM&IT sector are ununionised or under-unionised, and that this weakens the bargaining position of every worker in the sector. Organising is therefore a high priority if we are to help workers in our sector to build more power to defend and improve their lives.

Conference believes that our sector is affected by trends such as globalisation, automation and artificial intelligence disrupting existing patterns of employment, and that an accurate understanding of trends in employment in our sector and mapping of membership and potential membership are vital to a successful organising strategy.

Conference welcomes the creation of the Work Voice Pay database which helps us map our sector. We also welcome the decision of the NISC to request the addition to the database of sector-specific fields to identify subsector (Chemicals and Print Suppliers; General Print; IT; Newspapers & Magazines; Packaging; Paper & Card; or Publishing & Media) and the organising categories approved by the 2015 sector conference, to be identified for each workplace by the RISC:

• Substantial single workplaces with recognition – “100%”
• Workplaces in employers with membership but no recognition – “green field”
• Workplaces in multi-site companies/groups where we have recognition in parts – “extend horizontally”
• Unionised workplaces in other industries with ITC outsourced on site to an employer with >20 employees – “client site”
• The rest – “nurture”

We urge our NISC, National Officer, research department, RISC members, workplace reps, branch officers and officers with GPMIT in their allocations to redouble their efforts to implement the 2015 conference decision to work on mapping the sector as above so that we build a more accurate, complete and up to date picture of GPM&IT workplaces.

In addition to data which can be held in the Work Voice Pay database, the sector should work to identify, for each workplace, factors including:

1. Number of workers by employer (including agency, subcontractors etc)
2. Number of members by employer
3. Details of all reps and branch officers
4. Details of recognition, I&C and EWC agreements
5. Unite branch
6. Any other unions present
7. Any union structures linking Unite at this workplace with other unions or other workplaces in the same employer.

Communication is at the heart of organising, and is essential to engage more activists with our sector and involve them in the mapping and organising, without which we will be unable to stop and reverse the decline in the GPM&IT sector. We note that RISCs and/or officers have generally failed to implement the 2015 sector conference decision to "email out a short bulletin following each meeting to all GPM&IT reps in their sector, with a copy to the National Officer for consideration of the NISC.”

We therefore resolve that:

1. Each NISC meeting should decide, early on its agenda, one or more NISC members responsible for drafting a GPM&IT sector newsletter which, once approved by the NISC chair, will be sent to all activists in the sector
2. The NISC should set up a sector Facebook page for content such as advertising meetings and events, promoting solidarity with a particular emphasis on our own sector, and copies of the sector newsletter
3. If cuts to Unite's Research department mean it is no longer able to provide analysis of trends in the sector and mapping, the NISC should consider an appeal to branches in the sector to fund a temporary researcher to ensure this information is brought up to date
4. The NISC should re-elect its Organising Strategy Subcommittee which should remain responsible for developing proposals for organising and servicing each of the identified organising categories more effectively for consideration by the NISC and RISCs. These may include recommendations on officer allocation, branch structure and use of lay companions to allow resources to be focussed on building power for members to win more.

5 Health & Safety in the Sector (East Midlands)

Conference notes that our industries have their own significant hazards which our members face on a day to day basis. While some of these are specific incidents, some are cumulative.

From origination to press, from press to delivery, the printing industry poses many specific health and safety hazards to GPM/IT members, from a range of sources:

• noise
• exposure to chemicals
• ink misting
• manual handling
• repetitive movement
• slips, trips and falls
• stress
• vehicular incidents
• lower limb disorders
• shift and night work
• workstation ergonomics
• repetitive strain injury

While union organised workplaces are known to be 50% safer and that is one of the main reasons people join and possibly stay in a union. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has had frequent funding cuts and making the print industry ‘Low Risk’ Means we will not see proactive HSE inspections in the GPM/IT sector. Along with previous and current government continuing to water down and cut regulation that protect us, and with the threat that Brexit brings to health and safety within our industry it is vital that we do all in our power to keep and improve workplace safety for our members.

Conference calls on the NISC to support and resource:

• setting up a specific GPM/IT National Health & Safety committee to identify hazardous trends within the industry, both current and the hazards of new technology
• run directed safety campaigns for the GPM/IT sector to inform and educate members of the risks of the trade.
• formulate and plan on how to raise the profile of Health and Safety within the sector
• notify all RISCs of serious incidents that happen nationally in the GPM/IT sector.

6 Automation Strategy (London & Eastern)

Conference calls on the Executive Council to adopt a wide-reaching strategy in both the industrial and political spheres.

Actions are now required based on the accelerating rate of technological competence and adoption. We call upon the Executive Council to promote:

• Campaigns to bring about fundamental changes to Education Policy. In the short-term learning to code and having good IT literacy skills should be a basic feature. In the longer-term emphasis needs to be on creative, analytical and social skills to ensure humans can engage in continuous learning just as technical skills become obsolete as they are transferred through machine-learning to automated systems.
• Working time strategies incorporating longer holidays and job sharing. As large-scale technological unemployment occurs how the remaining work is reallocated to humans is critical. A demand for a 30 hour week should be adopted now and reviewed as automation evolves.
• Establishing job guarantee schemes run by the public sector to allow humans to remain active and utilise their skills in socially beneficial activities e.g. environment, social care, health, cultural development
• Changes to the taxation policy from income to capital. In a future world of work where most of the work is performed by robots and AI labour will not be a sufficient source of funding for society’s needs. Taxation must therefore switch to capital and workers via expanded “ownership” can become individually less reliant on income through wages.

Clearly, the impact upon humans and the current economic systems by automation is not a technical task. Genuine and long-lasting safeguards and opportunities cannot be achieved at the workplace or even industrial sector level. As important as retraining within the workplace and technology collective agreements are the sheer scale of the automation impact requires political priority reconfigurations.

Furthermore, Conference calls upon the EC to direct all the union’s industrial committee structures to make automation strategy a permanent feature of their work just as organising, equality, health and safety now are.

The union must play to its strengths and there is considerable knowledge already possessed by workers in the UK technology sector – both within the membership and sympathetic external organisations. The future ability to successfully prosecute workers struggles and demands by affecting the means of production will be rooted in technology. In the past we have “got away” with ignoring the need to organise technology workers in even other well organised workplaces. In the future that is not an option.

7 Paperless Meetings (London & Eastern)

Conference is concerned by the recent trend towards paperless meetings both in our own union and the wider trade union movement. As a Graphical & IT sector we support the use of technology in all meetings but we also want people to have the choice when it comes to the way in which they interact in these forums between the use of paper and digital documentation. The trend away from paper does not only impact our members’ jobs and job security, but it makes the assumption that everyone is competent and confident to use the new technology and has access. There are serious concerns that the inequality of access and the cost implications for home printing have not yet been addressed.

Unite is a strong supporter of the "Keep Me Posted" campaign that makes a strong argument that there should be consumer choice between paper and digital communication when it comes to how we receive our bills and bank statements. In a recent survey the campaign found that over 81% of consumers want the choice and over 56% agree that they would be more likely to read a paper statement.

There are always two sides to any argument and we should share the findings from the "twosides" global campaign group. Twosides promotes the responsible use of Print and Paper which, when sourced from certified or sustainably managed forests, is a uniquely powerful and natural communications medium. Over 75% of pulp delivered to European paper and board mills carries a Forest Certification that indicates it is from a truly renewable and sustainable resource.

Conference calls on the NISC to pull together the supporting evidence for the continued use of paper and digital communication.

A paper should be urgently presented to the Executive Council to ensure that Unite has a strong policy to continue with both paper and digital communications in all of our committees, conferences and other activities. The Executive Council should be asked to use our paper to persuade the TUC and other affiliates to do the same.

8 Labour Party Printing (North East, Yorkshire & Humber)

Conference calls upon the union to ensure the Labour Party and Labour candidates at all levels (parliamentary, Euro and local/mayoral) to only source print, publishing and paper from bona fide unionised sources. This is at a time when the GPM & IT Sector continues to fund and support the Party. This motion will support our members and families livelihoods rather than sending work to non-union sources.

We urge the union and Unite’s members of the Labour NEC to vigorously ensure this is upheld by the Labour Party.

9 European Works Councils (South East)

Conference calls on the National officer for the sector to arrange training to be given to officers of the union with responsibility for European works councils, to enable them to fully carry out their duties as coordinator/expert on EWCs.

Time for training and other related duties in regards to EWCs should be granted by their Regional secretary.

With the uncertainty surrounding post Brexit it is vital this sector continues to lead the way, in working alongside our European brothers and sisters, in strengthening our links with sister plants in Europe.

EWCs can be a useful tool for the betterment of our members if we take ownership of them. Conference believes this is best achieved with well trained Unite officials attending them as experts .

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Report from UNITE sector conference, November 2015

The conferences were organised over three days, with services sectors on Monday, manufacturing sectors on Tuesday, and transport sectors on Wednesday. The Graphical, Paper, Media & IT (GPM&IT) conference was on Tuesday. This report covers the plenary session on Tuesday morning, where the sectors were together, the GPM&IT conference itself and the immigration fringe meeting in the evening.

Plenary

Len McCluskey described how media coverage of UNITE is through the lense of our relationship with Labour, rather than based on our primary role as an industrial organisation. UNITE was launching a new campaign on the themes "work, voice, pay" to give the union a more coherent industrial focus. He talked about the injustice of the Trade Union Bill. Referring to the debates about Trident, he argued that "above all" the union had to defend jobs and conditions.

Assistant General Secretary for manufacturing Tony Burke gave an update on various issues affecting our sectors and claimed that "we will do what it takes to save our steel industry".

Len gave a very long response to my question about whether UNITE would support deselecting Labour MPs who rebelled to support bombing Syria despite the lessons of the last fifteen years. He said that UNITE's strategy of encouraging members to get involved in the Labour Party and try to select working class MPs continues, and was being successful, having already resulted in some first class MPs being elected. He described how Corbyn had appealed to people sick of the idea that "There Is No Alternative". He thought that there was a learning curve in the Labour Party, as they adjusted to the new situation, and that this included Corbyn himself, who had said some things that were "inappropriate". He was having to get used to being a leader rather than a backbencher free to say what he liked. The Parliamentary Labour Party was on a learning curve too. They had to realise that the vast majority of Labour members had rejected the old style of politics. Len argued that he was not in favour of mandatory annual reselection, but he did support accountability. Some MPs are behaving despicably, and they should give the new leader a chance. John McDonnell is working on an industrial strategy - which would be the first in Britain for 40 years. The Labour conference had recently voted to oppose bombing Syria. Len condemned the Paris attacks, which he described as "fascist", but argued that it was important to keep a calm head. Syria was already being bombed daily. UK bombs would not make the difference. Hundreds or thousands are being kille daily. Some MPs want to vote for war merely to embarrass Corbyn. Len said he personally would vote to deselect them. He saw it as encouraging that young people were more engaged in politics thanks to Corbyn.

In response to a question about the government's attack on funding through FE colleges for education for union reps, Len said that rep training was key, and that the Executive Council's education sub-committee is looking at a strategy with Jim Mowatt.

A delegate from aerospace & shipbuilding asked about the prospects for diversification from Trident, given how the press had reported Len making disparaging comments around Labour Party conference. Len argued that there are tens of thousands of jobs in the defence sector, it would be devastating if they were lost, and it was our job to oppose such devastation. If it was feasible we shoudl engage in debate on diversification to guarantee the same type of jobs and skills. The National Officer, Ian Waddell, is preparing a report highlighting UNITE's own initiatives on diversification. We've never had a government that was interested, which has led to negative and frustrated responses. In 2001 the Labour government scrapped the body looking at diversification, so members in the sector felt nobody was listening. As general secretary, it was his job to defend ALL members' jobs and communities. At the same time we could try to do things differently. There are also issues around climate change, the civil nuclear industry, fracking etc. He would be guided by conference policy. UNITE would talk to anyone about diversification.

In response to a question about the junior doctors' dispute, Len ridiculed the attempts of the right to pretend that it would jeopardise people if there was an incident like the Paris killings. In such circumstances everyone knew where the doctors would be. Of course we should support their fight. UNITE members in the Medical Practitioners Association are involved.

In response to a question about the allegations that some union employees had been involved in blacklisting our own members in construction, Len paid tribute to the work done by our legal department in challenging blacklisting. Employers had now admitted liability and we were pushing for compensation. UNITE is in the lead on the issue. He argued that the allegations, which have been circulating for years, need to be proved - if there was evidence he would act. However, he argued that an internal investigation was impractical.

Len was asked how to respond to companies which wanted to cut costs by moving jobs offshore, threatening good jobs in the UK. He argued that multinational companies have no loyalty and would leave tomorrow if it could make them more money. The pro- free market government sees no issue with this, which is why our political work is important. This kind of thing doesn't happen in Germany. We also had to use our industrial strength. Siemens have an objective of protecting their "core workforce" in Germany, and when they make cuts they move work from the UK to Germany to do that. He asked who is protecting "British workers"? It is better for businesses to have local supply chains, who can fix issues that arise promptly. The UK needs an industrial strategy. He highlighted the case of Ford, for whom the UK is their most profitable market, despite not making a single car here, having moved jobs elsewhere, but they are still allowed access to the UK market. Len was excited to see Corbyn and McDonnell looking at an industrial strategy.

[Comment: I'm getting increasingly concerned about the amount of UNITE material talking about "British workers". Our members come from all over the world and we all need to unite if we are to win. Talk of "British workers" is divisive and weakens us, as it did during the disgraceful period when Derek Simpson followed Gordon Brown in arguing for "British Jobs for British Workers"]

George Hickman, Dave Roseaman, Sheila Rowley and Pasty Turner were elected unopposed to the Standing Orders Committee for 2017. Other elections took place on Monday & Wednesday.

Sharon Graham introduced the outline of the new UNITE industrial strategy, aimed at tackling declining living standards by extending collective bargaining and improving bargaining outcomes. An intensified focus on our core industrial work would also regenerate the union's industrial "brand" against the media representation. UNITE is an industrial organisation, not a political party.

The idea behind the "work, voice, pay" strategy is to establish core themes that are relevant across all sectors. Every worker can understand what UNITE stands for, and we can establish standards for negotating issues. The themes can be expanded and adapted as appropriate, for example:

• Work: secure, permanent jobs, without zero hours contracts. No compulsory redundancies. Apprenticeships. "Rate for the job" to stop undercutting. Safe environment without discrimination.
• Voice: Union voice for non-recognised workers. Extending the scope of bargaining (e.g. agency workers, job security). National and sectoral bargaining that covers everyone, looking beyond individual workplaces. Negotiations on service/product to shape the future.
• Pay: RPI means a falling share when productivity goes up - focus on ability to pay. Life/work balance. Training. Pensions.

UNITE has begun building a database of workplaces showing the anniversary date for pay deals, agreements etc. Preliminary analysis of our pay deals against data from the Office of National Statistics shows 18 out of 20 sectors have a "UNITE premium" on pay. For example, in the GPM&IT sector (SIC codes 18,62,63) Office of National Statistics data shows pay falling by 1.2%, whereas UNITE agreements in the sector averaged a 2.2% increase. The second phase will be to add unorganised workplaces to the database. Sharon wants to know what fields would be useful to add to the database.

The information about the strategy and database will be disseminated and discussed at NISCs and RISCs. Sectors can develop plans for coordinated bargaining including industrial principles and standards, aligning anniversary dates, or targetting particular companies or sub-sectors. "Best in sector" agreements and clauses can be identified". Combines and networks can be established across sites, companies and sectors. Activists will be able to access the database of collective agreements as well as various templates and model agreements.

GPM&IT conference

Tony Burke introduced a new report "A digital new world" which has been produced by some members in the IT & Comms part of the sector along with the research department and Mike Eatwell, an officer in London & Eastern. It includes information about the profile and importance of the industry and discussed future trends and their possible implications for the employment and the whole economy. In due course this should be available on the UNITE web site.

Ian Tonks presented his report, covering developments in firms across the sector.

Richard Wileman was elected as the delegate to the 2016 TUC conference, with Raja Hussain as the substitute.
Aleksandra Tomczak (Ola) was elected as the delegate to the 2017 TUC conference, with Ged Dempsey the substitute.

There were international speakers from the USW in North America and the UNI, the international union federation.

Alan Tate, the head of UNI Global's ICTS (Information & Communication Technology Services) sector explained that packaging and IT are seen as the parts of the sector with most potential. The UNI strategy is to focus on key multinational corporations in the services side of ICTS.

Nicola Konstantinou from UNI Europa Graphical described how they had been organising round European Works Councils, then building trade union alliances for the companies, approaching management for global agreements on basic rights.

Leeann Foster and Alex Perkins from the USW described their efforts to protect members in US papermaking from what they saw as unfair competition. They had been bringing cases under WTO rules about "unfair subsidies" resulting in selling products below fair market value, which they described as "dumping". They are only allowed to bring cases if they have a company's support, and there is no governmental assistance. Multinationals tend to be reluctant to get involved in such issues. They had won some cases against China, Portugal, Brazil, Australia and Indonesia. While the USW is against trade deals such as TPP and TTIP, they are pushing for "three strikes and you are out" banning companies from the US market if they violate market rules three times.

[Comment: The strategy seemed to be to try to persuade US employers to join the union in a fight against foreign employers seen as unfairly undercutting them. This doesn't seem to me a likely strategy to develop the international solidarity needed to beat the companies dominating world markets and defend jobs.]

Conference heard a report on the disgraceful events at Tullis Russell papermakers in Fife. Despite being employee-owned, the directors had managed to put the company into administration, land and assets sold without the owners' knowledge or any warning. Over 400 workers had lost their jobs and had not been paid £18m they were owed. One family lost £90K as three people worked there. The CEO had walked off with a £500K bonus. As neither HMRC or banks were owed money, there was no proper investigation and no illegality has been proved. The Scottish government and local councils had been supportive with funding retraining, and 85% of the workers now had jobs in other industries. However, the impact locally had been devastating with shops closing etc. A few reps can't get work and fear they have been blacklisted. If this can happen in an employee owned company it shows how inadequate UK corporate law is.

Howard Beckett from the legal department talked about the need to see legal work as part of industrial strategy, rather than as a member benefit or something that is used when an industrial strategy has failed. He highlighted several examples where an aggressive legal stance had been important for industrial campaigns, and argued that was why the government was attacking unions' ability to use the law. When we choose to fight outside the law, we want to be able demonstrate how we tried to stay within it and that the issue is significant enough that members will take the action required to win.

Howard highlighted three recent ballots which had topped the proposed thresholds in the Trade Union Bill (Rolls Royce, GKN, and Syngenta chemicals). In each case it had been important to work out a proper strategy to win in advance. At Rolls Royce, only 60% of members were affected by the pensions issue. Normally that would make it hard to get a big yes vote. Reps had carefully chosen one key site to ballot, and workers at the other sites pledged to contribute financially to make up their wages. The site returned an 80% turnout and a 96% yes vote. After UNITE explained its action plans to the employer, including plans to move action to other sites after an initial 12 weeks, an agreement was reached without any action being needed. GKN had followed a similar strategy. Howard urged sectors to consider what strategies would fit in their industries and identify key powerful groups.

Employers often seek injunctions when protests take place at the same time as industrial disputes. Sometimes they even claim protests are secondary picketing. Where protests take place without any individuals, organisation or structure (e.g. committee, Facebook page) organising them, it is much harder for employers to blame them on the union or to find any other "target" for an injunction. Protests with speakers are harder to ban because they can also benefit from the right to freedom of speech.

Howard is keen to get feedback on the new Unite Legal Services web site, to which examples of the many cases we win for members in each sector are being added.

The new "low pay rate" of subs (currently just £2 a week) for those earning below the Living Wage or less than £15,000 a year, hasn't had much publicity. To pay for this the standard subs rate had risen significantly in 2015, but there will be no rise in 2016.

Legal officers are being appointed and trained in the regions to improve legal support to officers and reps and help ensure legal issues are considered early in campaign planning.

Mark Metcalf highlighted the books being published by UNITE, book of the month recommendations and rebel road (lists of plaques, museums, statues, pubs etc commemorating labour movement heroes) which are all on the learning section of the UNITE web site.

Industrial strategy


Sharon Graham was unable to attend the GPM&IT conference to discuss the outline she presented at the plenary, so this agenda item was not discussed fully. The National Officer undertook to circulate to all delegates the exercise that Sharon had intended to do, and encouraged us all to canvass views so that it could be discussed at the next NISC meeting. It was agreed to invite Sharon to that meeting.

Motions

The following motions were agreed:

1 Industrial Strategy for the Sector (from the National Industrial Sector Committee)

Conference welcomes the outstanding election of Jeremy Corbyn as the new Labour Leader with 59.5% of the vote on a platform of anti-austerity, and a bold new vision of a fair and just society for working people.

We congratulate Unite Executive Council for the decision to endorse Jeremy Corbyn and to recommend support for him by Unite members. We also congratulate the work of the Unite Political Department for the tremendous effort they put in to sign up more than 100,000 Unite affiliated supporters, more than half of the total number of affiliated supporters signed up by all affiliated unions. There is no doubt that Unite's Political Strategy to engage with and win back the Labour Party for working class values has been hugely important in achieving this success.

We therefore call upon the NISC to work with the Unite EC to:

• lobby the Labour Party and Jeremy Corbyn to develop an industrial strategy that seeks to support the GPM&IT sector in the UK
• lobby the Labour Party to adopt a policy towards National Sector bargaining
• Lobby support for our Sector fight on procurement and public authorities use of GPM&IT recognised companies

2 Organising Strategy (from the National Industrial Sector Committee)

This conference recognises that large sections of the industries in the GPMIT sector are un-unionised or under-unionised, and that this weakens the bargaining position of every worker in the sector. Organising is therefore a high priority if we are to help workers in our sector to build more power to defend and improve their lives.

This conference congratulates the NISC on the creation of an organising strategy subcommittee in July 2014. To support their work we call on our National Officer, research department, RISC members, workplace reps, branch officers and officers with GPMIT in their allocations to work on mapping the sector so that we build a more accurate, complete and up to date picture of GPMIT workplaces. The mapping should identify, for each workplace, factors including:

1. Address
2. Number of workers by employer (including agency, subcontractors etc)
3. Number of members by employer
4. Details of all reps and branch officers
5. Details of recognition, I&C and EWC agreements
6. Other workplaces of the same employer
7. Unite branch
8. Officer
9. Any other unions present
10. Any union structures linking Unite at this workplace with other unions or other workplaces in the same employer
11. Subsector (appropriate categories to be defined)

Communication is at the heart of organising. We call on all RISCs to email out a short bulletin following each meeting to all GPMIT reps in their sector, with a copy to the National Officer for consideration of the NISC. This can help engage more activists with our RISCs and involve them in the mapping and organising.

RISCs should use the mapping decide which of the following organising categories best fits each workplace in their region:

1. Substantial single workplaces with recognition – “100%”
2. Workplaces in employers with membership but no recognition – “green field”
3. Workplaces in multi-site companies/groups where we have recognition in parts – “extend horizontally”
4. Unionised workplaces in other industries with ITC outsourced on site to an employer with >20 employees – “client site”
5. The rest – “nurture”

The NISC’s organising strategy subcommittee should develop proposals for organising and servicing each of these categories more effectively for consideration by the NISC and RISCs. These may include recommendations on officer allocation, branch structure and use of lay companions to allow resources to be focussed on building power for members to win more.

The NISC should provide a report to RISCs after each meeting on progress with the organising strategy.

[Comment: The mapping described in this motion clearly overlaps with that Sharon Graham was talking about for developing an industrial strategy, as well as with motion 3. In the discussion, it was clarified that the reports from NISC to RISCs are not intended to be full minutes or reports, but prompt updates on progress with the organising strategy. Similarly, the RISC updates to reps would focus on key points for information or action.]

3 100% Organising (from East Midlands)

Conference applauds the commitment of the Union to organising and the work of the organising department in growing our Union, which is key for the movement to survive. As activists we understand the need to look at new industries and to organise the non-unionised sectors of the economy, but this cannot be at the cost of losing traditionally well unionised industries.

This Conference calls for a membership audit of all national and international employers within the Sector; this could be achieved with the aid of the Research Department, and lead Regaional Officers. The information would be used to develop an organising strategy for the Sector, involving activists within recognised sites of the targeted companies to strive to 100% membership across the sites.

5 Collective Bargaining with the Sector (from East Midlands)

Over the last ten years we have witnessed the loss of our major National Agreement, the BPIF, which covered the majority of the printing industry. The Agreement was not only responsible for negotiating annual pay increases but more importantly it set out the minimum terms and conditions for employment within the industry.

As a result of this sector representatives have nothing to refer to when trying to negotiate rates of pay for new technology or changes in working practices within their workplaces. This vacuum has led to a decline in rates of pay and terms and conditions within the Sector.

Conference believe that the Union needs to address these issues or face a race to the bottom as companies play our members off against each other on terms and conditions of members working in this sector.

Conference calls upon the EC to publish a Unite Guide for activists working within the Sector, based on both past and present National Agreements held within the Sector. The Guide will be a useful tool in organising and as a means to try and ensure we maintian minimum terms and conditions within the Sector and protect the interests of our members.

6 Collective Bargaining Strategy (from South East)

Conference instructs Unite the union to facilitate, through the National Officer, group meetings of all the major companies in the sector, the aim being to coordinate a national collective strategy in group and sub-sector level.

7 Printing Industry National Bargaining (from South West)

For those GPM members not currently covered by a House Agreement or a National Agreement this conference demands that future wage negotiations revert to being carried out on a national basis or every effort made to re-establish national bargaining with the appropriate employers' organisation.

8 The March of the Robots (from London & Eastern)

World-wide sales of robots rose 23% in 2014 while prices fell by 14% meaning sophisticated automated systems can be purchased at £100,000 and some robots as low as £20,000.

In those manufacturing sectors that are most readily automated such as cars, other transport, computers, electronic and electrical equipment about 85% of tasks can be performed by robots.

It is expected that other sectors such as food preparation and manufacture, chemicals, metals, energy (drones are already replacing human riggers at oil sites), transport (driverless cars and trucks are being tested in California) and construction (remote controlled diggers are being tested in Sweden and 3D Printing in the Netherlands) will follow suit.

The US financial sector around Wall St employed 150,000 five years ago and that has now shrunk by a third due to technology.

Many work roles previously thought invulnerable to automation are now at a growing risk because the enhanced capacity of such systems have meant many job functions can be codified and with hugely advanced sensor systems they threaten hundreds of different service industry jobs.

This is happening now because processors that run computerised systems double in capacity every eighteen months. This has led to Cloud Computing that has freed a growing number of employers from the vast expenditure of owning their own large computer systems. That in turn has assisted the collection of Big Data using advanced mobile technology and the Internet of Things whereby machines communicate with each other generating even more data (50 billion devices connected by 2020). Technology observers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology to Oxford University have predicted between 35% and 47% of current employment roles are at high risk of automation.

The UK Tory Government has not been slow to see the advantages of such developments and alongside spending millions on R&D they have set up strategic bodies with academics and employers but notably no trade union representatives.

We call ont eh GPM&IT NISC to seek the support of the Executive to establish a working party of one senior lay rep per industrial sector to monitor these developments that threaten our members' (and future members') employment prospects.

The UK economy map highlighting work that is stategically important and future proofed needs revisiting in light of these innovations to ensure our organising efforts are flexible. Technology affects all sectors in some way or another.

Unite must lead the way on thhis by creating policies that result in technology helping to create a better society and environment and is not just used as the ultimate cheap labour resource to only create redundancies.

9 Agency Workers (from London & Eastern)

Conference calls upon our NISC to formulate a strategy to deal with the growth of agency workers within the sector. Conference would like to see a positive programme in place where workplace reps and regional officers are encouraged to firstly map the companies where agency workers exist and to proactively recruit and organise them, with the sole purpose of extending collective bargaining within the sector.

Agencies such as Aktrion and Ambtions Personnel are now the majority of the workforce in many of our companies, and their rates of pay, terms and conditions are usually set at the legal minimums. Using the statutory recognition legislation and the CAC we need to ensure that we provide a collective bargaining famework to remove this two tier workforce.

Our members need to understand that to ignore agency workers in their companies not only undermines our influence and power but put their own pay, terms and conditions and permanent roles at risk.

10 Holiday Pay (North East, Yorkshire & Humber)

Conference welcomes the campaigning work of Unite the union on holiday pay. This vital issue affects many employees across the Sector.

Immigration fringe

In the evening I attended a very useful meeting about the Immigration Bill 2015-16, which aims to create a "hostile environment for migrants" by laying "trip-wires" throughout society. The speaker was Don Flynn from the Migrants' Rights Network, who also handed out the TUC briefing on the bill.

The bill aims to increase requirements on employers, landlords, financial institutions and public servants to frequently check the immigration status of people they are dealing with. Employers and landlords can face hefty fines if they fail to do so. Immigration officials will be able to raid businesses and shut them down for 48 hours if they can't produce paperwork to show how they have checked their workers' immigration status.

The bill isn't just about people who the law says have no right to live or work in the UK, it also applies to the terms under which they are allowed to do so. The bill creates a new criminal offence of "working without permission". For example, if someone lets a room in their house to an overseas student, and they work 21 hours one week instead of 20 hours, the student could face up to 12 months in prison and deportation, while the landlord could face a hefty fine. The effect of these restrictions will be to increase harassment of anyone who looks or sounds as if they might not be British. Employers and landlords will feel under pressure to discriminate rather than taking the risk of falling foul of the law, making it even harder for workers from ethnic minorities to get jobs and housing. This will be made worse by requiring a high standard of English for jobs in the public sector - even where the role requires no dealing with the public.

Wages for anyone "working without permission" will be treated as "proceeds of crime", meaning someone who falls foul of the law has no right to their wages.

An excellent discussion covered many points. Immigration law has already been used by employers to break up workplace organisation and intimidate workers, as for the SOAS cleaners. Employers rely on migrant labour, and will increasingly do so as the UK population ages, but want workers feeling vulnerable and insecure.

The immigration bill will have a negative impact on many members, as well as on organisation. Reps need to be ready to support members affected. Don ended by pointing out that the bill relied on implementation to be oppressive, and there were many ways in which workers might fail to implement it, particularly when cuts force them to choose which aspects of their roles to neglect.

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