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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Reinstate Ian Allinson statement

A "Reinstate Ian Allinson - Stop victimisation of union reps" statement has been launched to put pressure on Fujitsu over my dismissal and build solidarity for the wider Fujitsu dispute.

I've copied the text of the statement below. The statement with signatories is here, along with how to add your support.

Reinstate Ian Allinson - Stop victimisation of union reps

On 12 January Fujitsu dismissed Ian Allinson, chair of Unite in Fujitsu UK, under the pretext of redundancy. Ian was part of a tiny fake redundancy pool where the company said all the jobs would go.

While Ian was on compassionate leave for a family funeral Fujitsu wrote to tell him he would be dismissed later that week. Fujitsu refused to allow him to work his notice, despite not yet having responded to his application for a job they encouraged him to apply for, breaking previous promises. This is not the first time Fujitsu has tried to victimise Ian, and Ian is not the only rep they have targeted.

Unite members at Fujitsu Manchester have voted to take strike action over the victimisation of reps, compulsory redundancies and breaches of redundancy agreements. Fujitsu denies breaking the agreements on the grounds that they are “almost entirely voluntary” - a worrying sign of its future intentions. Fujitsu’s aggressive approach is shown by their threat to withhold bonuses, often worth up to 20% of annual income, from anyone who strikes.

Victimisation of any union activist is an attack on the movement as a whole. When the activist is well known the outcome can influence the behaviour of other employers and the confidence of members to be active. We note that around half Fujitsu’s UK business is from the public sector and welcome the commitment that a Labour government would only award public contracts to companies that recognise trade unions, and have “high standards” on issues including workers’ rights. We applaud Unite’s record in defending activists, including the successful use of leverage campaigns as at Honda and Crossrail and expect Unite to leave no stone unturned in this case.

We call on Fujitsu to reinstate Ian Allinson and stop victimising union activists.

We pledge to campaign for Ian’s reinstatement and build support and solidarity for the Fujitsu dispute.


For more information on the campaign and how you can support it, see https://ouruniontest.wordpress.com/fujitsu-national-dispute/

To add your name to this statement, please use this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSedHBJ59tTfUQznILXU-qHGYntOqhubp-ftuCSmlaC_gZr1Iw/viewform

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My dismissal and the Fujitsu strikes

On Friday 12 January Fujitsu dismissed me under the guise of redundancy. They had given me the news by letter earlier in the week, when I was on compassionate leave for a family funeral. They didn't even allow me to work my notice despite the fact that I had an outstanding job application they hadn't responded to - for a job they had encouraged me to apply for. My redundancy was a fix to victimise me for my union activity - I was in a tiny fake selection pool where Fujitsu claimed all the jobs were to go, avoiding any scoring.

My last day was brightened by a moving show of support as I left:

I was the fourth member to be dismissed while fighting their redundancy, two more haven't yet been dismissed. Of the six, the majority are black or ethnic minority, the majority are disabled, two are union reps, and one was dismissed without Fujitsu hearing her grievance which included a complaint of sexual harassment linked to her selection.

The fight goes on, including for my reinstatement. I've been protesting outside the site:

Fujitsu Manchester are on strike 24-26 January, 30 January and 8-14 February over compulsory redundancies, victimisation of reps and breaches of redundancy agreements. There's a particular push to get people to protest in support of the pickets on Wednesday 24th January. On Friday 26th January there will be a joint strike rally in Manchester city centre with the First Bus and Mears strikers.

There's lots more information, including how you can support our campaign, on the Unite @ Fujitsu web site.

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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 GPM&IT NISC October 2017

Report from GPM&IT NISC October 2017

Unite’s National Industrial Sector Committees (NISCs) meet quarterly, bringing together activists from a particular industrial sector, delegated from Regional Industrial Sector Committees (RISCs). The NISC for the Graphical, Paper, Media & IT (GPM&IT) sector met on 5-6 October 2017 and this is my report. My report does not include much of the discussion about workplace issues, as most NISC members regard this as too sensitive to publish.

Automation

The Organising & Leverage Department has prepared a detailed report on the potential impact of automation on jobs and a draft template New Technology Agreement. Sharon Graham, the head of Organising & Leverage, introduced the discussion. The estimate is that around 35% of current jobs in the UK and Ireland will go in the next 18 years. Unite has assessed the risk to each industry and identified 11 Unite sectors, including GPM&IT, at “high risk”. The forecast is for around 230,000 of the jobs of the 650,000 members working in those sectors to go.

Automation is nothing new, but new technologies mean this will affect a wider range of jobs and in new ways compared to previous phases. Some low-paid jobs would not be affected soon, because it is cheaper to pay people badly than use technology. In some cases it would be tasks, not whole jobs that would go, but this would still lead to a reduction in work.

Automation should be a huge positive, enabling us to be more productive and have higher standards of living while reducing working hours, while also creating some new skilled jobs. But this depends on who has the power to decide how automation is used and what purposes they use it for. Without effective industrial and political campaigning, it is likely employers will simply try to gain temporary competitive advantage by displacing workers, contributing to unemployment and inequality. Workers are the source of profit, and many businesses rely on workers to buy their products. This approach could create huge social and economic problems.

Workers need strong organisation to ensure they benefit rather than lose out due to automation.

The intention is to have a debate on this topic across Unite to produce detailed plans for Unite’s response tailored to every sector and region by June 2018. The NISC will be holding a one-day workshop to discuss this in more detail. Leading activists in the sector who aren’t on the NISC are welcome to join in with this.

Proportional representation

Unite has produced an excellent consultation paper on proportional representation in Westminster elections, setting out the pros and cons of the current system and various possible alternatives. The majority of the NISC felt that though PR wouldn’t be a magic bullet to improve participation or accountability, change is needed.

Holiday pay based on average pay

Since Unite’s legal wins more and more employers are increasing holiday pay to reflect average pay (i.e. reflecting overtime, bonuses etc.), but a few have been trying to base this on an average across the whole year, rather than on the days worked, which would still be underpaying people. Unite will support members taking legal action over holiday pay if employers do not resolve it promptly.

Mapping the sector

Our 2015 sector conference had decided we should map our sector. All RISCs have been asked to go through the GPM&IT employers and workplaces in their region listed on the Work Voice Pay database. I showed NISC members how to do this, identifying the sub-sector and organising category, and provided a spreadsheet to make it easier.

The Work Voice Pay database is gradually being populated with workplaces, but already covers over 34,000 members in our sector (roughly 80% of the total). I also provided some break-downs of GPM&IT membership by union recognition, number of sites in employer, number of regions in employer, and the membership and recognition status in the top 100 employers.

• 10528 members work for the top 10 employers, six of which only have partial recognition
• 21107 members work for employers with 100 or more members
• 31501 members work for employers with 20 or more members

Motions to sector conference

Each Unite sector is having a conference in November. The NISC submitted two motions to it, one on branch organisation, the other on simplifying the processes for branches to affiliate to their local Trades Councils or Labour Parties.

Future meetings

It was agreed to have a speaker on the Gender Pay Gap at the next NISC meeting. The meetings will take place at the London Moreland Street office and the dates for 2018 will be:

• 4-5 January
• April TBC
• 14-15 June
• 4-5 October

Unite Community

Tracey Bent from Camden Community branch gave an update on the work of Unite Community. Her branch works around three areas:

• Local campaigns
• National campaigns, often taking local actions
• Supporting industrial campaigns

We thanked the branch for their support for the Fujitsu dispute.

She described some of the work the branch has done to support various industrial campaigns, where they can often do things that members in the workplace can’t.

Tracey talked about the work they had done to support people following the Grenfell Tower fire, which had directly affected dozens of members including three from the Camden Community branch who died. As well as material and financial support, Unite had offered counselling and financial support to all those affected.

The NISC is encouraging people to invite Community branches to speak at our own meetings and to give them financial support. The Community branches get 7.5% of subs, like all other branches, but when subs are just 50p a week that doesn’t go far, especially when some members need financial help even for a bus fare to a meeting.

NISC members talked about the need to look at rule changes to allow Community members a bigger voice in the Unite structure.

Brexit

The union has produced a pamphlet “Brexit: Unite demands protections for you” for the GPM&IT sector. Some of us questioned how this had been produced without any input from lay members or the NISC. We raised concern about the position outlined on freedom of movement, where the pamphlet advocates restrictions on hiring people from “abroad” – a discriminatory policy which was not agreed by the Unite Policy Conference, as I have explained elsewhere. Worse still, there is barely a mention in the booklet of the position of EU citizens living in the UK, many of whom are Unite members. In terms of “protections for you”, the rights of EU citizens are the most threatened – the pamphlet comes across as if migrant workers are “them” whereas actually they are part of “us”. Migrants’ rights are workers’ rights.

Research

The NISC has been pushing for years for an update on the excellent analysis of the sector produced by the Research Department for the 2013 sector conference, but this has not been produced due to lack of resource. At the previous NISC meeting Tony Burke had taken an action to follow this up, but we had received no update. When there were cuts to the Research Department the General Secretary had promised that this would have no impact on support for members and activists, and had said people should raise it if there was such an impact.

RISCs and NISCs for 2018-2021

Adrian Weir had produced a proposal for the composition of GPM&IT RISCs and NISCs for the 2018/2021 term. The NISC will have to decide its response at its January meeting. In the meantime RISCs are asked to review the proposals and come back with their comments.

One important change since the last round of elections is that the rules were changed to ensure that every RISC had a seat for each of the equality strands, i.e., Women, BAEM, LGBT and Disabled Members. The EC has updated its guidance on Rule 11 too. The practical consequences are that Regional Equality Conferences will take place before the September 2018 Regional Industrial Sector Conferences, and that each Regional Equality Conference will elect one delegate to each RISC.

Fujitsu Dispute

There was strong support from the NISC for the campaign in Fujitsu and the following motion was agreed unanimously:

Fujitsu This GPM&IT NISC notes that rather than settling the dispute after 12 days of strike action in Manchester followed by 15 days nationally, Fujitsu has chosen to escalate the dispute by: ·         Making an offer, since rejected by 92% of members, that would have curtailed existing union rights to support members, communicate and organise ·         Breaking the existing Annex 2 facilities agreement by unreasonably refusing time to communicate with members ·         Attempting to victimise a number of Unite reps Having terminated the UK Information & Consultation body earlier in 2017, Fujitsu has blocked agreement on a replacement by demanding that reps should be unable to communicate effectively with constituents. Unite is now ramping up the campaign in Fujitsu towards a ballot for further industrial action. This NISC recognises that the outcome of the dispute will not only affect the job security and remuneration of hundreds of Unite members, but shape union organisation within the company and the wider sector for years to come. This NISC recognises the importance of success for the future of our sector. This NISC pledges its full support and resolves: 1.       To publicise the online petition against the victimisation of Unite reps at Fujitsu: https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/fujitsu-victimisations 2.       To ask branches and chapels to assist the campaign, including with leafleting of sites, promoting the petition, and financial contributions 3.       Updates from the campaign should be circulated to activists 4.       Material relating to the Fujitsu campaign (e.g. the current petition against victimisation) should be promoted via Unite’s social media and prominently displayed on the union web site at key times 5.       To ask for the victimisation petition and appeal for support to be circulated to all manufacturing sector activists 6.       To ask the International Department for assistance with coordination with unions in other countries, particularly those involved with Fujitsu’s European Works Council 7.       To ask the Political Department for assistance in the campaign, given that most of Fujitsu’s UK business is public sector 8.       To support the request from the Fujitsu Combine for assistance from the Organising and Leverage Department 9.       To support higher Dispute Benefit to ensure members can take sufficient action to secure a speedy and successful resolution of their dispute 10.   If necessary resources are not available, to ask for consideration of temporary or stand-down officer / organiser resources

Unite Education

A Unite Education Report 2017 has been produced. Unfortunately there were insufficient copies so I have not seen it yet.

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