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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Unite Policy Conference 2016 - Tuesday's business

The biggest debate of the day was around local government cuts. An Executive Statement strengthened Unite's policy, but didn't go as far as the motions which fell as a result of it passing.

Composite 1 (Motions 1 & 2): Campaigning Against Privatisation: Carried
Executive Statement 2: Austerity and Local Government Cuts: Carried
Composite 2 (Motions 3, 4, 5): Campaigning Against Local Government Cuts: Fell
Motion 6: Fighting Back Against Austerity: Fell
Composite 3 (Motions 7, 8 + Amendment, 9 + Amendment): Defending the NHS: Carried
Motion 138: Support the Junior Doctors Campaign Against a Pay Cut and Increased Working Hours: Carried
Composite 4 (Motions10 + Amendment, 11, 12, 13): Campaigning for Homes for All: Carried
Composite 5 (Motions 14 & 15): The Failure of Austerity: Carried
Motion 16: Defending our Libraries: Carried
Composite 24 (Motions 100, 102, 103, 104): Campaigning to Defeat TTIP, CETA and TiSA: Carried
Motion 105: Workers Uniting: Carried
Motion 106: BAEM Workers Internationally: Carried
Motion 107: Palestine: Carried
Motion 108: G4S/Palestine: Carried
Motion 109: Support for Syria: Carried
Motion 110: Anti-war in the Middle East: Carried
Motion 111: Solidarity with the Kurdish population and all progressive forces fighting repression in Turkey: Carried
Composite 25 (Motion 113 + As): Latin America: Carried
Motion 112: Columbia: Carried
Motion 114: Bullying, Harassment and Wellbeing at Work: Carried
Motion 115: Shift Working and its impact on our members: Carried
Composite 26 (Motions 117 & 112): Stress: Carried
Motion 118: Fibromyalgia Awareness in Unite and workplaces: Carried
Motion 120: Campaign and ban the use of Helium Balloons and Chinese Lanterns: Lost
Composite 13 (Motions 57 & 58): Ireland - economics and politics: Carried
Motion 121: Electronic Cigarettes: Remitted
Composite 27 (Motions 123 + As, 124, 125, 126): Mental Health: Carried
Motion 127: Food Standards / Hygiene Issues: Carried

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Report from Labor Notes conference and the Chicago Teachers' Strike

At the start of April I was lucky enough to be part of a small delegation from the UK to the Labor Notes conference in Chicago, which brought together over 2000 activists for an inspiring, stimulating and useful set of plenaries and workshops. The trip coincided with the 1 April strike by the Chicago teachers, which turned into a huge day of strikes, demonstrations and occupations involving dozens of unions and community organisations.

The first version of our report is now available here. So far it includes an overview of Labor Notes, reports from some workshops with really useful organising ideas, a report from the Chicago teachers' strike, and some background information about the US labour movement which might be helpful to readers.

Thanks to all the individuals and organisations who helped fund the delegation. Hopefully our report demonstrates that the trip was well worthwhile.

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UNITE GPM&IT National Industrial Sector Committee, January 2016

The committee, which covers the Graphical, Paper, Media & IT industries, met on Thursday and Friday. This is a summary of some key points. I’ve not included most of the industrial detail in my report because it isn’t appropriate to post publicly. For jargon, see here.

NISC members were very unhappy that there was still no representation from Wales. The original Welsh RISC meeting had been inquorate because the Welsh Regional Secretary had decided that two delegates were not allowed to be elected to the RISC from the same company even if this meant leaving places vacant, despite this being contrary to the Executive Council (EC) guidelines. The Wales Region had attempted to reconvene the conference, but this time that wasn’t quorate so no elections were possible. The situation is to be discussed at the Wales Regional Committee in the next few weeks. NISC members were keen for this to be resolved without further delay, seeing it as unacceptable for the members in a country to be unrepresented. The issue will be raised at the next EC meeting.

Funding for trade union education via the Skills Funding Agency, including reps training, faces a massive reduction in September 2016 as part of the government’s wider assault on Further Education. A report on how UNITE will respond to this will be discussed at the next Executive Council meeting.

Delegates were disappointed that Sharon Graham from the organising department was again unable to attend, after having been unable to attend conference for our sector in November, though she had led great sessions at the plenary and for many other sectors. At the GPM&IT conference delegates had agreed motions on organising, one of which set tasks for our Organising Strategy Subcommittee. This held an initial meeting on the Thursday evening and agreed some initial actions. A report will be circulated to all RISCs. The subcommittee plans to arrange its second meeting around Sharon’s availability to ensure that our sector’s plans complement what the organising department is doing rather than conflicting or duplicating it.

Under the EC report there was a wide ranging discussion including support for Jeremy Corbyn and Momentum; how to deal with bad Labour MPs; support for the student nurses and junior doctors’ disputes; Cameron’s racist nonsense about Muslims, learning English and terrorism; and our international work.

Raffiq Moosa was elected as our delegate to the Labour Party conference.

Bud Hudspith was unable to attend in person but provided a detailed written Health & Safety report which will be circulated electronically. In discussion it was clarified that though it is not a legal requirement for the HSE to contact union safety reps when they visit a workplace, it is their policy to do so.

The discussion on the report from the National Officer, Ian Tonks, included a lot of information about specific companies and workplaces which I have not included in this report for confidentiality reasons. An interesting point raised was how we turn increases to the National Minimum Wage (as it becomes Cameron’s National Living Wage) and the actual Living Wage, into wider rises to maintain differentials. Officers dealing with the GPM&IT sector will be meeting on 1-2 February. There was an interesting discussion about the benefits and dangers of national agreements and how they combined with uneven organisation and local bargaining. Sharing information between reps in competitor companies is a vital step.

On the Thursday evening NISC members attended an event to mark the 30^th anniversary of the bitter News International Wapping dispute with Rupert Murdoch, backed by Thatcher, the police and the leadership of the EETPU. This included a showing of the film Banging Out about Fleet Street and the Wapping dispute. The event had been funded by six branches in the sector.

Louisa Bull, one of the officers covering GPM&IT in London & Eastern, gave a wide ranging report which included new recognition agreements at Ambitions Personnel Limited and Pearson Education Limited. The agreement with Ambitions is particularly significant because it is an employment agency. With the support of the Printing Charity there is now a facility in England and Wales for UNITE officers to refer individual redundant members in the GPM&IT sector to Renovo who can provide outplacement services (CV writing, interview skills etc). Officers will also be able to access support from Renovo for larger redundancies where the employer is unable to fund outplacement support itself. The equivalent arrangement for Scotland is via Pace. Louisa will be speaking on equality and diversity at the London Book Fayre. A new toolkit for GPM&IT reps is finished and is currently being printed. It will also be available to reps and branch officers in the sector via on the sector pages on the Unite web site.

Rick Graham from the research department reported on his work. This included a survey of GPM&IT reps on the use of agency labour which he will be analysing shortly.

Morag Livingstone updated the NISC on a documentary she is making about the Grangemouth, Post Office (2007-9) and Wapping disputes. It is called “Belonging: the truth behind the headlines” and a short clip is available on the film’s web site. It is a feature length (90 minute) documentary which a number of union branches and regions have already contributed to funding. If a further £45K can be raised it will be possible to make it available free on YouTube for a period as part of its promotion. Further financial contributions are needed and Morag is happy to travel to speak at meetings.

I gave a short report from the IT & Comms Advisory Committee which had met on Wednesday. It had a first look at a survey of reps gathering information about workplaces, employers and issues. More work is required to go through it in detail to produce specific proposals for organising targets and opportunities to re-use materials when campaigning on issues affecting many employers. Discussion also included the more systematic recruitment of in-house or outsourced IT workers within unionised GPM workplaces, as a pilot that could be extended into other sectors.

The NISC was entitled to submit one motion to Policy Conference. I proposed the following motion:

Trident Replacement This conference welcomes the desire by Jeremy Corbyn not to spend replace the Trident nuclear weapons of mass destruction system, and to spend the money on more socially useful priorities. Conference welcomes Jeremy Corbyn’s commitment to setting up a Defence Diversification Agency (DDA) to ensure those whose jobs and communities currently rely on Trident have good, well paid jobs in future. We welcome the commitment of the Aerospace and Shipbuilding sector to engage with the DDA.The question of the UK’s nuclear weapons is not primarily about employment. It is first of all a moral issue, then a strategic one concerning the UK’s place in the world and the international environment we wish to see, then one about spending priorities. Such weapons would, if used, constitute a mortal threat to humanity’s survival; they are massively expensive; senior military figures have described them as ‘militarily useless’ and said that they should be scrapped; and our possession of them encourages other countries to seek a similar arsenal. Conference does not accept the argument that the only alternative to the priorities of right wing governments is unemployment for our members. The threat of job losses has been used to oppose everything from health and safety, decent wages and conditions, sanctions against apartheid South Africa, ending the slave trade, or bans on the sale of weapons or torture equipment to brutal dictatorships. The election of Jeremy Corbyn presents an opportunity to fight for different priorities and a better society. As a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the UK should give a lead in discharging its obligations by not replacing Trident. Crispin Blunt, the chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee has estimated the cost of Trident replacement at £167 billion, based on official figures. Money saved by ending the UK’s nuclear arsenal could generate far more jobs and be used for decommissioning, to sustain the process of defence diversification, vital to our manufacturing future, as well as other socially-useful forms of public spending. Conference resolves: 1.            That UNITE will support and participate in the Defence Diversification Agency 2.            To campaign to ensure there are good, socially useful, jobs for our members who might be affected by not replacing Trident 3.            To continue to support all members, including those currently working in Trident-related jobs, and to fight for continuity of employment 4.            To campaign against Trident replacement and for an end to UK weapons of mass destruction 5.            To support the work of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

Another motion won the vote for submission instead:

Workers Uniting Conference recognises that our global union with the United Steel Workers, Workers Uniting, has been in existence since 2008. In that time the benefits of two similar Unions working in similar industries and for global corporations, have proved to be extremely beneficial, notably in papermaking and packaging, steel, oil and chemicals, transport, glass and other important sectors. This Conference believes that Unite members should be aware of the work of Workers Uniting and the support given to members of both Unite and the USW by the partner Unions. Therefore Conference calls upon the Executive Council to include news items and reports on Workers Uniting on both the Unite website, Unitelive and in the Unite printed magazine in order that the global solidarity work carried out can be understood by members.

The next NISC meeting will consider the motions agreed at the sector conference and how to progress them.

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