Unite Rules Conference - day two

Tuesday's business was less contentious than Monday's, but covered a wide range of issues.

In the debate on retired members, Assistant General Secretary Steve Turner clarified that "Executive Statements", if passed, do actually change rules - it is up to the Executive Council to work out exactly how - after Rules Conference.  Personally I think this is a strong argument against EC statements - it would be much better if the EC actually put forward the specific rule changes they want so that delegates can consider and vote on them.

Executive Statement 3 means that the Retired Members' National and Regional Committees can each submit one motion to Policy and Rules Conferences.  Each Region can nominate one Retired Member as an observer to conference, with speaking rights.  Motion 10.1 clarified that triennial Regional Retired Members' Conferences are for "retired members plus" members who are officers in any type of branch.  It also gave the National Committee for Retired Members the right to elect a lay chair and coordinator.  Motion 15/1 decided that (non-paying) "ordinary" retired members are not eligible to vote in General Secretary elections.

Motion 14/4 means that all EC nominees will have the same access to information about and access to union bodies.  14/6 overturned the EC to say that there must be an audit of sector membership at the September EC meeting and those figures used to determine EC election constituencies for the following year.  Conference overturned the EC to pass 14/20 which means EC members can't act as "Stand Down Officers" during their term of office.  14/13 means that EC by-elections only take place during the first two years of a term - any vacancies after that would be filled by an observer elected by the relevant national or regional committee.

Conference overturned the EC to pass 19/4 and set up a national access fund to provide support such as sign language interpreters as required by deaf and disabled members to access branch meetings, national meetings and other union events.

Conference overturned the EC to pass 21/1 which harmonises expenses between constitutional committees, branches, education etc.  I think this is likely to mean the EC reviewing the expenses regime generally, to avoid incurring a lot of extra costs.

NR/2 gave significant autonomy to the Scottish region (within Unite Rules and Policy) and created more substantial structures in Scotland to support that.  Contrary to some press reports, the motion does not mean that the Scottish region can take decisions on political disaffiliation / disaffiliation.

Gold medals were awarded to John Keenan, Bob Sullivan and Bob Fulton (who wasn't well enough to attend), members from Rolls Royce East Kilbride who had organised the blacking of aero engines from Chile after Pinochet's coup - solidarity which gave life-saving hope to people in concentration camps on the other side of the world.

You can watch the short video about the boycott that was shown at conference.

Rule change 27/1 on member discipline established an Appeals Committee elected from Policy Conference to hear appeals against disciplinary sanctions imposed by the EC.  Conference agreed that for the year until Policy Conference, the Appeals Committee will be constituted by one person nominated from each Regional Committee, subject to the usual proportionality requirements.

Decisions:
22/10 lost
23/1 fell not moved
22/12 carried
22/13 withdrawn
22/1 carried
NR/1 carried
3/1 carried
3/4 withdrawn
3/5 fell
3/6 lost
Executive Statement 3 carried
10/10 withdrawn
10/11 fell
10/12 fell
10/13 fell
12/2 fell
12/3 withdrawn
13/7 fell
13/11 lost
14/5 fell
16/9 fell
10/1 carried
15/1 carried
6/4 fell
10/2 fell
10/3 fell
10/4 fell
10/5 fell
10/6 withdrawn
10/7 fell
10/8 fell
10/9 fell
27/1 carried
27/3 lost
27/4 lost
27/5 lost
27/6 fell
27/7 fell
27/8 fell
27/9 fell
14/4 carried
14/6 carried
14/11 withdrawn
14/12 lost
14/14 lost
14/18 withdrawn
14/20 carried
16/1 lost
14/13 carried
16/6 lost
16/7 lost
16/8 lost
16/14 lost
16/15 lost
16/16 withdrawn
16/18 withdrawn
16/20 carried
16/2 lost
16/4 remitted
16/5 lost
16/10 fell
16/20 carried
16/2 lost
16/4 remitted
16/5 lost
16/10 fell
16/11 carried
19/1 carried
19/2 fell
19/3 withdrawn
19/4 carried
21/1 carried
NR/2 carried
NR/3 withdrawn
Interim appeals committee constitution - carried

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