Tuesday 13 September 2016

Unite Minimum Standards for Greater Manchester?

The next meeting of Unite's Area Activists Committee for Greater Manchester will be discussing the motion below. It is taking place on Tuesday 6th December at the Unite Salford office. The meeting of the elected committee will be at 5:15pm, followed at 6:30pm by the meeting open to all UNITE activists.

Unite Minimum Standards for Greater Manchester

Many workplaces with Unite members have some workers on unacceptably bad terms and conditions.

The Manchester Area Activists Committee resolves to directly or indirectly initiate a campaign for Unite Minimum Standards for Greater Manchester. Such standards might include being an accredited Living Wage employer, no use of zero hours contracts etc.

Central to the campaign will be a fund to which branches are encouraged to contribute. Where Unite members in a workplace contribute regularly to the fund through a levy, they are entitled to apply to use the fund to supplement Unite Dispute Benefit in pursuit of the Unite Minimum Standards for Greater Manchester.

Criteria would be established to select workplaces to strike in pursuit of the standards. These might include the employer's ability to pay, members' power, profile, cost etc.

As a first step a meeting will be organised with activists from Greater Manchester, activists involved in previous campaigns based around levies (drive for 35, RR, GKN) and appropriate officers, organisers and staff. This meeting will be tasked with coming back to the next Area Activists Committee with more detailed proposals.