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Unite Policy Conference 2021 – day five

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Below is an update on Friday’s business – the final day of #UPC2021. Conference discussed the Executive Council report and Unite’s accounts, plus motions on Pensions & Retirement, Political & Labour Party, Union Administration & Membership Services. Key conference documents and updates from previous days were posted previously (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday).

Executive Report & Accounts

They were endorsed.

Pensions & Retirement

Emergency Motion #1 State Pension – Triple Lock (text below) – agreed

Composite 12 (motions 88+A, 89) State Pension – agreed

Motion 86 State Pension – agreed

Motion 85 State Pension – agreed

Composite 13 (motions 91, 128) Dignity for Older People – agreed

Motion 87 Pension Protection Fund – agreed

Motion 90+A National Pensioners’ Convention – agreed

Motion 132 Retirement & Pensions Education – agreed

Motion 133 Retirement & Pensions Education – agreed

Political & Labour Party

Composite 14 (motions 92, 93, 95) Preferential Voting – agreed
This was a contested debate, but the Composite, opposing First Past The Post, passed by about 2 to 1.

Composite 15 (motions 96, 97) Clause IV – agreed

Union Administration & Membership Services

Motion 142 Branch ICT – remitted

Motion 143 Trade Union Councils – agreed

Motion 131 Transport from Heathrow – agreed

Emergency Motion #3 Housekeeping and Hospitality and Unite’s use of hotels (see below for text) – agreed

Emergency Motion #1: State Pension – Triple Lock

Introduced in 2011 by the coalition government, the triple lock guarantees that the basic state pension will rise by a minimum of either 2.5%, the rate of inflation or average earnings growth, whichever is largest.

Despite  a clear manifesto commitment from the Tories to honour the Pension Triple Lock, the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has now stated that the triple lock will not the honoured this year and that changes will be made to how pension increases will be calculated.  

The excuses and rational for reneging on the manifesto commitment, is the anticipated rise in average earnings as worker move form furlough to full wages. The Bank of England estimates this will equate to an 8% rise in average earnings. 

Already the rhetoric of unfairness is in the media and it’s that unfairness card that the Tories will play to justify breaking away from the Pension Triple Lock manifesto commitment. It feeds into the already false narrative that pensioners in the UK are well off and are better off at the expense of tax payers and to the detriment of the younger generation.

This unfairness narrative fuels division and allows the government to abdicate responsibility for delivering for all sectors, whether young or old, working or not working. The reality is that compared with many of our pensioner counterparts in Europe, our pension level is low and many pensioners in the UK live in poverty. Since the pension triple lock was introduced in 2012, the highest rise has been 5% with most annual increases being around 2.5%. Conference calls on the Executive Council to mount a vigorous campaign to protect the Pension Triple Lock and ensure that it is restored at the earliest opportunity and to work alongside the NPC, SPF (Scottish Pensioners Forum), TUC, Labour Party and to mobilise support for the campaign across all sectors of the union.

Emergency Motion #3: Housekeeping and Hospitality and Unite’s use of hotels

Conference notes that hotels used by delegates during Policy Conference have a policy of not offering daily housekeeping, guests are required to opt in.

Conference calls on the Executive Council to ensure that all future block bookings made for Unite will require the hotel to provide daily housekeeping.

Conference also demands that housekeeping is provided on a daily basis at all Unite hospitality premises.

Conference calls on Unite to campaign against this threat to hotel housekeepers’ livelihoods and occupational health and safety by:

  • informing sister organisations of this threat to hotel housekeepers’ livelihoods and asking them to adopt policies of requiring hotels they use for events to provide daily housekeeping
  • raising public awareness, scientific evidence shows that cleaning hotel rooms yields similar public health benefits as cleaning other parts of the hotel
  • campaigning for decent working conditions and collective agreements in hospitality.

Unite Policy Conference 2021 – day four

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Below is an update on Thursday’s business. #UPC2021 finished off the motions on Rights for Workers and their Unions and debated motions on Social Action and Organising, Global Solidarity, International & Europe, and heard from Frances O’Grady – TUC General Secretary and Tom Conway – President of the United Steel Workers. See previous posts for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. These posts also include links to key documents including the text of motions.

Rights for Workers and their Unions

Motion 104 – ILO convention on violence and harassment – agreed

Motion 105 – The Surveillance Society – agreed

Motion 106+A – The Surveillance Society – agreed

Social Action

Composite 18 (motions 111+A, 113+A) National Health Service – agreed

Motion 110 National Health Service – agreed

Motion 112 National Health Service – agreed

Motion 119 National Health Service – agreed

Composite 19 (motions 117, 118) Local Authority Cuts – agreed

Motion 114 Local Authority Cuts – agreed

Motion 115 Local Authority Cuts – agreed

Motion 116 Local Authority Cuts – agreed

Motion 120+A Public Services – agreed

Motion 121 End Unfair Evictions – agreed

Motion 122+A Accessible Welfare – agreed

Motion 123 Digitisation and Welfare – agreed

Motion 124 Digitisation and Welfare – agreed

Motion 126 Care Homes – agreed

Motion 127 Care Homes – agreed

Motion 125 Unfair Overdraft Charges – agreed

Motion 129 Power of Attorney – agreed

Emergency Motion 2 Campaign against cuts to face to face debt advice services (see below for text) – agreed

Organising

Composite 11 (motions 79, 80, 81) Precarious Workers – agreed

Motion 137 Precarious Workers – agreed

Motion 83 Organising Young Workers – agreed

Motion 136 National Youth Co-ordinator – agreed

Motion 78 Organising in Hospitality and Tourism – agreed

Global Solidarity, International & Europe

Motion 43 Brexit & Ireland – agreed

Motion 44 Brexit & Gibraltar – agreed

Composite 6 (motions 45, 46) The Post Brexit World – agreed

Composite 7 (motions 47, 48) The Post Brexit World – agreed

Composite 8 (motions 50, 51) The Post Brexit World – agreed

Motion 49 The Post Brexit World – remitted

Motion 107 The Post Brexit World – agreed

Motion 108 The Post Brexit World – agreed

Motion 52 Black Lives Matter – agreed

Motion 53 India & Kashmir – agreed

Motion 54+A Palestine – agreed

Motion 55 IHRA – fell

Motion 57 Latin America – agreed

Motion 58 Latin America – agreed

Motion 59 Turkey/Kurds – agreed

Emergency Motion 2 Campaign against cuts to face to face debt advice services

Conference notes that the Money & Pensions Service (MaPS) funds much of the debt advice provision across England. The recommissioning process for contracts beginning April 2022 closed on 15th October, and has already led to proposed job cuts across the sector.

Conference further notes the new contracts will result in 50-60% cuts to face-to-face community-based debt advice at a time when demand for debt advice will increase sharply due to the cuts to Universal Credit, increasing energy bills and National Insurance.

Conference believes that debt advisers are already facing higher demand and having to deal with more complex cases than ever before. A workforce of well qualified, highly specialised, dedicated para-legal professionals is already overwhelmed and demoralised by the current MaPS contract which focuses on high volume targets and intensive quality assurance that combine to leave insufficient time for advisers to deal with complex cases.

Conference further believes that debt is not just a symptom of individual financial difficulty, it is also a symptom of systematic failure. It is a failure to redesign the ways in which our economy and wider society works to free people from poverty and isolation and give everyone a decent life. Problem debt needs to be part of wider conversations about the rising living costs that people are facing; the expansion of unstable or poorly paid work and declining social security protections

Conference welcomes the new Unite Debt Advice Network (UDAN) has been formed, connecting debt advisers across the country to campaign on national threats to pay and conditions.

Conference calls on the Executive to organise a high profile campaign to demand the following:

  1. suspend all recommissioning for at least 12 months to allow independent research into future demand
  2. Immediate suspension of the bureaucratic quality-monitoring process (‘DAPA’)
  3. support the work of Unite’s Debt Advice Network campaign to oppose the MaPS recommissioning 
  4. use all Unite media and social media platforms to explain the recommissioning process and the impact this will have on debt advice services
  5. campaign for increased funding for face-to-face community-based debt advice , not cut, in any resumed recommissioning​
  6. ensure future decisions by MaPS about debt advice jobs and services include consultation with Unite.

UNITE Rank and File National Meeting June 2019

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Unite Rank and File is holding a National Meeting from 12.30pm until 4.30pm on Saturday 1 June 2019 at the Wood Green Social Club, 3-4 Stuart Crescent, Wood Green, London, N22 5NJ

If you are attending, please register here

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/urf-national-meeting-june-2019-tickets-62720885858

If you wish to stand for any of the committee positions, please see list of positions below

We are holding this important meeting in the run-up to Unite’s Rules Conference, due to take place at the end of June. We’ll be talking about how we can put democratising our union on the Conference agenda and what outcomes we want from it.

Our guest speakers will be Suzanne Jeffreys from Campaign Against Climate Change and.Sam Mason from Waltham Forest SERA

The full agenda for the day is as follows:

  • Welcome and introduction
  • Elections to the Committee
  • Preparations for Rules Conference
  • Building Unite Rank and File
  • Unite and the Fight against Climate Change
  • Organising strike solidarity
  • Any other business

The meeting is open to all Unite members who want to see a fighting rank and file members’ movement.

There will be a pooled fare system in operation

We hope to see you all there.

Best wishes and solidarity!

Unite Rank and File Steering Committee

COMMITTEE POSITIONS FOR ELECTIONS

Co-chair x 2
Editor
Assistant Editor
Assistant Editor
Assistant Editor
Assistant Editor
Solidarity Coordinator
Treasurer
Coordinator East Midlands
Coordinator London & Eastern
Coordinator South West
Coordinator West Midlands
Coordinator Aerospace & Shipbuilding
Coordinator Community Youth Workers & Not For Profit
Coordinator Community Youth Workers & Not For Profit
Coordinator Engineering Manufacturing & Steel
Coordinator Finance & Legal
Coordinator Passenger Services
Coordinator Retired Members
Coordinator Black Asian &*Ethnic Minorities
Coordinator Women
Deputy (for Retired members)

Leaflet for Unite Sector Conferences

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Leaflet headed "Solidarity Needed" highlighting various strikesThis week Unite members will be meeting in Brighton for our 2017 sector conferences. Unite Rank and File has produced a leaflet explaining what we are and encouraging solidarity with various disputes. If you can, please lend a hand distributing it to delegates and encourage them to sign up for Unite Rank and File.

The timetable for the conferences is as follows:

  • Sunday 12 Nov: Retired Members. Docks, Rail, Ferries & Waterways
  • Monday 13 Nov: Civil Air Transport. Passenger Transport. Road Transport Commercial, Logistics & Retail Distribution. Food, Drink & Agriculture. Service Industries. Government, Defence, Prisons & Contractors
  • Tuesday 14 Nov: Local Authorities. Energy & Utilities. Education. Health. Community, Youth Workers & Not for Profit. Unite Construction, Allied Trades & Technicians. Finance & Legal.
  • Wednesday 15 Nov: Aerospace & Shipbuilding. Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Process & Textiles. Automotive Industry. Graphical, Paper, Media & Information Technology. Metals (including Foundry). General Engineering, Manufacturing & Servicing.

Delegates normally arrive the day before the conference to register, and delegates normally stay over after the conference to travel home the next day.

Launch: Unite Rank & File – building solidarity across the union

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“Unite Rank and File” launchedUnite rank and file icon

Working class people face huge challenges at work and in our communities. We have endured decades of high unemployment, deregulation, anti-union legislation, privatisation, cuts and outsourcing, alongside an inadequate response from our unions. Many have felt powerless and vulnerable as our jobs, pay and conditions, services and rights are attacked.

Yet workers continue to resist, and when we do, we usually achieve some measure of success. Workers create all the profits, and we have enormous power – if we have the consciousness and organisation to use it.

The low turnout and lacklustre results of the senior officials standing in the Unite elections earlier this year showed that there is a large and growing disconnect between our union’s leadership, structures, and members. They also showed that a significant minority of members want to see a more radical, robust and bottom-up response to the challenges facing us – just as the response to Jeremy Corbyn shows that millions want something more than a fresh gloss on the same old free-market fundamentalism. There is a widespread desire for a more democratic culture, where discrimination is not tolerated. This is essential if we are to maximise involvement in building a strong union.

“Unite Rank and File: solidarity across the union” is a new network of Unite members which aims to:

  • Build solidarity
  • Encourage resistance and make our union do more to encourage it
  • Put activists in touch with each other, share information and ideas
  • Champion independent workers’ organisation and challenge the toxic “in partnership with management” culture so widespread in Unite
  • Supporting the development of rank and file networks and campaigning initiatives throughout our union
  • Campaign to reform and reinvigorate Unite’s democratic structures to promote a bottom-up culture where members participate, challenge discrimination and are in control
  • Campaign to change Unite policies e.g. against Trident and for workers’ rights to move freely and be treated equally

While the impetus for the new grouping came out of the campaign to elect Ian Allinson as General Secretary, we are not seeking to create yet another electoral faction within Unite. We welcome your participation irrespective of your views on the recent elections or whether or not you are affiliated with any of the electoral groupings such as United Left.

Please leave your details if you want to get involved. As well as our web site www.uniterankandfile.org you can also follow us on Twitter @UniteRankNFile and like our Facebook page @UniteRankAndFile.