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Congress 2007 General Council Report

Issue date

Congress 2007 General Council Report

The 139th Annual Trades Union Congress

10-13 September, Brighton

Introduction by the general secretary

The past year has seen a number of issues rise higher up the TUC agenda. The first and most important is the plight of Britain's vulnerable workers.

In advance of last year's Congress, we published our One in Five report, showing that a fi fth of the working population now work in conditions that should be unacceptable in twenty-first century Britain. In my address to Congress I highlighted a number of cases, including that of a House of Commons cleaner who needed to do two jobs, 64 hours a week, to make ends meet.

Over the past year we have established our Commission on Vulnerable Employment, bringing together not just senior trade unionists, but business leaders and independent experts to look in detail at the nature of vulnerable employment in contemporary Britain. We have undertaken a number of field trips and have commissioned research. Our full report will be published next year. But it is already clear that 200 years after the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade there are still some workers in Britain whose conditions more closely resemble those to be found on the Caribbean plantations of the nineteenth century than the life style enjoyed by the more affluent members of today's society.

The growing gap between rich and poor was also highlighted in the second area of work that has come to prominence in the past 12 months. Trade unions have been to the fore in shining a new light on the shady world of private equity. Our main concern has been the impact on jobs. There are other concerns too: the precarious use of debt; the lack of transparency; and the manipulation of the tax regime are among those that have attracted the most public comment. It might say 'equity' on the packet, but the contents are far from equitable. We have sought to engage the leading players from the world of private equity in discussion and they have demonstrated some awareness of the damage being done to their businesses by the personalised campaigns being waged so effectively by unions against them. They need to engage genuinely with unions and accept their obligations to their workforces. I hope our debates with them can lead to some real progress.

In recent years we have worked hard to make the case for reform of Britain's unfair employment laws and we will continue to do so. But it is increasingly apparent that the problems faced by people at work stem as much from the lack of enforcement of existing legislation as the need for new laws, or repeal of old ones. In June the General Council welcomed a proposal that the TUC and unions look closely at a new approach to enforcement, rather than the current, fragmented multi-agency approach. Under this, resources would be concentrated on areas of highest risk of abuse, whilst unions and employers in areas where there is effective workforce representation would be encouraged to deal with issues in the way that suited them best. Further work will be undertaken over the next Congress year and detailed proposals worked up for consultation.

The final issue that has risen to greater prominence is that of housing. We have long recognised that you cannot sustain a position indefinitely whereby the people who provide key services cannot afford to live in, or close to, the areas where the services are required. Now at last politicians are beginning to give the issue the attention that it deserves and the TUC will be making a serious contribution to this debate.

Whilst these areas of work have achieved greater prominence over the past year other issues have retained their place high on our agenda.

We continue to give priority to supporting unions' work on organising, bringing trade unionism to workers who need the benefits which only union membership can bring. This year has seen a small rise in overall TUC membership. But while some unions have seen big gains others, principally in the manufacturing areas, have suffered losses and there remain parts of the economy where to be a trade union member is the exception rather than the rule.

The continuing demise of manufacturing and the loss of quality jobs is an enormous stain on the otherwise sound economic record of the past decade.

Too many public service workers continue to feel deeply disillusioned with lack of consultation over serious and often detrimental changes in their work. And this has been compounded by pay awards that lead to a decline in already low living standards and all this at a time when we see conspicuous consumption in other parts of the economy.

We believe that unions can play an important role in tackling climate change and greening the workplace and we are pleased by the engagement shown by government, both by David Miliband in his address to the General Council when he was the Cabinet Minister responsible for this area of work, and more recently by Hilary Benn who is taking a close interest in the work of TUSDAC.

In all these areas we will be looking for closer engagement with government over the coming year.

Over the past decade the signals have been mixed. There has been no lack of contact between the TUC and government, but this has often lacked structure and too often government has appeared to pander to the business lobby at the expense of working people.

We looked for a change of approach following the wholesale re-shuffle that came when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister and some of the indications were positive. Areas of tension were being revisited with a fresh approach by a number of ministers and some of the newly appointed ministers sought to engage with the union agenda. But there were other signs too. We were not the only ones taken aback by the decision to bring Digby Jones into the Government, and whilst ministers proclaimed themselves champions of business, there was no one prepared to stand up as the champion of people at work. A business council without the voice of working people is not only unbalanced but would also be out of place in almost every other European country, where social partnership is accepted as the norm.

This year we have invited a number of ministers to address Congress, taking the view that now is the right time to ask them to address our agenda, as they seek to come to terms with their departmental briefs. We will be listening to the tone and content of their remarks with great interest and we trust that they too will be listening to what Congress has to say to them.

We will also have with us at Congress the two most senior women in the international trade union movement. Sharan Burrow of the Australian Council of Trade Unions is the President of the newly established International Trade Union Confederation and Wanja Lundby-Wedin, President of the LO Sweden, is the newly elected President of the European TUC.

At a time when business increasingly disregards national boundaries it is more important than ever that the trade union movement acts in a spirit of international solidarity. The establishment of the International Trade Union Confederation last November gave trade unionism a unified voice around the world for the first time in more than half a century. The task now is to ensure that our voice is heard loud and clear by governments and by business worldwide. The initial indications are positive but the task is enormous. There are still too many parts of the world where trade unionists face intimidation and worse. One of those countries is Zimbabwe and again this year we will have with us at Congress one of the country's leading trade unionists, Lovemore Matombo, who addressed the General Council in November. He will be speaking to us on the situation in that troubled country. I am sure that he will receive a warm welcome from Congress and that we will continue to give all the moral and practical support that we can, as we do for trade unionists in trouble elsewhere in Africa, in the Middle East, in South America and in Asia.

The full range of the General Council's work is recorded in this report. The struggle for equal rights retains its prominent place in the work programme. Over the past year much attention has been paid to structural changes, with the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights due to come into being later this year. But in practical terms the key issue is that of equal pay, with complex legal cases and the crucial issue of funding standing in the way of serious moves to redress the historic imbalance that, 30 years after equal pay legislation, still means that the average woman worker earns far less than the average man.

This year Congress delegates will receive the biennial Equality Audit showing the progress made by our own organisations on the equality agenda. There has been a much better response to this audit than there was to the last, two years ago, and there has been some good progress, but there is still much to done and this exercise will continue to form an important part of the work of the TUC and unions.

This year the General Council's work on pensions and welfare has been incorporated into the economic and industrial affairs chapter. This is not a sign of declining importance but a signal that some of our major campaigning work has had the desired effect and, whilst we have not achieved everything that we set out to do, this is an area in which our work has moved from the high profile to the detail, with some important victories.

Our work with unions in different sectors came under some scrutiny last year during the structures and services review. This year a synopsis of the scope of the work was presented to the General Council. This shows that whilst our work does appear to be somewhat ad hoc and always has been, involvement is based on the sound principle that the TUC will only play an active role in a sector where that is what the unions want and where we can add value to the work done by unions themselves.

One area where it is clear that the TUC does add great value is our work on learning services, now branded as unionlearn. In just over a year since its launch, unionlearn has made a real impact in the workplace and has made an important difference to many people's lives. With government and business emphasising the crucial importance of learning and skills to our future prosperity it is the trade union movement that is delivering in a positive and practical way.

Health and safety is another area where the value added by the trade union movement is widely recognised, though perhaps sometimes taken for granted. Over the past year we have achieved a major success in protecting workers from the damaging effects of tobacco smoke. A social revolution has taken place within a relatively short time and unions have played a key role in that revolution. In years to come it will appear astonishing that workers were exposed to such hazards for so long with so little regard to the impact on their health.

At regional level too the TUC, through our regional councils, adds value to the work being done by individual unions, giving a practical regional dimension to our campaigning work and forming valuable links with local communities, business and pressure groups.

Our national campaigning work too has continued to make a public impact and just as significant is the parliamentary work, both that with government and that with back benchers, raising awareness of the union agenda and urging support for measures of importance to trade unionists, such as the backbench private members bills on 'trade union freedom' and agency work, which attracted much support from unions.

The past year has been one of historic importance for the trade union movement. The creation of Unite has brought together unions that have played a crucial role in TUC history and produced some of the movement's greatest figures. As a single union, with almost two million members, committed to organising and taking the trade union message out into new areas, Unite has the potential to be an even more significant force in British trade unions' future than its constituent unions were in our past. A strong and growing Unite will mean a stronger trade union movement.

The changing geography of the movement has meant changes within the TUC structure. The review exercise conducted last year was, in part, the result of concern among the specialist unions about their position in a TUC dominated by a small number of large affiliates.

Changes have been made following that exercise. Rule changes have been made on General Council seats and motions to Congress and these are before Congress for approval. But more significant has been the change in the way we conduct General Council business and the decision to open up General Council meetings to general secretaries of all unions. Meetings are now more structured around the important issues of the day. We have more space for discussions and guest speakers. It is still early days but I believe that the changes have certainly been for the better.

The past year has seen the death of a number of former General Council colleagues, including the 1990 Congress President Ada Maddocks, who did so much to advance the cause of women in the trade union movement. Particularly sad were the deaths of Roger Bolton, general secretary BECTU, and of Moira Mooney, a member of the TUC's Economic and Social Affairs Department.. Both were the victims of long and painful illnesses that struck them down in the prime of life.

A number of General Council colleagues have retired during the course of the Congress year, Barry Camfield left in April after seven years on the General Council, serving on the Executive Committee and as chair of the Regional Chairs and Secretaries Group. He has also played an active role in the work of the Southern and Eastern Regional Council and will continue his important work as a member of the Olympic Delivery Authority.

Jimmy Kelly left in May following his appointment as Secretary of the No. 3 Region of the T&G Section of Unite. He had been a member of the General Council since 2004.

Ed Sweeney left in June after nine years on the General Council. He had acted as lead spokesperson on International Development and chaired the LGBT Committee from its inception in 1998 until 2001 when a General Council seat was created for a representative of LGBT workers as part of the wider constitutional changes. He also chaired the TUC staff superannuation society.

Leaving us at this Congress will be Paul Mackney, who has been a member of the General Council since 2002, and who has played an active role in all the TUC's work; Sofi Taylor, who joined in 2003 and has been a member of the team to the ILO; and Pauline Foulkes who joined at last year's Congress as one of the USDAW members.

I am sure that all General Council members will join me in wishing our former colleagues all the best for the future.

Finally on a personal note I would like to thank all those unions that have invited me to their conferences and other events over the past year and to thank the General Council for their support.

Brendan Barber signature


BRENDAN BARBER

General Secretary

August 2007.

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