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General Council Report - Chapter 14

Issue date

chapter 14 TUC organisation

14.1 Introduction

This chapter reports on links with affiliates; the work of the General Council that has not been covered in the specific policy areas reported in previous chapters; and the TUC’s internal organisation and services, including finances, information services and staffing.

A number of important changes to the structure of the General Council were agreed by last year’s Congress and a new procedure established by which the equality conferences could forward one motion each for consideration by Congress. This chapter reports on the outstanding issues arising from those changes.

14.2 Affiliations and amalgamations

In October, the General Council accepted the Yorkshire Independent Staff Association into affiliation. In January, the Power Loom Carpet Weavers and Textile Workers Union transferred its engagements to ISTC, in February, the Managerial and Professional Officers transferred its engagements to the GMB, and in March the Associated Metalworkers Union transferred its engagements to the AEEU.

In March, the Executive considered an application for affiliation from the Scottish Area of NACODS: the application arose out of long standing disagreements between the Scottish Area and the national union, based in Yorkshire, which had led to the Scottish area deciding to secede from the national association. The General Council decided not to accept this application but to encourage closer working between the Scottish Area and the national union.

During the course of the year a number of affiliates have changed their names. The Union for Bradford and Bingley Staff (UBBS) has become UBAC - representing staff in the Bradford & Bingley Group and Alltel Mortgage Solutions; the National Association of Probation Officers has become Napo - the trade union and professional association for family court and probation staff; the Association of First Division Civil Servants has changed its name to the FDA; the Guinness Staff Association has become the Guinness UDV Staff Association and the British Actors Equity Association - incorporating the Variety Artistes Association; has become Equity - incorporating the Variety Artistes Association.

14.3 Congress awards

The General Council have selected, from the nominations received from unions, the following trade unionists to receive the Congress 2001 Awards, which will be presented at Congress.

Women’s Gold Badge - Sylvia Brice USDAW

Men’s Gold Badge - Clive Edwards NATFHE

Congress Award for Youth - Nicol Ann McConnell UNISON.

14.4 Congress

The General Council have agreed that the 2002 Congress be held in Wintergardens, Blackpool and that the 2003 Congress be held in the Brighton Centre.

14.5 General Council

The General Council have met seven times during the Congress year and will meet again in the week before Congress. A joint meeting with the outgoing General Council was held on the final morning of Congress in Glasgow at which Bill Morris was elected as Chair of the General Council and President of this year’s Congress. The meeting agreed that Dave Prentis, Gloria Mills, Sheila Bearcroft, Mick Leahy, Pat Hawkes and Tony Burke should be invited to join the Executive Committee.

Soon after Congress, Rita Donaghy retired from the General Council on taking up the post of Chair of ACAS and during the course of the year Keith Sonnet and Veronica Dunn were nominated by UNISON to fill the union’s two vacancies on the General Council.

A special meeting of the General Council was held at the Jarvis International Hotel in Watford on October 10-11 and, in line with the decision
taken at the 2000 Congress, union general secretaries who were not members of the General Council were also invited to attend. The meeting received presentations on a range of issues of concern to unions. Will Hutton, Chief Executive of the Industrial Society, spoke on ‘the changing world of trade unionism’; Chris Powell, chairman of the advertising agency BMP-DDB addressed the issue of how to promote trade unionism in a modern context; Kevin LaCroix of IBM Finance Sector Consulting Group looked at the implications of the ‘e-revolution’ for trade unions; and Julie Mellor, Chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission spoke about work/life balance. Bob Welsh, Chief of Staff of the AFL-CIO, spoke at an after-dinner session on the American perspective in the run-up to the Presidential election and, on the second morning, Stephen Byers, the then Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, discussed the political outlook and Labour’s likely intentions should the Party win a second term in government. The presentations concluded with an introduction to the TUC’s work on stakeholder pensions by representatives of Prudential. The issues raised in the presentations were considered in group discussions and reports back given to the meeting. Arising out of these discussions, at the December meeting of the General Council, it was agreed to establish a Task Group on Promoting Trade Unionism and a report of the Group’s work to date is given in Chapter 4 of the Report.

The December meeting of the General Council received a presentation on Learning and Skills given by Bryan Sanderson, Chair of the Learning and Skills Council, and, again in line with the decision of the 2000 Congress, general secretaries of unions who were not members of the General Council, were invited to this meeting. The meeting was followed by a reception attended by HRH The Duke of York, chair of the NSPCC Full Stop National Appeal Board, in recognition of the contribution made by the trade union movement to the Full Stop Campaign (see below). Other meetings were held in February, May, June and July.

14.6 Lead responsibilities

General

Overall responsibility as lead
spokesperson for the TUC The General Secretary

Senior representative

throughout year of office The President

Bill Morris

Specific areas of responsibility

Economic Affairs -

Full employment Rodney Bickerstaffe

Employment law -

fairness at work Bill Morris

Europe Monitoring Group John Edmonds

International Sir Ken Jackson

Women Maureen Rooney

Race Relations Gloria Mills

Disability Pat Hawkes

Lesbian and Gay Rights Ed Sweeney

Education and Training Tony Dubbins

Partnership Bill Connor

Pensions Tony Young

New Unionism Project Tony Burke

Health and Safety George Brumwell

Learning Services Jimmy Knapp

Environment and

Sustainable Development John Edmonds

Stakeholding Roger Lyons

Transport Bill Morris

TUC Regions Bill Morris

Trades Union Councils Jimmy Knapp

Local Government Doug McAvoy

Energy Roger Lyons

Construction George Brumwell

14.7 TUC structure and constitution

Last year’s Congress remitted to the General Council a motion which, whilst generally supportive of the extensive changes to the TUC structure agreed by Congress, proposed that each of the equality conferences - the TUC Black Workers Conference, the Women’s Conference, the Lesbian and Gay Conference and the new motions-based Disability Conference - be entitled to submit two motions to Congress (rather than the one proposed in the rule change agreed by Congress). This motion was considered by the General Council in February, when it was agreed not to vary the changes made at the 2000 Congress on the grounds that the changes had yet to be tested in practice and that the consultation carried out in 1999-2000 had shown that, whilst a number of unions favoured the changes advocated in the motion, others were opposed in principle to the concept of bodies other than affiliated unions having the right to select motions for submission to Congress. The General Council did however agree to keep this issue under review and unions were invited, via the TUC MAIL, to submit comments on the issue.

At the same time as the General Council considered this motion, they also agreed to use their powers under Rule 15(a) to amend the Rule 23(f) in order to exempt motions submitted via the equality conferences from the requirement that Congress motions should be limited to 250 words. The word limit on motions already applies to motions submitted to the equality conferences, however, as originally drafted, the rule would have prevented the equality conferences from submitting to Congress a composite or amended motion which exceeded 250 words.

The new rule 23(f) - as printed in the rules at the end of this report - therefore now reads: 'Motions (for Congress)shall not exceed 250 words in length. Amendments shall not exceed 50 words in length. These provisions shall apply to original motions and emergency motions but not to composite motions, nor to motions selected to go forward to the Congress Agenda by the equality conferences.'

One of the other changes agreed at the 2000 Congress was to increase the number of seats on the General Council by increasing the number of seats in Section C (unions with fewer than 100,000 members) to 11 and introducing three new sections, each with one member - one for a member representing trade unionists with disabilities; one for a member representing lesbian and gay trade unionists; and one for a member under the age of 27. In June, after nominations had been sought for the new General Council, which will take office after Congress, one union drew attention to the fact that the requirement that candidates for any seat on the General Council must be delegates to Congress made it difficult for smaller unions, with only two delegates to Congress, to make nominations to seats in these new sections. The General Council were sympathetic to this point, however they were also conscious that this issue had not been raised during the consultation with unions the previous year and that they would not wish to break the important link between Congress and the General Council without considering the full implications. They will therefore examine this issue further after Congress.

14.8 Disputes between unions

During the year the TUC has continued its efforts to conciliate in disputes between unions which have been reported by unions, or which have come to the notice of the TUC.

The TUC conciliation meetings normally follow a national level meeting between disputing unions where an agreed resolution of the issue(s) in dispute could not be reached (a national level meeting between disputing unions is a requirement of the TUC Disputes Procedures). Conciliation between affiliated trade unions is carried out either by the General Secretary, Deputy General Secretary or by the Union Relations Officer, Brian Ward.

Conciliation meetings, as well as dealing with an immediate issue, can also help to identify areas of difficulty between unions and potential difficulty between unions where specific inter-union procedures for the avoidance and settlement of disputes and spheres of influence agreements would be advantageous. Where it becomes apparent that such procedures and agreements would be of advantage then the conciliation discussions are developed in this direction.

During the year, 25 disputes were reported to the TUC under the disputes machinery of Congress. These were either dealt with by the unions after advice by the TUC on procedure or the issues in dispute or both, or resolved through TUC conciliation meetings.

However, a number of very difficult disputes concerning single union agreements remain outstanding. Efforts continue to seek to establish a basis upon which these might be resolved by agreement rather than binding arbitration. If these efforts are not successful then TUC Disputes Committees may need to consider particular cases.

Moreover, given the very difficult nature of disputes that now arise concerning recognition and recruitment, consideration is being given to whether further amendments might be necessary to the Disputes Principles and Procedures to assist the TUC in dealing with inter-union disputes.

14.9 Credit card

It was reported to Congress last year that the Bank of Scotland had been reappointed as the card provider for the TUC Credit Card scheme after an extensive tender process. The new contract became effective in June and shortly after that the process of signing up interested unions started.

Currently, there are 19 unions participating in the scheme representing around 3.4 million union members. In terms of the number of credit cards in use since the contract was signed, just over 40,000 new cards have been issued taking the total number of cards in use to over 200,000. There has been extensive marketing of the new card which has a very keen interest rate compared with other credit cards in the market place. In addition to direct mailing to union members, regional activities have taken place, attendance at conferences, a new web site was launched with individual links to union web sites so that members can make an application over the internet and a pilot telemarketing initiative has started with interested unions.

As part of the new arrangements with the Bank of Scotland, a joint union Steering Group has been set up to discuss issues relating to the card programme and to consider new developments. So far two such meetings have taken place as part of a quarterly cycle.

14.10 Union Energy

Formally established in March 1997, Union Energy has been offering cheaper gas and electricity to union members in a supply partnership deal with Scottish Power. Although some 49 affiliated unions have signed up to participate in the scheme as well as some non-affiliated organisations, the take-up of the energy offer among members has been very uneven across affiliates. As a result, it was agreed with Scottish Power that more of the marketing and advertising budget would be focussed on a smaller number of unions whose members have been more receptive to the offer. To assist in the effective marketing of the offer, Union Energy and Scottish Power agreed to retain the services of Transnational, the company which operates marketing for the TUC credit card. Proposals are currently being drawn up for a test marketing programme with selected unions.

14.11 Co-operative Commission

It was reported to last year’s Congress that the General Secretary had been invited to chair a Commission into the future of the Co-operative Movement and that the General Council had submitted evidence to the Commission expressing support for the co-operative movement and its potential to help in tackling issues such as social exclusion and to help in the development of enterprises not driven by the demand for short term profits, irrespective of the long-term social consequences. The report of the Commission was published early in 2001, with an introduction by the Prime Minister. The General Council welcomed the report, which was endorsed by the Co-operative Congress in May. The main argument of the report, as set out by the General Secretary in his presentation to the Co-operative Congress, was that the co-operative movement needed to improve its business performance in order to fulfil its social purpose. And that, in turn, the more it was able to meet its social goals then the greater would be its commercial success. Many of the recommendations of the Commission are now being implemented and the report was specifically welcomed by the Labour Party in its manifesto for the 2001 General Election. Consideration of the detail of the report will take place at a special Co-operative Congress to be held this autumn. The TUC is also involved with the co-operative movement and the Labour Party in the establishment of a co-operative foundation, whose aim will be to assist communities in developing co-operative solutions to the problems they face. It is intended that the foundation will be formally launched at a Social Enterprise Summit to be held later this year and that the TUC would nominate two representatives to the board of the foundation.

14.12 NSPCC

Over the past two-and-a-half years the TUC has worked closely with the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in order to promote the Society’s high profile FULL STOP campaign, whose ambitious aim is to raise £250million from a variety of sources in order to 'eradicate child cruelty within a generation'. The NSPCC’s Chief Executive, Mary Marsh, addressed last year’s Congress and, as reported to the 2000 Congress, the TUC and NSPCC worked closely on a fund-raising initiative aimed at encouraging union members to make a one-off donation to the campaign based on the equivalent of their monthly union subscriptions: the aim being to draw a parallel between the support unions give to their members and the support that the FULL STOP campaign aimed to provide for children.

In December, HRH the Duke of York, who chairs the NSPCC National Appeal Board, attended a reception held after the General Council meeting and took the opportunity to thank the trade union movement for the support which trade unionists had given to the appeal.

In July, the General Council received a report which indicated that the total raised to date directly from the trade union movement was more than £313,000 and whilst this fell short of the target of £2million set in 1999, it still represented the largest sum ever raised by such an initiative and compared favourably with the contribution of other sectors to the overall appeal.

When the General Council first decided to support the FULL STOP campaign, in 1999, they did so on the basis that this would be a time-limited commitment. The original intention was that the TUC would support a different charity each year and encourage union members to provide support on that basis. However the experience of this campaign and the advice from unions was that the most successful links between unions and charities are those which are built up over a period of time and that to seek to switch the focus year on year would be difficult. And on this basis it is expected that some of the fund raising initiatives undertaken by the NSPCC with unions will continue for some time and that some unions might adopt the NSPCC as their charity on a continuing basis, however the TUC itself will not be undertaking any further major initiatives with unions. The General Secretary has however agreed to continue to serve on the National Appeal Board as a demonstration of the trade union movement’s continuing commitment to help eradicate child cruelty.

14.13 Personnel and training

Since the TUC’s successful re-recognition as an Investor in People (IIP) last year, the TUC’s personnel and training function has been continuing to ensure that the organisation maintains the Standard. Investors in People UK have revised both the nature of the IIP standard and given organisations different options for assessment as an alternative to the previous three-year re-assessment. The TUC will be moving to the continuous assessment option, which will involve more regular, shorter visits by an IIP National Assessor. The report from the Assessor, in June 2000, provided an excellent building block for introducing further changes and developments, which will meet the IIP Standard, and more importantly provide procedures and processes in training and development to support the organisation’s objectives. These changes have included:

  • A focus on enabling staff to develop themselves and their colleagues more effectively. This has been achieved through a programme of coaching training, initially delivered to managers and supervisors, providing participants with the skills to coach and develop staff in a variety of on-the-job situations.

  • Continuous improvement to the TUC’s development review process has involved an initiative seeking feedback for managers from their staff on their ability to develop and delegate.

  • Building on previous development, providing further training to the TUC’s senior management to ensure continuing effective leadership and communication.

  • Updating induction training for new staff to ensure they receive enough information to be able to settle into their jobs as soon as possible.

  • A programme of development for regional secretaries, following the regional restructuring, to ensure their ability to manage their expanded teams and responsibilities.

In addition to this focus on training and development, the personnel and training function has been leading the organisation-wide grading review that commenced in July 2000. This major review of the jobs, grading and pay structure in the TUC is being undertaken by a joint working party of staff and management facilitated by ACAS. The working party has developed a system, unique to the TUC, against which to measure every job in the organisation. This system has been tested against a representative sample of jobs and will be rolled-out to all staff in order to measure every job across the TUC. The resulting grading and pay structure is intended to be in place for the next pay review in 2002. The partnership demonstrated in this joint working party has also been present in the staff Partnership Forum that has been set up at the National Education Centre.

Supporting the expansion of the Learning Services agenda through recruitment, induction and training services has been a major area of work. The function has also continued to contribute to other TUC initiatives including the Organising Academy recruitment process and the Stephen Lawrence Task Group. In particular, the Personnel and Training Manager now works with the National Education Centre to deliver personnel consultancy services to affiliates.

14.14 TUC finances

The TUC’s accounts for 2000 (see appendix 2) show that the financial position of the organisation remains good with a surplus last year of just over £750,000. As was reported last year, there were several key factors contributing to this continuing improved performance and these also had a significant part to play in creating the surplus for 2000, these were:

  • the continuing financial support from external agencies

  • the success of the conference facilities in Congress House

  • maintaining effective control over the TUC’s day to day running.

External Support

Last year, the TUC received a number of substantial external grants to help support work in key areas. Among these were some £390,000 from TECs to underwrite the work associated with the Bargaining for Skills programme. A further £670,000 was received from the DfEE to support various Learning Services projects, which were part of the ADAPT and Objective 4 programmes supported by the European Commission. Late last year, the TUC also successfully secured, from the DfEE, funding to assist with the running of regional educational courses in England. Last year this grant totalled some £510,000.

Congress Centre

It was reported to Congress last year that the management of the conference facilities were now operated by Sodexho (formerly Gardiner Merchant) in conjunction with the TUC. A number of changes have been introduced in particular to the way the facilities are marketed and there is now a dedicated team of booking staff. Other changes, including improvements to some of the main meeting rooms in terms of the facilities available to users, have also been introduced. This has led to a significant increase in sales income, to over £1.1 million and has had a considerable beneficial impact on TUC finances.

Operating costs

While income went up last year, so too did spending. Much of this was due to the enormous expansion in the area of Learning Services, the main costs of which come under the heading of staffing and office expenses. Almost all of this spend was matched by grant income. But, although spending in a number of areas did rise, overall tighter control of the TUC’s main operating account resulted in the Administration Fund having a surplus of some £638,000.

Development fund

In 2000, £1.174 million was allocated to the Development Fund, whose function is to promote new work and initiatives by the General Council. This was used in a great variety of projects with the main initiatives being on the following:

  • Stephen Lawrence Task Group

  • Stakeholder pensions

  • Setting up the Partnership Institute

  • New Unionism and the Organising Academy

  • Fairness at work

  • Health and Safety issues

  • Learning Services

Statement of Accounts

The annual Statement of Accounts and Balance Sheet as at 31 December 2000 is set out in Appendix 2. Overall there was a surplus of £771,000, of which £638,000 came from the Admin Fund (the main operating account) and £133,000 from the Development Fund (covering campaigns and other initiatives).

The Balance Sheet shows a further improvement in net assets to £7.1 million, up seven per cent over the previous year. This was despite having to finance essential refurbishment work to the Congress House low-voltage electrical system and the main passenger lifts in the building.

Prospects and Developments

As reported last year, the affiliation fee, which currently stands at £1.74 per member per year, was frozen until the end of 2001 and a review will take place in the autumn with any increase taking effect from January 2002. This year it is anticipated that the likely financial outturn will show another surplus. However, though external funding of key areas of TUC work is likely to continue, the core contribution to TUC finances still comes from the affiliation fee and the General Council will bear this in mind when they review the affiliation fee later in the year.

14.15 Congress Centre

Congress Centre, the name under which the conference and meeting facilities at Congress House are marketed, has had another successful year grossing £1.1 million in sales revenue. Sodexho continues to manage the centre on behalf of the TUC. During the year Congress Centre has provided the venue for various TUC events including the Discrimination Law Conference, the re-launch of the Education Service reception with Courtney Pine, the TUC Lesbian and Gay Conference, the Trades Union Councils Conference and the ILO Briefing on Child Labour. Many unions have also used the facilities for meetings and large conferences, while year-on-year external business has grown continuously, enabling the TUC to reinvest in further improving the conference facilities.

This programme of work has started with the main hall and surrounding areas including the foyer, registration areas and a new entrance. Providing the success of the conference centre continues, work will begin next year on the fifth floor meeting rooms. The enhancements to the centre should provide facilities to match any
other leading conference venue in London’s West End.

14.16 Information Service and Library Collection

The launch of the TUC’s new website during the past Congress year has resulted in many more enquiries from the general public being answered from the web site direct. This has allowed the information services section to concentrate on the more in-depth research enquiries for TUC staff and affiliated unions.

The Companies House Direct service, which was introduced in 1999, has been a great success and the number of unions for which the TUC’s Information Service carried out this kind of research has increased over the year. Building on the popularity and flexibility of web tools for research, the TUC has subscribed to Butterworths Employment Law Link and European Industrial Relations Law Reports online and will move towards online tools as a matter of policy.

The TUC Collections at the University of North London continue to attract a wide range of researchers, interested in both the history of trade unions and their current activities and policies. In 2000, the Collections received a grant of £80,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to catalogue British trade union publications up to 1980. This project is now in progress and records of the publications already listed can be seen on the University’s online catalogue at . The Collections also received a grant from the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust to help conserve important historical items in the Library, including early Congress Reports.

In July 2001, the New Opportunities Fund awarded a £175,000 grant towards the creation of an online library of resources to illustrate the history of working people and the trade union movement. The project is a UNL/TUC Partnership Initiative entitled TUC HISTORY ON-LINE and will be based on documents and images from the TUC Library Collections held at the University.

In addition to holding material deposited by the TUC, a collection development policy has been agreed to ensure that current British trade union publications are acquired and made available to researchers. Further information on the Collections can be obtained from the Librarian, TUC Library Collections, UNL Learning Centre, 236 Holloway Road, London N7 6PP [email: tuclib@unl.ac.uk].

14.17 Tolpuddle

It was reported last year that, following the successful refurbishment of the Museum, it had been agreed to commission a public sculpture to stand in the grounds of the cottages. The PCS agreed to contribute £10,000 to the costs of the sculpture and it was intended to commemorate both the memory of the Martyrs and GCHQ trade unionists. Of the seven sculptors whose proposals were exhibited last year in the Museum, three were shortlisted for interview in October following which it was decided to award the commission to Thompson Dagnall.

His design for the sculpture shows a life-size seated figure, representing the martyr George Loveless, leaning against a stone slab and staring at the sky.

Tom Dagnall presented his ideas for the sculpture to Tolpuddle residents and other interested parties in November and gave details of how it would be made. The sculpture, was officially unveiled as part of the Tolpuddle Festival in July.

The Museum continues to attract considerable interest and visitor numbers in the first year following the reopening exceeded 20,000.

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