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Emergency motions

E1 National insurance – fair funding for frontline services

Received from GMB

In response to the new tax hike on working people announced by Boris Johnson on 7 September, breaking his own manifesto, Congress believes that:

i. he financial burden of rebuilding the economy, and addressing the underfunding crisis in health and care that pre-dated the pandemic, should not be borne by working people who are being hit by a double whammy of tax rises and real-terms pay cuts.

ii. Additional funding should not be raised through the further Conservative attack on those in low-paid and insecure work that the tax hike represents, and which will have severe equality impacts.

iii. Funding should be prioritised for and received by frontline services and all workers who help deliver them, and safeguarding jobs under threat, not the wholesale cronyism that has seen highly lucrative contracts and consultancy opportunities awarded to well-connected profiteers, exemplified by the Greensill scandal, who have accumulated wealth to the cost of our communities – workers must not pay the price.

Congress resolves that the TUC should urgently:

a. campaign against the rise in national insurance

b. call on the government to present a transparent report on all public spending since March 2020 and fully costed alternative proposals for raising revenue for debate by parliament

c. investigate counter-policies for raising funding from those who have profited from the pandemic, and for potential cost savings that could be realised by re-integrating public services – including by ending disguised profits, consultancy contracts, and artificial management fees in the care sector.

Mover:  GMB

Seconder: Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen


E2 Defending rail jobs and services

Received from RMT

Congress notes that on 9th August rail workers received notice of a mass redundancy scheme by Network Rail, which could be expanded throughout the company, following the threat of thousands of job losses across the sector, the implementation of a pay freeze, threats to working conditions and reductions in service levels.

Passengers are also facing significant fare rises following the publication on August 18th of the RPI rate that could lead to 4.8% fare increase in the New Year.

The attack on rail services and rail workers jobs together with rising fares means passengers will be paying more for less.

At the same time, despite being kept afloat by the government due to the extra funding needed to cover the drastic fall in passenger numbers during Covid-19, it is business as usual for the privatised rail industry who continue to make substantial profits on the back of the taxpayer, fare paying passengers and rail workers.

Congress believes that this is no way to run a railway and no way to treat rail workers who have been praised as heroes for keeping goods and people moving during the pandemic.

Congress agrees to fully support the rail union affiliates in their campaigns to prevent redundancies and protect jobs and conditions, and for fairer pay and fair fares and for a properly staffed, expanding, publicly owned railway as vital to attracting passengers back to our railways and meeting the climate change challenge.

Moved:          National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers

Seconded:     Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association

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