General Council Report 2023

5.1 Introduction 

After a period of upheaval following the pandemic, the TUC has continued to develop its support functions knowing that their effective and efficient operation is needed now more than ever. 

5.2 Our people, learning and development 

Our people are the bedrock of all we deliver at the TUC. Our 2022 staff survey showed even higher staff engagement than our previous good results. Our staff are proud to work for us and find their work meaningful. Our new way of working is embedded: this balances a good degree of flexibility and working from home for most staff, while maintaining time for in-person collaboration. 

We reviewed our inclusion project, including a talent and development course for Black and minority ethnic (BME) staff and their line managers. We are considering next steps to address barriers so that all staff, including BME staff, feel included and valued, and are seeing the same promotion and development opportunities. All this work is aligned with the Anti-Racism Task Force. We introduced affinity groups to the TUC, with six groups up and running. We are undertaking further work to tackle sexual harassment, as outlined in the TUC sexual harassment toolkit. 

The TUC is reinvigorating staff learning and development with the election of additional union learning reps, and the formation of a joint learning and development group. We are also exploring new ways of encouraging learning and development, including offering individual learning accounts. 

Following a difficult budgetary round, we are looking very carefully at vacancies and have taken some tough decisions to end or reshape posts to best meet operational demands, while avoiding redundancies. 

We welcomed back Nicola Smith as head of our Rights, International, Social and Economic Department (RISE), filling the vacancy left when Kate Bell was elected by the Executive Committee as assistant general secretary. We also saw the retirement of Bill Adams, regional secretary of TUC Yorkshire & the Humber, and other longstanding staff including Rob Sanders, senior publications officer, and Wilf Sullivan, race policy officer. We wish all our leavers well. 

5.3 IT strategy and information services 

The TUC has made more improvements to its information security and upgraded some of its hardware. We have transferred more data to our CRM system and strengthened our email marketing. We have procured a new finance system that will stand us in good stead for the future. 

Our information line supported nearly 5,800 public enquiries in 2022, a 26 per cent jump. Of these, 76 per cent were from people who wanted to know how to join a trade union, encouraged by increased union activity and media presence. 

5.4 Congress House – managing our estates 

Despite difficult conditions in the lettings market, the TUC seeks to make the best possible use of Congress House. We continue to seek more tenants for vacant space in the building and were pleased to welcome a further affiliate tenant. We have concluded most of a programme of works to update systems and are consulting on how to make better use of a smaller working space for TUC staff. 

5.5 Congress Centre – a valued venue 

Over the years, the TUC and its affiliates have enjoyed the wide range of meetings, conferences and events facilities hosted by Congress Centre. Demand has been building steadily, welcoming old faces and new, with new hybrid facilities proving popular. We remain positive about the future. 

5.6 Congress 2022 

The TUC held its first in-person Congress for three years in Brighton last October. Delayed due to the death of the Queen and rearranged at short notice, we delivered a successful event at which the economy, the pay crisis and industrial action were prominent themes. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer addressed Congress and we delivered a full programme of fringes, events and speakers. 

We were proud to present our Congress awards in Brighton. Lewis Akers from the NGSU won the Congress Award for Youth; Jamie McGovern from the CWU won the Health and Safety Rep Award; Bella Fashola from RMT won the Organising Award; Carol Sewell from UNISON received the Women’s Gold Badge; and Kathryn Williams from Unite won the Union Learning Rep Award. 

5.7 Women’s Conference 

The theme was ‘women demand better’. Delegates debated tackling all forms of violence against women and girls, the cost-of-living crisis, women’s health in the workplace, and global solidarity. There were fringes and workshops covering tackling and preventing sexual harassment, defending maternity rights, embedding the work of the Anti-Racism Task Force, solidarity with women in Ukraine, and the barriers young women face in the labour market. 

5.8 LGBT+ Conference 

The theme of our conference was ‘allyship, unity and solidarity’. Delegates discussed challenging far-right narratives, international LGBT+ rights, the cost-of-living crisis, healthcare and community services, trans and non-binary equality, banning conversion therapy and workplace equality. There were panels on LGBT+ poverty and the cost-of-living crisis, and solidarity in the face of the far right. 

5.9 Disabled Workers Conference 

The theme of the conference was ‘disabled people demand better’. Delegates debated motions on paying the price of the cost-of-living crisis, employment rights, protest, reasonable adjustments, accessible public services and accessibility. There were panel discussions on the rights of disabled people, the cost-of-living crisis, and industrial injury including long Covid.

5.10 Black Workers Conference 

The theme of conference was ‘organising for racial justice’. Delegates discussed tackling institutional racism, building an anti-racist trade union movement, the cost-of-living crisis, race pay disparity, international solidarity and challenging the hostile environment. Workshops and fringes also covered how to win a £15 minimum wage industrially and politically, Black workers’ experiences of flexible working, and building a trade union response to the far right. 

5.11 Young Workers Conference 

The conference brought together 100 young trade unionists for important debates on how we tackle the cost-of-living crisis, how we diversify our movement, and what young workers want from unions. Speakers including Paul Nowak and Maria Exall joined delegates in discussing how we recruit, organise and energise the next generation of trade unionists. 

5.12 Trades Councils Conference 

General Council lead Steve Gillan chaired an excellent Trades Councils Conference in Congress House in June. Sixty-five delegates enjoyed debates on a range of contemporary issues and heard addresses from fraternal delegate Mike Arnott from the Scottish trades councils movement and from Garfield Hylton of GMB on the pioneering organising campaign to secure pay rises and union recognition at Amazon in Coventry. In line with resolution 66, through its regional work the TUC continues to support local organising initiatives and the pioneering work of trades councils. 

5.13 Trade Union Comms Awards 

Last year, 21 unions entered the competition with a total of 65 entries, showcasing a variety of high-quality communications from across our movement. 

The judges were Sarah Owen MP; Niall Sookoo; Julian Scola, TUAC; Hannah Davenport, Left Foot Forward; Emil Charlaff; and Saiqa Khushnood, Usdaw.

The winners were: 

› NUJ – Best union journal 

› Equity – Best recruitment and organising communication 

› NEU – Best communication for reps and activists 

› NEU – Best campaign communication(s) 

› RMT – Best media story 

› RMT – Best use of social media 

5.14 TUC finances 

The annual statement of accounts and balance sheet as at 31 December 2022 is set out in Appendix 3. It shows a total deficit across all funds of £9.645m, including asset revaluations and FRS102 pension accounting adjustments. The pandemic meant big variances to our income and expenditure from budget in another difficult year for financial management. The operating deficit on ordinary activities of £664,000 comprises deficits of £150,000, £282,000, £197,000 and £40,000 and a surplus of £5,000 on the administration, development, unionlearn, Congress House dilapidations and external grants funds respectively. 

5.15 Development fund 

In 2022, 10 per cent of the affiliation fee was allocated to the development fund, alongside some external funding, and was used to promote new work (including on Covid-related campaigning) and General Council initiatives in the following priority areas: 

• Britain needs a pay rise 
• decent work for all 
• a just and resilient future 
• advancing anti-racism 
• building an inclusive TUC 
• the Coronavirus public inquiry. 

The development fund showed an operating deficit of £282,000 due to a significant increase in in-person rallies and events following the pandemic, and expenditure on the Covid-19 public inquiry, funded from development fund reserves. 

5.16 Statement of accounts 

The administration fund (covering day-to-day office running expenses and staff costs) produced a deficit on ordinary activities of £150,000. Ordinary income was slightly higher than budgeted, with an increase in conferencing and property rental income being partially offset by a decrease in affiliation fees driven by lower member numbers. Ordinary expenditure was considerably higher than budgeted due to a return to in-person meetings and events following the pandemic, the rescheduled Congress, one-off staff costs, and higher utility costs. The unionlearn fund produced a deficit of £197,000 and all funds due to the funder have now been repaid. The development fund is shown above, while during the year £40,000 of expenditure was incurred on the dilapidations fund. The external grant fund, representing non-unionlearn-funded project activity, produced a surplus of £5,000. 

During 2022, our calculated FRS102 pension scheme position moved from a £21,262,000 surplus to £23,571,000. This positive movement of £2,309,000, together with the operating deficit of £664,000, the gain of £2,200,000 on sale of investments and deferred tax and revaluation loss of £13,490,000, has reduced the funds of the TUC from £93,909,000 to £84,264,000.

5.17 Prospects and developments 

A budget for the 2023 administration fund has been agreed by the General Council. This showed a projected deficit of £1,310,098, which has subsequently been reduced to £510,098, with efforts being made to reduce this further. The General Council approved an affiliation fee freeze for 2023. 

TUC has retained its Fair Tax accreditation. 

5.18 TUC Library 

Located at London Metropolitan University, the TUC Library provides a wide range of resources on both the history and current activities of trade unions, industrial relations, labour history and adult education. 

Six exhibitions are currently available to loan: the life of Mary Macarthur; the history of young workers; 150 years of the TUC; the 1984/85 miners’ strike; the Russian Revolution; and American and British labour relations. 

Our educational history websites – The Union Makes Us Strong, Workers’ War, Winning Equal Pay and Britain at Work – contain image archives and oral history and can all be accessed from www.unionhistory.info 

The TUC Library has started a Black trade unionists oral history project, with the TUC’s former race equality officer Wilf Sullivan and students from London Metropolitan University conducting interviews with Black reps and officers past and present. These interviews will be added to the Britain at Work website in the near future. 

TUC Library can be found on social media at: 

facebook.com/tuclibrary 

pinterest.co.uk/tuc_library 

twitter.com/TUC_Library 

Enquiries, visits and inductions are very welcome and can be organised through Jeff Howarth at: 

London Metropolitan University The Wash Houses Old Castle Street London E1 7NT tuclib@londonmet.ac.uk 020 7320 3516