Steve Phillips attended the Restructuring Conference along with Andy Cable on behalf of the branch. On the Saturday, Steve spoke on our two Motions which had been submitted on behalf of the Branch. Richard Abbiss, the Branch Secretary was in attendance on the Sunday for the Rules Revision section.
Steve speaking at the rostrum on Saturday.
Saturday 28th June dealt with the proposed Restructuring of the Union.
The National Executive of the Union (NEC) had proposed a number of changes to the structure of the union so as to try to ensure that the union remained financially sound and also remained a standalone union.
There were four areas that they proposed to restructure. National and Branch Structures, National Officers, Regions and Conferences and Delegations.
On the subject of Conferences and Delegations the NEC proposed to move to a biannual conference rather than being held every year, they said this would reduce costs for the union We had submitted two motions on behalf of the Branch. One motion concerned Conferences and Delegations. This was Motion 4 a composite Motion. This read as follows “The union should not move away from holding General and Industrial Conferences every year. However, in order to reduce costs, move to biennial ‘in person’ conferences, with an ‘online’ conference held in the intervening years. Therefore, the conference instructs the NEC to withdraw recommendation 1 on page 9 of the report.” Our Branch believe that conference is the sovereign policy making body of the union and we opposed moving away from holding an in-person conference every year. However, to reduce cost we would agree to a biannual conference, providing there is an online conference every other year. This motion was supported by Somerset Devon and Cornwall Branch. Steve seconded this motion on behalf of our Branch. However, Karen Rose, Deputy General Secretary, Telecoms & Financial Services, told conference that there was a cost in the region of £100,000 to holding an online conference. This was greeted with some disbelieve by some of the conference delegates. The motion was unfortunately not carried by conference despite our best efforts.
The other motion that branch submitted was Motion 2, this was also a composite Motion and dealt with Regions and was supported by the South East Regional Committee.
The NEC proposal read as follows “There is a need to clarify the rules covering the eligibility as to who can stand for the five Regional Officer Roles. Delete from, “The NEC are clear.
We asked to Insert the following, “The new positions are open to all CWU members and will not discriminate against members from unrecognised businesses or Portability members.”
We believed that portability members and members in unrecognised companies should not be discriminated against and that all positions should be open to these members. We believed this was discriminating against portable members and was not showing equality. We believed this was relevant in our Branch, as we have a lot of portable members that are working for unrecognised companies. But unfortunately, when the motion was put to the vote it was not carried.
Motion 18 was also a Composite Motion by North Lancs and Cumbria. This motion also dealt with the Regions and the proposed new structure of Assistant Regional Officers and their role. This motion was put to the vote and was close on a show of hand and resulted in a card vote by conference. We voted to support this motion. The card vote results were Yes 62,832, No 85,424 Therefore the motion was lost.
Regarding the Regions the NEC proposed to reduce the number of CWU Regions. The proposal would merge Eastern Region and Midlands Region and also merge South East Region with London region. This was to reduce costs to the union. The NEC said this would mean two current Regional Secretary would go. One of these is Paul Moffat who is a member of our branch. Our branch covers both Eastern Region and South East Region so these changes will have an impact on our branch and the members
Sunday 29th June. Was set aside for Rules Revision section. This lasted just over an hour as many motions were withdrawn. Most of the major changes had already been debated and decided by conference on the Saturday. The NEC had in general succeeded in getting their changes through regarding the restructuring of the union and hence moving to a more streamlined union structure, which hopefully, will allow it to continue to be a standalone union.
Report provided by Steve Phillips, Our Political Officer.
The CWU Restructuring Conference and Rules Revision Conference agendas can be found here, along with the daily reports and outcomes of submitted motions.