Motion #10

Trade union liaison officer report

Motion

Reflecting upon my 2 years as Trade Union Liaison Officer, I have categorised the time into 4 parts:

• Internal improvements
• Communications
• Outreach
• Future Projects

Internal improvements

Since the last report our internal works have gone from strength to strength, with a new committee formed in December 2021 came with a new role which was the Policy and Education Officer. The continuation of using Slack as a working internal discussion has become normalised. These improvements have continued with a new website layout which informs our membership, about meetings, campaigns, events, and social media posts. Our Twitter followers has risen from 2214 to 2629 as of writing this, with presence on Facebook has increased as well with events being made and other GPEW groups being informed of any news from GPTU. There has also been financial discussion of improving GPTU via purchases of materials for physical conferences or our own physical meetings in the future.

Communication

Communication with GPTU and senior membership as well as other Liberation Groups have vastly improved with members of each joining various committees and membership meetings like SIGs for example. There have been many times with the GPTU has supported governance groups motions and campaigns and vice versa.

Outreach

Due to the covid pandemic, plans to contact trade unions for collaboration and engagement were subdued for a lengthy period of time. This also included co-operatives and potential affiliation groups. However, the GPTU and I still have some contacts with the Unions of Workers Union (UWU). The wider committee has made contact with the BFAWU (“Bakers’ Union”), whose campaign we supported with the motion to conference in Autumn 2021 and who spoke to Conference in Spring 2021 and Policy Fest 2022. NEU (National Education Union) has spoken at successive Conferences. PCS (Public and Commercial Services) officers have spoken at conferences. RMT (Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers) have expressed support for the £15 minimum wage motions. Unite’s General Secretary candidates have taken part in written hustings for Green Party members.

My plans for my ‘10 Reasons Why Trade Unionists Should Vote for the Green Party’ campaign was a partial success, again covid had delayed a lot of the logistics.

Future plans

Short-term Due to the cost-of-living crisis and the continuous direction that the Labour party is going through with its union affiliations, there have been strikes happening for the next several months. The GPTU is preparing for this with marches, pledges, coordinated responses for months for months to come. For five major motions to pass at Autumn Conference:

• “Amending Crime and Justice Policies to reflect a greater desire to move resources away from carceral policies, and towards investment in social goods”
• “£15 Minimum wage”
• “A policy statement stating the Green Party’ opposition to anti-union and anti-strike laws”
• “A policy statement calling for an increase in care workers’ pay and allowances for care workers”
• “A policy statement in support of workers taking strike action to demand higher pay and better conditions in response to the cost-ofliving crisis” If any of the motions were to pass it would be a major success not just for the GPTU but the green trade union movement as a whole.

Long term

• To make sure that trade union work and labour movement is being included and consulted in the political strategy.
• To increase the outreach to other unions and to maintain ones, especially in light of what’s happening with the Labour Party.
• To increase membership and engagement among trade unionists both inside and outside of the party.
• To ensure that when new members join the Green Party of England Wales that there is an option to select the Trade Union Group.