Do You Think You Could Do More Asks CWU Conference Delegate
Brian Coupland, Merseyside and South West Lancs branch delegate and conference blogger, gives his view of the CWU's annual conference held at the Bournemouth International Centre:
"What I’ve learned from this, is how little I do compared to others in the Trade Union movement and that the only way to change things is to do something. Doing nothing and expecting things to change is not an option."
GENERAL CONFERENCE AGENDA - 23 MAY 2011
Everyone gathered together on the first day, from the National Executive Council (NEC), its Officers, and delegates from the Postal and Telecoms branches, discussing policies, training and education, strategies, finance, equal opportunities and organising.
Issues raised, included the current economic climate, with the alarming political direction of the Con-Dem government, especially the proposed NHS cuts, and stressed the need to continue support for just causes, such as human rights in Gaza, the elderly, young people and job prospects, plus the High Pay Review involvement, mainly aimed at the greedy bankers. Financial matters were linked in with the decline in Union membership and the urgent need to get more members actively involved, making the CWU more effective as a collective body, and the need to streamline, leaving it in a healthier position for the future.
I was very impressed with Tony Kearns, the SDGS, who had recently attended protests against the closure of his local library. He stressed the importance of getting out there as activists and how he was able to explain to local people that they were all part of the larger Labour movement and the need to support each other on all issues by attending meetings, marches and protests to show solidarity for all causes, especially with the current proposed cuts.
TELECOMS & FINANCIAL SERVICES CONFERENCE (T&FS) – 24-26 MAY
Tuesday 24th
The first proposal from Virgin Media concerned the familiar software issue that makes it difficult to get time for lunch due to the work stack. That was followed up by one from Orange/T Mobile, another of the smaller Telco’s about how to recruit and organise enough members to get 51% of employees on board and hence legal representation.
This was swiftly followed up by props from BT branches.
Initially raising H&S(Health and Safety) matters such as the poor and inconsistent Snow and Ice Policy, reluctance to use the ‘Near Miss’ system as it’s not anonymous, and the issuing of ‘clown boots’. The bulk of props involved IR (Industrial Relations) from all branches everywhere speaking up on behalf of angry members. COT (Contractual Overtime) was one topic at the forefront. Generally they all hinged around the company’s failures to follow their own processes and agreements. These included health and carer issues. Assurances were sought that future flex agreements would be fair and applied correctly. It was even mentioned that in some call centres your APR score was raised if you were prepared to work for nothing and not take your annual leave entitlement.
Professor Phil Taylor then gave a talk on Performance Management. For me, this was the highlight of the whole conference. And for almost an hour, you could have heard a pin drop. PM was likened to a hamster wheel with a view to managing people out of companies were you don’t hit high targets.
For more information: www.cwu.org/performance-management-means-managing-by-stress.html
Well worth a look. What Phil was basically saying was that the ones at the top want more money and to pay us less. And did you know that some types of stress are good?
The afternoon’s session continued with similar themes of below inflation pay rises, extra skills forced on people for no more pay, poor training, re-deployments and more failures of all companies to stick to agreements.
Wednesday 25th
Wednesday started with a prop, combining Performance Management, Absence Management and Sick Absence Management and the brutal way that they are being used to manage people out of BT, without taking all circumstances into account and making people both physically and mentally ill. Further props followed with some harrowing examples from delegates and it was apparent that this again is happening in all telcos.
What was also apparent was the poor quality training that managers get, and it was suggested that all interviews and meetings now should be taped because of the differing accounts from both sides. The Central and West Lancs Branch, even suggesting there was dishonesty involved.... can you believe it? The removal of the High Level Review and failures to follow ACAS guidelines means that there can be contentious dismissals that can no longer be challenged. A large number of Informal Final Warnings (IFWs) are being overturned.
This Further highlights managers’ poor training and/or system generated warnings. Discipline over any of these issues or pedantic 10 point quality failures were lack of training can be an issue are on the increase.
Bill McClory, a BTPS Trustee then gave a talk on the health of our pension scheme.
Stress is not surprisingly also on the increase. The Executive were instructed to challenge the Government’s switch of calculating inflation from CPI to RPI which will ultimately affect our pensions long-term, especially the A and B schemes. The Parking at Home Policy was raised, again highlighting software failings, which seem to be geared to getting more time from you at either end of the day including moving your Preferred Work Location (PWL) further away. Despite BTs support for green issues , it just means we are all travelling further.
Ed Balls the Labour shadow chancellor then spoke about why he thinks the Conservative led coalition’s programme of cuts is policy led rather than completely necessary when you compare the country’s GDP to the amount of debt. Basically, the more people that work means the healthier the economy as opposed to the Tory and Lib Dem approach which puts the financial markets first with no thought to the long term damage that the cuts will inflict. Ed said he was proud have been involved in the TUC march, in March, that clearly rattled the Government. The ‘Big Society’ is now on version 4 because of challenges from working people, not happy about issues such Post Office closures, childcare cuts, student fees cuts and so on and so forth. Topically, he also criticised them for delaying the rollout of universal broadband.
The afternoon was taken up by a Branch Forum on the T&FS Structure and Organisation. It was somewhere at this point that I received a text from Derek Maylor our Branch Safety Officer asking if Tracy had to wake me up to get past. I took this opportunity to network with some of our colleagues from local branches of Virgin and BT at the beach. It was useful to get their opinions and solutions for dealing with shared problems.
Thursday 26th
Adrian Parry the Branch Sec from our MSWL Branch, raised an emergency prop about the attacks on trade unionists at HEROtsc call centre in Warrington where our branch has been active in trying to recruit members to get representation. So far there are around 150 members with about 250 not yet recruited. Lately, our officers have been increasingly called on to represent members on spurious discipline charges which they suspect is the company’s poor management trying to stop unionisation. 3 reps are included and some will most likely lose their jobs. All this has to be done by our officers in their own time, by taking leave (as the members do not work for BT) until such time that there are enough members to form their own branch which we can support from a distance. Adrian called for support from the CWU and the wider Labour movement to support these HERO activists. If this can be achieved, it will be a tremendous result and proof that the only way to change things is to get actively involved.
Conscious of time, the remaining props flew and included another excellent prop (their 3rd) from Liverpool Clerical, who we will soon be merging with.
In summing up, this year’s conference seemed more united and focussed on the many issues raised.
The predominant theme was mostly Performance Management linked and the shocking way that employees are getting treated. The Exec recognised that they need to go back to the employers and challenge these abuses of power and insist that our members are treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve. Failure to comply was unanimously supported to ballot for industrial action on a number of props. Senior managers sitting at the back of the hall were left in no doubt that the Exec had finally run out of patience with their false promises and stalling techniques.
At an informal meeting on Wednesday evening, these senior managers conceded that there are issues and that the vision of the Union and the Company are not that different in that they want a successful, profitable, professional business with job security, but as their vision gets cascaded down it gets distorted. It has been agreed that BT has suspended the use of COT for the foreseeable future unless MBORC (Matters Beyond our Reasonable Control) is invoked. For example, if there was an earthquake.
What I’ve learned from this, is how little I do compared to others in the Trade Union movement and that the only way to change things is to do something. Doing nothing and expecting things to change is not an option.
Have a think about it.
Do you think that you could do more?
