Retired members called to mobilise against the Trade Union Bill

January 26 2016

General Secretary Dave Ward called on retired members to come out onto the streets for the week of action in February against the pernicious Trade Union Bill.

Addressing the Retired Members conference in Manchester, Dave highlighted the vote thresholds, which in some public sector cases could mean a union having to effectively get an 80% vote in favour to take action.

Despite some amendments on its path through Parliament, Dave claimed the bill still includes “some absolutely outrageous attacks on trade unionism.”

The GS positioned the legislation as part of an overall attack on workers that has seen rights being stripped away over recent years. “There is not a company in the UK not looking for the harshest way to attack workers, with the minimum wage becoming the maximum and low pay abounding,” said Dave.

The General Secretary reiterated the support of the CWU for Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party but called forbold policy initiatives going forward. “We want bold policies from Labour on the economy with intervention and for social housing to be back on the agenda in a major way,” said Dave. “We need the most radical housing programme since World War II.”

On the question of retired member’s involvement in the CWU, Dave applauded the ex-officio position now occupied by retired members on the NEC. He called for that role to lead to a greater linkage with membership in the branches. “There is the question of how we can communicate better with each other,” said Dave.

In debate, there was strong support for a motion calling for campaigning through the Labour Party, National Pensioners Convention (NPC), and TUC to defend the triple lock on pensions.

Proposing the motion, Phil Duffy of Greater Mersey and South West Lancashire, outlined potential threats, with the right wing think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies, already indicating that the lock was unaffordable. “The annual cost of the triple lock is £6 billion,” said Phil. “We must ensure that the triple lock continues and that future governments don’t seek to cut it.”

Jan Zabloki of Midland Number 1 rejected the intergenerational argument being raised in some quarters that argues pensions must reduce to help the young. “It is about the pensions of the young in the future as well as us,” said Jan. “We will defend the pensions they will inherit by defending the triple lock.”

There was concern expressed about the failure of branches to recruit retired members when they leave work.

Mike Creek of South West region retired members, called for a priority to be given to the recruitment of retired members. He warned of the dangers of being taken over if membership continued to fall. “It is a case of recruit or die – there is no greater issue facing our movement today,” said Mike.

There was also strong support for a motion calling for branches to donate 60p per retired member to the NPC.

Rod Downing for the RMAC told how unions had been cutting their support for the NPC over recent times.

Picking up the theme, guest speaker Dave Brown, of the NPC, claimed that “unions have no time for retired members.”

He declared: “yesterday’s members were seen as today’s nuisances.”

Dave called for retired members to play a role as pickets in disputes, arguing that the police would find it more difficult “to lock up the old wrinklies.”

He declared that the Care Act was gone and would not be coming back, while the government was looking to devolve responsibility for the attendance allowance to local authorities. “What next, will the winter fuel allowance be given to energy companies to run,” said Dave, who warned of the growing numbers of retired members suffering due to the cost of heating.

Senior deputy general secretary Tony Kearns attacked the austerity lies constantly told by the Conservative Government.

Tony quoted the National Insurance Fund, which is made up of national insurance contributions made to fund the state pension, as being £102 billion in credit last year. “Yet the government says it can’t afford pensions,” said Tony, “The government is telling us lies. The money is there to balance the books for its spending.”

The senior deputy general secretary also warned how implementation of the Trade Union Bill would cost unions £50 million over the next five years. This would be purely in administration costs resulting from the extra burdens being placed on unions. “This will be more money going to private companies, direct from workers,” said Tony, who declared that the bill was nothing more than “an ideological attack on the rights of workers to protect themselves.”

There was strong support for a motion calling for repeal of the bedroom tax.

Dorothy Burnett for the RMAC highlighted how there were 400 empty homes with two or more bedrooms in her Gateshead area due to application of the bedroom tax. “The Tory government talks about family values but this breaks up families,” said Dorothy.

Ernie Coggins for the RMAC pointed how in the Midlands proprietors were often shutting care homes because they can make more money from converting the properties to apartments. He called for early intervention from the Care Quality Commission and local authorities to ensure that action was taken to deal with failing care homes.

Other motions passed calling for government prioritisation of prostate cancer, countering the under-funding of the NHS and for defence of pensioner benefits.