Now -read the book!

Here is a link to my memoirs which, if you are a glutton for punishment, you can purchase online at https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/an-obscure-footnote-in-trade-union-history.
Men fight and lose the battle, and the thing that they fought for comes about in spite of their defeat, and when it comes turns out not to be what they meant, and other men have to fight for what they meant under another name. (William Morris - A Dream of John Ball)

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Support our members - support our branches

Moving backwards through today's NEC meeting helps me to question the logic of the arrangement of the agenda which I am inverting...



At the tail end of Dave Prentis' General Secretary's Report (of which more soon)(or not so soon) I asked some questions prompted by information from some London Borough branches.



I asked about the perceived tardiness of legal advice to branches facing significant challenges. I was advised that this was the first our General Secretary had heard of such a problem and that further details would elicit a further response. I will pursue this.



I also advocated our writing to members resident in the area of any local authority attacking our members, urging them to lobby Councillors against such attacks. I was advised that we do use this tactic but that its expense means that we employ it sparingly.



I concur with the views of the London Branch Secretary who felt that we should look at how to moderate the cost to the national union of this sensible tactic - by, for example, branch funds paying the postage and branch activists stuffing the envelopes.



As you will see when I get back to the beginning of the meeting, we have a single priority as a Union, which is to confront the ConDem cuts and their consequences, building alliances in our communities. To do this our branches need prompt and effective support from Regional and National level.

Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange

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