UNISON's TUC delegation to be better behaved in future...?

The NEC received a report dealing with the composition and conduct of our delegation to the Annual Congress of the TUC.

This dealt first of all with the question of whether or not seats on the TUC delegation should be open to job-sharing. The NEC agreed a recommendation that this should no longer be possible on the grounds that if all the seats were job-shared the expense would be considerable.

The NEC also agreed that – in future – individual members of the TUC delegation will not be permitted to propose motions or amendments for consideration by the delegation for submission to the TUC. Motions will now only be accepted from “constituent bodies” of the TUC delegation (i.e. the NEC – who will delegate this to the Policy Committee, the Regions, Self-Organised Groups and Service Groups).

As a serial offender when it comes to the crime of submitting motions to the TUC delegation I will be disappointed if this move leads to the TUC delegation becoming as lively as the NEC. However I suppose the challenge to those who want to see positive development of UNISON policies is to ensure that the constituent bodies of the TUC delegation are alive to the importance of engaging with the discussion about what items are put before the TUC in our name. From the point of view of the Region it is too late to address the question of what to submit to this year’s TUC but in future years we could mandate our members of the delegation to pursue particular issues of concern to our members.