GFTU BGCM 2019 Minutes

Just a reminder too, and it is in the BGCM report, we are responsible for a

pensions trust, a pensions scheme, and that originated because many of the

small unions historically could not afford their own pensions for their officials

and staff, so they asked the GFTU to set one up, which we did and for GFTU

staff as well. So GFTU staff and hotel staff are in a scheme and then there is a

legacy of people from PCS and the GFTU in our main pension scheme which

has got a pot of about £11 million and which we have had to spend a lot of time

on, a lot of time over the last two years making sure that that stays in good

order. It is up for its triannual valuation at the moment, so it is kind of fingers

crossed on that one, because if that goes badly then that does affect the whole

finances of the GFTU. We are currently paying £70,000 a year on the previous

valuation deficit and we are hoping to keep it at about that for the future. So

that is a big part of the work of the President, the Vice-President and the

General Secretary.

We have done a lot of work over the last few years with the Durham Miners

Association, not just at the gala, but on various projects – the photography

project of the history of the dispute, they helped us out with work on the

Vietnamese links and other projects. They visit us at Quorn and we are very

friendly with them and we have been giving support to their incredible work to

preserve and extend their Parliament in Durham, the Redhill Centre, which is

one of the most important listed buildings in Britain actually, a beautiful place. I hope that you will join us up in Durham at the gala this year on 13 th July. This

is the first year that the GFTU is speaking there and that is a great honour for

us to be part of the most important working class celebration every year, so we

will be there and it would be good to see as many of the affiliates as possible.

If you have not been, it is an amazing day. It is THE most amazing day in the

movement.

Something not maybe accounted for in the education debate, but it is in the

report, is that a new development is a number of unions are coming to us

asking for specialist training, so unions that may not have done collective

bargaining at all or may not have done collective bargaining in some new

sectors in which they are organising have asked for training on collective

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