GFTU BGCM 2019 Minutes

There was a quote that I always remember from very early on in the Industrial

Revolution when for some reason there was some dip in some of the new

manufacturing development and someone said: “Untune the string of industry

and hark what discord follows” and that has been the story of our country since

Thatcher first removed exchange controls on capital in 1979, which was a

deliberate move to take capital investment away from manufacturing and

industry and into the gambling casino of the City of London and the dominance

of finance. We cannot continue, as Roy said, with further decline in the

wealthcreating base, because that will make it near impossible for us to

regenerate the public services and to invest in the welfare state that we want to

do.

The GFTU will do anything that Community wants us to do. If we have got to

be on it 24/7, whatever you need, we will do it to make sure that Community

and the other unions involved win this struggle. All the best. (Applause)

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Doug. Roy, take our fraternal best wishes, our

solidarity to your members there and, as Doug says, we are there to help

where we can, but we understand what they are going through. Thank you for

the report.

Colleagues, moving on, you will see we have been joined at the top table by a

good friend of the GFTU, Dave Ward, the General Secretary of the

Communication Workers Union. Dave is going to speak to us now about a new

deal for workers.

A NEW DEAL FOR WORKERS – DAVE WARD, GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE COMMUNICATION WORKERS UNION DAVE WARD: Good morning, everybody, and also, Roy, solidarity from the CWU. I

think when you consider the scale of the problems that workers face in the

examples that you have just set out what we have got to be clear on is that the

scale of our ambition to change those circumstances has to match the scale of

these problems and that is why personally I think that the only answer politically

to that is to bring in a Labour Government led by Corbyn that will transform

industry, will rebuild our towns and cities and let’s hope that happens. In the

meantime, solidarity to Community and the workers in Scunthorpe.

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