GFTU BGCM Minutes 2017

BRO RONNIE DRAPER (Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union) seconded

the motion.

He said: Comrades, I would like to thank the TSSA for putting this motion in. I

believe it is a motion that any one of our unions sat in this hall could have put

in, it is something that definitely needs debating and it gives me great pleasure

to second this motion on behalf of the Bakers Union.

I do recognise and I recognise from the Executive meeting we had the other

day that some unions in here do not have political funds. I do not think once in

that whole speech that Manuel gave he ever said that we want donations or we

want you to run out, put your hands in your pockets and give money over to

Labour. This is about practising what we preached over the last two years as

far as the BGCM is concerned and probably for hundreds of years as trade

unions. We have always had the same thing and that is about a fair deal for

the people we represent.

I also recognise that not every trade union member in this country supports

Labour, because if they did we would never have a Tory Government. The fact

is we got it. But most of all, comrades, when you think about it the Tory

Government gets in on false promises, all false promises. Theresa May when

she first had her coronation into power said that they were the party of working

people. Let me tell you, parties of working people do not hit working people the

way the Tories have. They do not bring in the likes of the Trade Union Act

which takes away most of your ability to fight back. Everything that they pass

as far as legislation goes is geared against you and very much towards the

people who pay them. Whether you support Labour as far as political funding

goes, every single union in this room is affected in some way by the Trade

Union Act. Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party have said that they will repeal

that. There is loads and loads of anti-trade union legislation that is a legacy

from the days of Thatcher and we have been suffering ever since. That is up

for repeal. We have had successive Labour Governments under Blair and then

Brown. None of them ever repealed the trade union legislation, despite the

massive majorities. This is a guy who is going in behind in the polls, which I do

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