GFTU BGCM Minutes 2017

THE PRESIDENT: Nice try. What I would suggest we do is we invite the incoming

Executive to give this some consideration. They are going to meet at lunchtime

today and maybe report back. Personally I have some sympathy with the 35,

because my own union, Prospect, most of the younger members are unlikely to

be in grades represented by the union before the age of about 30 or 31, if I am

honest, so I understand where people are coming from. I guess the same

would be true of Nautilus which essentially represents ships’ officers who will

not become ships’ officers until they are 30 at the youngest, so I do take the

point that different unions will have different definitions for good reasons for

those unions and maybe there is a way for the incoming Executive to

accommodate that, but can we take that away and come back to you maybe

later. Any further comment or discussion? (No response) If there isn’t, can I

put that proposal formally to the vote. (Agreed)

Back to the written agenda. Business resumes.

CO-OPERATION AND SERVICES PAPER

THE PRESIDENT: The first item on the written agenda is the co-operation and

services paper and the General Secretary and Ian Richards are going to

update us on this.

THE GENERAL SECRETARY: Thank you. You have got a new paper in your pack

which develops the thinking that was in the paper that went to the summit in the

new union building conference and it is on co-operation and shared services. I

hope you have had a bit of a chance to look through. We are trying to go back

to where the trade union movement started in co-operation and mutuality and

helping each other out. The GFTU’s point of origin was collecting a strike fund

amongst the different affiliates to ensure that no group of workers in affiliation

would ever be locked out by the employers, which was the name of the game

at that stage. That form of cooperation is not expressed in the same way these

days, but we are trying to find new forms of co-operation which on the face of it

seem to do the impossible. They seek to save unions money and make money

for our education trust which enables us as we invest that back in our unions to

save the unions even more money and we think that we have found some

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