National Executive Committee Report 23rd July 2020

Virtual meeting

2 minutes only allowed for each speaker who can speak only once. Mic’s will be turned off if non-compliance.

DP retirement announced, sad day for many. Will arrange an event in the future. He leaves a strong legacy making it the biggest TU in the country. Lead on equalities encouraging women activists, challenging racism etc. He leaves us in a good position moving forward.

General Secretary Election Procedures

Those wishing to stand asked to leave the meeting while this is discussed.

An amended document was presented to include legal requirements and COVID19 requirements.

Nomination meetings have to be virtual for COVID19 reasons.

Donation maximum amounts amended from up to £25.00 to up to £150.00. Records must be kept of all donations.

Forms must be completed on line, paper will not be accepted.

All hustings must be virtual unless government advice enables meetings to take place. Local lockdowns may require different rules to be applied.

Procedures and timetable agreed.

General Secretaries Report

DP Penultimate report. A was presented on the work of the union during the COVID19 lockdown.

Welfare department staffed from all sections, 2000 applications for the £250.00 grants. £250K has been paid out so far, we have even paid out for funerals of those who have lost people due to lack of funds. No other union is doing this. The NEC has already contributed £250k to the fund and we will be asking branches for more.

The union is now starting to reopen with regions, the national office and unison direct. Thanks to the unison direct team for all they did during the lockdown.

We have seen huge increase in membership, 114k in the last month. Now moving forward with TV advertising. Planning to put things in place to make us a better union. There is a plan for growth and we are looking at more social media integration. Retention is key for for the whole union. We have started raining members, 50k new members have been contacted in the last month, many calls over half an hour long.

We are in a heath crisis and our union needs to ensure we are present and visible. We are seeing the economic effects of lockdown which is now hitting local government. Many local authorities are looking at job losses, we need to protect our members. We are hearing about cuts to terms and

conditions and changes to contracts. We send a message of solidarity to Tower Hamlets who are fighting dismissal and re-engagement threats to members.

People who have been pushed into the private sector need to be brought back in house.

Spoke with all health branches in Wales, they all reported that they were exhausted, but still willing to fight for our members. We have called for a public enquiry and we are asking for evidence from our members. It must be held in public to enable our members to give account.

As we go through a general secretary election, we still have much to do for our members and we need not to be kicking each other.

We need to take account of the effect on BLM and how black people have been effected by COVID19.

National Care Service is the top of our list, Care has been treated as second class, we will be campaigning and branches and regions will be involved.

Black Lives Matter and COVID19

DP made reference to the previously published statement. We are giving evidence to the Doreen Laurence enquiry, we have written to the PM regarding their poor response. We are calling on the HSE to do something and we are discussing issues with our head of legal to see what can be done to support black workers who have been affected.

Christina McAnea to give an overview of the her paper and the work of the Bargaining Unit and the disproportionate impact the COVID has had on Black communities.

We have raised it with Public Health England and produced our own advice, we will be building on a legal campaign.

Roger McKenzie spoke about tokenism on BLM issues from politicians and councils who take a knee then do something that is detrimental to black people.

This campaign is so important to us it is essential to our union. We must ensure that branches approach employers to ensure that the guidance is followed.

SGE Elections

Elections will now be run and a new timetable has been agreed.

Date of next meeting to be arranged.

Chris Hanrahan

Maureen LeMarinel

NEC