B Hayes Speech 2013 CWU Youth Conference, Bristol, 12 Jan 13

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Speech: 2013 CWU Youth Conference, Bristol, 12 January 2013 http://www.cwu.org/billy-hayes/?p=739" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thank you very much for the invitation to come and speak to you today.

It is good, in my view, to try and vary the venue where these conferences are held so long as we can afford to do so.

I think the advantage of coming here to the South West has been shown by the interest conference has generated in terms of motions from branches in the region that appear on the agenda today.

It is also good to see so many delegates, visitors and observers here. –

If I’m not mistaken the attendance is larger than last year.

I’m particularly pleased to see so many faces from the audience when I spoke to the National Youth Education Event in Belfast in November.

Also I say thank you to you for using the new online registration system that we are developing for conferences. –

This gives us a much more accurate record of who attends and allows us to track progress from one year to the next.

I believe it is key is ensuring that our work on proportionality is successful. I will talk more about this later on.

Conferences of course are our opportunity to remind ourselves about what we’re doing and why we are doing it.

If you look at the agenda today you will see a wide range of subjects all competing to be priority items for the national Youth Committee.

That is good. It is the sign of a vibrant democracy and an engaged membership.

The agenda obviously also includes reports on what has been done on the motions you adopted last year and what the committee itself has been doing during the year. –

I believe it is a good statement of intent and action by the union’s 21,000 members aged 30 and under.

But conferences are not just about reminding ourselves of what we have done in the past or what our sense of purpose is -

It is also about a sense of renewal.

Being a union rep - especially a youth rep can sometimes be a lonely role.

A key aspect to union conferences is about solidarity and support so we can draw strength and encouragement from each other and from knowing that these concerns are not just personal to us as an individual, but we are part of a large significant movement.

Since the youth education event in Belfast, there have been some developments that I would like to bring you up to date on.

Our campaign to keep Royal Mail in public ownership and to make sure that privatisation and erosion of service levels does not happen by default has stepped up very considerably.

In December we organised a lobby of Parliament in support of an Early Day Motion on this subject and we also made a public declaration of our intent to take direct action to rectify what we see as the inequities of the current regulatory framework.

There are four key objectives:

· Unfair competition is threatening the universal service and the USO must be defended.

· Ofcom must step in to address the unfair competition

· Competitors should match Royal Mail pay, but be forced to pay Living Wage as minimum

· CWU will arrange boycott of competitors’ mail if nothing is done

We also celebrated the first National Postal Workers’ Day on 17 December, designed to emphasise the contribution our members make to society.

One of the other campaigns are referred to in my remarks in Belfast was our continuing work on behalf of our agency members under the headline of “Closing the Loophole.”

We have an agency workers’ Day of action to highlight the current deficiencies in the agency worker regulations and to push the case for more comprehensive coverage.

This will take place on locations up and down the country on 16 January-this coming Wednesday.

I hope as many of you as possible, especially but not exclusively on the telecoms and financial services side of the union, will be able to participate in some form of activity on the day

I think these two campaigns in particular show that the union is in fine form and has good campaigning spirit.

I believe that we always do our best when going forward and that what we are doing in these areas will increase confidence and energy levels amongst activists and members as well as boosting recruitment.

But, politically things have moved on too.

The volume of aggressive repressive reactionary hostile measures being pushed ever more vigorously by this government shows no sign of slowing down.

In fact if anything it is accelerating.

The frightening thing is that there are so many measures that one almost loses count of them. – There is almost competition for what is the worst of the worst that this lot can contemplate.

Therefore despite almost universal opposition from business as well as trade unions, the concept that you will be able to sell your employment rights in return for shares in a company is going to go ahead.

But like so many of these initiatives, it is an absolute sham. –

These are not shares in the way that we normally understand them and they can be lost or surrendered with great ease. –

It is another anti union, anti-worker con-trick by this ConDem administration.

The government has also pushed through a change to the way in which consultation takes place when there is to be a TUPE transfer.

In many ways TUPE or the Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment regulations are the most crucial but also the most complicated of employment protections. –

As I would hope everyone in this room knows they apply when people or services are transferred from one employer to another and are supposed to provide protection for workers who are caught up in this migration.

Now exactly what constitutes a transfer and exactly what is protected has been argued over ever since the regulations were introduced 30 years ago and there have been many amendments.

But the one thing that is clear is that unions need time to consult with their members, make representations and conclude negotiations with both the current and prospective employers.

That is why for many years, 90 days has been allowed for this collective consultation. Not any more. –

The government has decided to try and cut it to 45 days.

I have to say that this would be all well and good if it was accompanied by an obligation on the current employer and a prospective employer to be open and transparent about their plans and share information readily and fully with their trade union counterparts.

We still need to see the full detail of the regulations but I would be exceptionally surprised to see anything of that nature contained in them.

And this week, benefit caps

The crazy twisted self-interested debased logic of saying those who have least should get less and to build that into law. –

It is not surprising that government ministers have been variously described as “liars” and their proposals termed “rancid” during the debate in the Commons, and that this has provoked a Liberal Democrat split of real substance, in my view.

And looming ever closer is the introduction of Universal Credit from the new tax year in April.

I disagree with those who say that this is gratuitous vandalism of the welfare state. –

I believe these actions have been done with a clear and focused purpose.

And it is not to cut the deficit because actually making the poor poorer, making society a less equal will cost far more than it will ever save.

No, I believe it is not gratuitous vandalism but a clear deliberate attempt by the rich ruling class to institute a system of control, marginalise their opponents, frustrate the formation of effective opposition and turn the clock back more than 150 years in terms of social and industrial policy. Perhaps we should start referring to as a form of apartheid.

The impact and intent of this could not be clearer.

Any remaining myth of fairness or inclusivity is exposed.

But why should we care? Is this irrelevant?

After all as a union we are concerned primarily with what is happening for those in work and the terms and conditions of members and prospective members within the industrial sectors in which we organise.

But I would argue very strongly that it certainly is not irrelevant for three reasons:

First, the language of the debate is toxic. Let’s face it, many newspapers and politicians never needed any excuse to go after those who challenge their orthodoxy or those who advocate or support trade unionism.

But when even people like Vince Cable decry the language his own partners in government are using, we can be sure it’s pretty bad.

And for all the criticism, justifiable criticism, of most newspapers in this country, the fact remains that millions of people read them every day. They are very influential in forming people’s views. –

So if you are told day in and day out that someone or something is bad - or a shirker or a skiver – and if you have nothing to counter the argument then you will probably believe it to be true.

And the problem about the language that is being used over this debate is that it may be about those claiming welfare benefits at the present time, but it sets the stage perfectly for an outright attack, linguistically, on trade unions and working people generally.

Second, in financial terms, the cuts affect those in work as much as those out of work or seeking work. Both sections of the population get hammered.

And if they are not clobbered by cuts in the value of benefits, then changes to their eligibility will hit them.

Things like incapacity benefit or jobseekers’ allowance, cuts in child benefit, and housing benefit.

And that’s not to mention and above-inflation increases in fares for the services on which they rely to get to work.

It is true that more and more of those in work do not have enough hours or money to meet their outgoings than has ever been the case before.

That is why I am so sceptical about employment statistics that the government are only too keen to trumpet. –

If you dig a little deeper, as the TUC has done, a very different picture emerges.

So the third reason why I do not believe these issues to be irrelevant to the core values and mission of the CWU is that in policy terms it condemns all of us.

It is a false distinction to separate out those who are in work and those who are not in work or who are seeking work.

We all need to use the same services and we all live in the same country.

There are those who will go off and think they can live their life in a gated commune, but they have to come out at some stage. We all occupy space on the same planet

We want and need young members of the CWU to lead the way – both industrially and politically.

As I said in Belfast, We are working hard on what I call proportionality – making sure out union reflects the membership we have and want to have.

Most of the workforce today are women, so we are actively making sure that women are properly represented in structures. So we have a policy of proportionality of the CWU delegations at all levels in the union.

I’m pleased the Youth Committee have very much taken this on board. But we could always do better. Just as there is no limit on the number of members we could or should have the same was true of activists and representatives.

So, in conclusion, my challenge to you – to members of the committee, and each person in this hall, when you get back to your branch or your workplace, try and do two things.

First, recruit someone into the union. It may sound daunting but it is actually very straightforward-most people don’t join unions because they have never been asked.

And second, identify someone to be active in the union. Activity can take many different forms from distributing newsletters looking after a notice-board, to attending meetings. -

If nothing else, all of you as youth reps need a successor to take over from you when you become too old to carry on in this role.

Thank you once again for the invitation to be with you today.

Thank you for your contribution to our union.

I hope we the rest of the conference continues to be successful and that you will draw strength and encouragement from it.

Never forget – and never let anyone tell you – that what you do doesn’t make a difference.