CWU accounts 2009/10

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LTB393/10 - CWU Accounts 2010


No. 393/10
Ref: TK/lm
Date: 6 May 2010




To: All Branches


Dear Colleague


CWU Accounts 2009
Please find attached the CWU Accounts for 2009. We are now able to publish these accounts following their full and detailed audit by our professional auditors Chantrey Vellacott DFK (please note that the accounts are exclusive of Branch accounts).


Branches are now invited to submit any questions against the accounts. Questions must be addressed to the Senior Deputy General Secretary and received by no later than 17.00 on Monday the 17th May 2010. Questions may be sent by e mail but must be addressed to sdgs@cwu.org. (Emails sent to any other email address may not be picked up in time to be answered within the appropriate timescale).

Responses to questions will be circulated to Branches on the site of Annual Conference 2010.


The final accounts, including all Branch accounts, will be forwarded by e mail to all Branches as soon as they are available.


Yours sincerely


Tony Kearns
Senior Deputy General Secretary

cwu__1273160226_10LTB393.doc

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Report of the Senior Deputy General Secretary

Before dealing with these issues individually there is a general comment that needs to be made. Despite clear presentation of the accounts of the CWU for a number of years and despite taking every opportunity to lay out the warnings that we need to make substantial changes it seems there are still those who continue to deny that there is a problem.

Those ignoring the blatantly obvious are either just not interested in reading the truth and thus should really not be representing our members if they can’t be honest with them. Either that or they simply still can’t grasp the concept that spending more money than you get in will lead to demise. It is also worth pointing out that those adopting this approach are to be found at all levels of this union, locally as well as nationally.

My role however is not to pander to those incapable of or determined simply to ignore the truth. My job is to explain what is happening with our members money and how it impacts upon our ability to run the CWU to represent them. Nothing else matters, certainly not the opinion of those who think the messages given out here are some kind of "mind trick” and most certainly not those who are not prepared to work on a collective basis to solve our problems.

Our problems are not solved by following one agenda, together we can sort out our issues but that means everyone accepting a reduced share, working on a unified basis. Trying to dominate the debate with one or other agenda will end in failure and is simply an unsustainable position for those who believe in Trade Unionism. What is at stake here is an efficient organisation of the working class and our collective responsibility to ensure we manage spend in such a manner that we continue this organisation. Those who deny it I invite to either put forward a credible alternative or allow those of us who believe in this Union to make the necessary changes.

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SUMMARY OF FUTURE CWU POSITION

In summary then we currently face the total of the following:- a declining income that will begin to accelerate through 2010 an existing increase in expenditure through 2009 (£1.6 million) and a known commitment to fund pension deficits of up to or approximately £1.4 million per year. Thus we face a situation of a shortfall in our ability to function financially of over £3 million a year.

In order to simplify the position even more and to assist those who I referred to earlier who live in denial of this situation, this is the financial reality of the CWU. We currently hold at the bank approximately £5 million, accumulated as a result of the work undertaken since 2002 within the CWU to introduce new budgetary controls that have turned around the previous deficits we experienced over 8 years ago.

If you outstrip expenditure over income as I have clearly summarised above by approximately £3 million pound per year then you run out of cash at the bank sometime late 2011.

This position is entirely consistent with the previous warnings I have given particularly in the commentary to theaccounts 2008 that by and large seem to be ignored.

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CONCLUSION
We can either ignore the reality of this situation or we can deal with it. To deal with it means we are determined that the CWU survives and that we will take whatever decisions are necessary to reduce our expenditure as needed.

I have no doubt there are those who will take on the mantra “I know we need to make savings…but (not in my particular area)” such an approach is useless.

The CWU is a Union worth fighting for, it is a Union that does and can continue to make the working lives of thousands of people that much better. We can only do this if we exist and to exist we need to ensure that we make the necessary changes to our spending patterns that the 2009 accounts and the future forecasts show are
desperately required.

The same tired arguments defending the existing structure and spending regime of the CWU will see our demise. It is now time for people to stop cloaking themselves with the false logic that somehow there’s a way to just carry on as we are, deliver no change and everything will just turn out fine – it won’t.

Defending nothing but self-interest and offering no real or structured alternatives to making the necessary changes, those who adopt this approach will be responsible for the demise of this Union.
Real changes proposed to conference coupled with a much stricter and more tightly controlled budget allocation process will ensure a Union survives that represents working class women and men at grass roots level. Delivering for them a Union they can identify with and wish to belong to.

That is how we must and will be running the finances of the CWU from this point on – with that aspiration in mind.

Tony Kearns
Senior Deputy General Secretary.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Tony Kearns gets my vote when he stands for GS.

No pulling punches there - tells it as he see it and no spin.

[POSTMAN]

I can't get the attachment that is in the LTB,can someone whack it in please.

[feduppostie]

Defending nothing but self-interest and offering no real or structured alternatives to making the necessary changes, those who adopt this approach will be responsible for the demise of this Union.

no the people at the top making stupid money off my back whilst telling to me take a pay cut cos I am one of the 'losers' in the pay deal will be the death of the union

we accept change, we just did not expect to take a pay cut after striking to get it

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Tada

COMMUNICATION WORKERS UNION 31 dec.pdf

[Big Daz]

I dont like the idea of TK taking on the GS role unless his replacement will maintain his excellent work. He is too valubale to loose otherwise.