Motion 67(2011) Proportionality - Programme of Branch Visits

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Letter to Branches




No. 629/12
Ref GS 2.2
Date: 20 August 2012


To: ALL BRANCHES


Dear Colleague

Motion 67 (2011) “Proportionality” - Programme of Branch Visits

As Branches will be aware, the following motion standing in the name of Birmingham, Black Country and Worcester Branch was carried by Annual Conference 2011:

67 CATEGORY A:
Conference notes the propositions that were passed at CWU Women’s Conference in February this year, calling for action to be taken to implement Rule 2 fully, and agrees that is time that the CWU implemented its obligations under that Rule.

Therefore the National Executive Council, in conjunction with the Advisory Committees, is instructed to draw up a set of proposals on how to achieve this across all parts of the union, and bring forward a motion to General Conference 2012, along with any necessary rule change.

The union is working on a number of initiatives to improve proportionality at all levels in the union, including:

Improved monitoring of delegations
Specialised training for underrepresented groups
Identifying the barriers to participation in the CWU for underrepresented groups, particularly women and ethnic minorities
It will be extremely important that we are able to work closely with Branches to identify good practice in terms of promoting and improving proportionality. We also need to develop a clearer understanding of the barriers that exist for women; black, minority ethnic (BME) and other underrepresented groups who may wish to become more active in the union and to identify why some groups are not attracted to greater union involvement.








We will therefore be embarking on a programme of Branch visits which will commence in September 2012 to help us identify:

To what extent Branches are proportionally representative of their members
Levels of participation among members of underrepresented groups
Any barriers to proportionality
Examples of good practice in this respect
These visits will be conducted by the General Secretary, the Equal Opportunities Officer, and the Head of Education and Training. It will be our intention to visit at least ten Branches between September and January in the first phase of this initiative, with the aim of visiting additional Branches over the next two years. The visits will scrutinise levels of participation by minority groups and how the Branches attract, involve and develop new activists. It will also give Branches a chance to explain what the challenges are to achieving proportionality.

The Branches we will be visiting have been selected on the basis that we have a broad range of geographical, industrial and structural experiences to inform our work. We fully recognise that all Branches are different and therefore our selections are not based on any perception of particular strengths or weaknesses but rather because we think that they may be provide a typical or average view of Branch experiences at this time. We intend to write separately to the ten Branches informing them of the date and the requirements of the visit.

Following the visits, we intend to produce a report with recommendations for Annual Conference 2013, with the aim of introducing a number of new policies or rule changes that will help us improve proportionality in the CWU. This is a very important initiative for the CWU as it has never been more urgent that the union can be genuinely representative of the members whom we serve, and therefore this work has been given a high priority by the office of the General Secretary, the Advisory Committees and all the Officers concerned.

We look forward to working with Branches over the coming months and to bringing innovative and robust proposals to Conference for further debate. Any queries related to this LTB should be raised with Steve Bell in the General Secretary’s Office in the first instance.

Yours sincerely



W Hayes
General Secretary

[Lounge Lizard]

Not belonging to any underrepresented group I might be at a disadvantage here.

[dvbuk55]

What a load of old cock.................as I see it we are ALL under-represented. They are going to visit 10 in 4 months and an undefined number over the next two years but present the figures to conference in 2013.......................magic. About 85% of the membership aren't involved in union matters so what do they intend to do about that - whatever minority group, majority group etc. It's all just chatter.