Gary speaks

The General secretary, Gary Smith, presented the annual report, which excludes the detailed financial report which has its own agenda item later in the week. The following summary is based on notes I took at the time, which I have not checked on the video record.

GMB is growing, which is reflected in a £1.5 million increase in gross income, the vast majority of which is made-up of membership subscriptions; Gary boastfully compared this with other unions, but having looked at the numbers, I am not so sure. He reprised his arguments, that his financial reforms, freezing the membership subscription, rejuvenating the strike fund and cutting the branch rebate had saved the union.

He claims with some justice that his leadership has re-invigorated the GMB as a workplace campaigning Union and he catalogues the numerous disputes but his focus remains Nukes, Gas & Putin.

While criticising his predecessor’s fixation & expense on Westminster politics, he recognised that the GMB needs politics, with a major focus in the speech on the delayed Employment Rights bill and he also signposted the Sizewell C announcement.

My notes capture the following is a quote, “we want you to be a success but you need to listen and think again”, and Gary’s political shopping list includes rebuilding the economy, bringing jobs home, (did he really say that?), backing down on the winter fuel allowance, positively settling the dispute with the WASPI women,  a jobs first industrial policy and honest pay reviews.

This blog article is best read with [some of], the following documents, the final agenda document, GMB’s Congress page which contains all the documents and the video index is available as a playlist or as individual videos  at the GMB’s youtube channel. This article has been back dated to about the time of occurrence.

Image credit: By Francis Barraud – Victor Talking Machine Company, Public Domain, wikimedia commons