GMB & Trans-rights

GMB Congress 25, delegates sitting and posters on the wall

There was one motion on the issue of Trans-rights, this is/was 242. RETURN THE CONCEPT OF FEMINISM WHERE IT BELONGS on p121 of the agenda document. At the centre of this motion is the call that “the position that feminism should focus on embracing intersectionality and supporting all women, including transgender women, and not just those who conform to traditional gender norms. “ It was moved by Chiorstaidh Reichle; the moving and seconding speeches are on youtube.

I felt that both speeches were of high quality, full of empathy and knowledge.

There were also two emergency motions, (5&6) one on a workplace response primarily to the EHRC guidance since modified and one on the inadequate and un-inclusive process followed by the Supreme Ciurt and EHRC in developing their guidance.

These debates were preceded by a speech by Dr Victoria McCloud on the iniquity of the court ruling and the EHRC guidance. This is a powerful and moving speech.

The motion text is overleaf/below.  …

On AI at GMB 25

On AI at GMB 25

There were two debates on AI, calling for Transparency, Accountability and Job Security. I briefly review the and reference the two motions, point at the TUC proposals, the French SA's fining of Amazon, ORG's critique of the Data Use and Access Act and cross reference other articles I have written on the coming impact of AI/LLMs. The full article is overleaf ....

The Presidential Hustings @ GMB25

GMB Congress 25, delegates sitting

Congress 2025 was required to elect the Union’s president and vice-president. I have only been attending Congress for a few years and Barbara Plant has always chaired them. I am told that her predecessor, held the role for many years and was not required to defend her position in an election. This year, however, the election was contested. The vice-presidential position was also vacant and so Congress had hustings and elections for a new leadership team. For more see overleaf ...

GMB and a humane immigration policy

Yesterday, the GMB adopted a motion entitled, “For a fair and humane immigration policy”. This was proposed by my Branch and moved at Congress by me.  The motion confirms its policy on fairness and dignity in immigration policy, calling for the repeal of Tory laws, action on ending the hostile environment, and the establishment of safe routes for refugees. It also sets out opposition to some of the proposals in “Restoring control over the immigration system”.  The debate on the motion is embeded below.

I have created a document with the full text of the motion. My speech notes are available as a file and also below/overleaf. … …

Gary speaks

An image of the HMV logo art, a dog listening to a phonograph

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. The aerticle, overleaf, talks about growth of membership, energy, the anti-politics of politics., and my article finishes with Gary's shopping list. ...

A better privacy policy

M20, from my branch, on making the privacy policy better was moved  by and carried, annoyingly I didn’t make the point powerfully enough that the problem is that the GMB will not permit the use of email for contract purposes if members have opted out of email. The requirement for channel opt-outs precede the GDPR and depending on the privacy policy, an artefact required by the GDPR, means that email cannot be used for correspondence required by the membership contract such as dunning letters, or meeting convening notices, or even elections. The default communication mechanism is real mail. The debate is captured on youtube and starts here with my moving speech

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. …

Fringes and solidarity

I enjoyed the fringes that I attended; all the ones I chose were activist led. Learning from such activism was reinforced by giving activists time at the rostrum, most importantly probably speakers from Amazon; the video stream starts here.

The fringe meeting I attended were the Apple solidarity fringe where I met the leadership of the recognition campaign; they’re impressive people. I hope we can bring similar success to London and also the fringe meeting hosted by the Migrant Democracy Project and the session was chaired by Lara Parizotto, who used to be in our branch. The speakers were from the voice of domestic workers, and the Bureau of investigative journalism. It also heard from Marcela Benedetti from migrants for labour, who spoke about the difficulties that Latinas had in making a home in the UK. The highlight for me was Emiliano Mellino from the Bureau of investigative journalism who presented, on his investigative project on the state of the living conditions of migrant workers working British farms, and finally I went to the Justice for Columbia campaign fringe. It was good to be reminded of the fact that in Columbia they have elected a left wing president, and established a peace agreement to bring the guerrilla movement into politics. They also announced their campaign of solidarity with ex-fighters; they are collecting money for a farm truck.

I say more overleaf ...