Received from: National Education Union
Merged into composite 01
Congress notes:
That despite some years of growth, union membership been on a downward trend for four decades, currently standing at 22 per cent of the workforce.
The decline in membership has been accompanied by growing inequality. Real wages for most workers are barely above their pre-2008 level.
Membership has not declined because trade union values are unpopular with working people. Recent experience has proved that assertive trade unionism wins for members and attracts new ones.
That collective bargaining is an effective way to redress income inequality and the misery it causes.
Congress calls on the General Council to convene a summit to agree a charter and subsequent activity to ‘organise the unorganised’, based on:
i. the co-ordination of a significant organising drive across unions with a commitment to developing a common bargaining agenda across sectors, with a focus on tackling inequality, insecure employment and poor working conditions
ii. greater co-operation between unions and an end to inter-union competition, so as to prioritise the interests of working people
iii. working closely with government to remove those significant legal and structural barriers to trade union organisation and collective bargaining. This will include resisting attempts to weaken the provisions of Employment Rights Bill, particularly in relation to issues of recognition and balloting for industrial action
iv. building effective links with social justice campaigns that are in the interests of working people
v. concrete steps to establish sectoral collective bargaining and enduring structures that embed union organisation and capacity.
National Education Union