Chair Bert Schouwenburg (GMB)

Secretaries Gwen Cook (Unite);

Bruce Mackay (UNISON)

Treasurer Pam Case (NUT)

Correspondence address: c/o Gwen Cook

23 Meadowbank Close

LONDON

SW6 6PE

Email: hftuc@btinternet.com

Tel: 020 7385 8536

14th November 2013

To all delegates and branch secretaries

Greetings, brothers and sisters,

Hammersmith & Fulham Trades Union Council – 2014

SERTUC conference Saturday 23rd November – 10.00 am

HFTUC meeting Wednesday 27th November – 6.00 pm

This is to encourage you to come to the SERTUC Trades Council Conference – “Delivering the TUC’s Campaign Plan in Communities” for the purpose of refreshing our resolve to make a difference in the borough in 2014. The conference will be held on Saturday 23rd November 2013 at Congress House from 10.00 am until 3.45 pm. I enclose an agenda. If you are able to attend please:

1) Contact the SERTUC office by email to register sertucevents@tuc.org.uk or telephone 020 7467 1220;

OR

2) Let me know by telephone – 020 7385 8536 by not later than Monday 18 November.

We have had no meeting since our May meeting. This has been because I have been unable to do much trades union council work – health and other issues. I also appreciate that other delegates have had various impediments to action. As our November meeting will be the last in 2013 I am proposing that we have a meeting On Wednesday 27th November 2013 at which to decide what we do in future. Some suggestions include:

1) Keeping ourselves in suspended existence by registering with the TUC and GLATUC for 2014. We have to do this before the end of January. Do we call for re-affiliations?

2) Electing new officers. Our treasurer has moved out of the borough; our chair is likely to be moving soon and, myself, I shall be unable to continue as secretary in 2014.

3) A couple of weeks ago I met with Bert and we decided that I should notify delegates and branches that we are suspending meetings until further notice. If that is endorsed, it is another option.

4) Packing up all together and leave it until something “turns up” and later on we may relaunch.

5) However, a couple of issues have arisen although we cannot do work on them without help – and that means work by delegates:

a) We have the opportunity to support representatives of the borough’s 1,000 sheltered housing tenants who have launched serious grievances with the Council on behalf of their tenants and want answers. These complaints also involve job losses and more pressure on Council housing workers.

b) The new universal credit system is being implemented in this borough at present; what are the issues? The Council unions and the PCS should have something to say and do about this.

We will also need to decide what to do about our email address. I am parting company with BT in December and it will cost about £3 per month to keep the BT internet address. Suggest we change the email address.

During the summer I wrote by post and email to about 8 regional secretaries to ask them to encourage their branches to affiliate and appoint delegates. That produced very little by way of response. I also looked at working with Kensington and Chelsea TUC (who are also at a low ebb). We put on “Spirit of 45” in September to try and attract some willing activists in both boroughs but with little success, particularly in H&F.

So please come along to our last meeting in 2013 at 6.00 pm (earlier then usual) in our normal meeting place on Wednesday 27th November 2013. The address is: Thames View community Room, 200/201 Riverside Gardens Estate W6 9LQ

Directions: From Macbeth Street turn into Riverside Gardens estate – the (closed) Hope & Anchor pub is on the corner. Take the first turning left, directly behind the pub and make for the corner of the buildings diagonally opposite. The entrance door approached by a ramp is in the corner. For entry to the hall press 101 + call on the buzzer.

As it’s near the “festive season” an after meeting drink will also be on the agenda.

In solidarity,

Gwen Cook – acting secretary

SERTUC Trades Councils Conference:

delivering the TUC’s Campaign Plan in communities

Saturday 23 November 2013, Congress House, 10am to 3.45pm

09.45

Tea, coffee and registration

10.00

Welcome

Martin Gould, SERTUC President

10.05

Jobs, growth and a new economy

Laurie Heselden, SERTUC

Local Perspective: Mike Nobbs, Isle of Wight County Association of Trades Councils

10.50

Fair pay and the living wage

Catherine West, former Leader of Islington Borough Council

Local Perspective: Lesley Jarvis, Croydon Trades Council

11.30

Trades Councils’ role in our struggle

Bob Crow, General Secretary, RMT and Chair of TUCJCC

11.45

Break

12.00

Good services and decent welfare

Nick Phillips, London Unemployed Strategies

Local Perspective: Joanne Rust, King’s Lynn Trades Council

12.45

Lunch

13.30

Respect and a voice at work

Rob Hancock, SERTUC Unionlearn

Local Perspective: Pól Ó Ceallaigh, Oxford and District Trades Council

14.15

Stronger unions

John McInally, PCS, Vice President

Local Perspective: Phil Clarke, Brighton and Hove Trades Council

15.00

Stronger trades councils(Including media/campaign awards)

Tom Mellish, National Officer, TUC

15.45

Close of conference