Colchester TUC
Meeting - Thursday June 9th 2009
My thanks to all those who attended our meeting last thursday. We
welcomed a new delegate to our meeting Hereward Brown, from Unison
Essex Rivers.
Speaker
Our speaker from the Fire Brigades Union, Kieron Davis, gave us the
current background to the " Essex - Stop the Fire Cuts"
campaign. He gave the meeting the concerns of FBU over a range of
cuts in the fire service in Essex.
A discussion on the Fire Service in general followed.
Kieron was thanked for his talk and the Trades Council would look
to support the
campaign.
Campaigning
The recent ECC and European election came under discussion. The issue
of BNP would remain as there is a General Election due within a year.
ECC Outsourcing - the secretary
circulated a report from Keith Blackburn from Unison - Essex County
council
Royal Mail Privatisation
CWU were at their Conference but the secretary had been in contact
with Kevan Pugh, Secretary of CWU Colchester.
Secretary
Spoke on the TUC Conference - our motion on Amesty International had
been accepted and the TUC had followed up on this and was encouraging
TUCs to affiliate.
TUC had also requested TUCs discuss the motions on Royal Mail privatisation,
Local authority funding and outsourcing. It was pleasing to note we
had already been doing this.
Ther secretary went though the correspondence, noting the CND "Campaign
against Trident" .
The secretary noted we had supported the "Save Our Bus Station
Campaign" and the issue of a replacement bus station had come
to the fore. The meeting agreed to the following resolution.
This Trades Union Council is very disturbed to hear that Colchester
Borough Council have NO INTENTION of providing a replacement bus station
after 2012 when the existing temporary facility closes.
-This is at a time when there is encouragement to use bus services
this is a betrayal of bus passengers.
- The current facility is well utilised
- No account appears to have been taken of coach services.
There is a need for proper bus station with facilities which would
be a benefit to the town.
This Trades Union Council supports the campaign by C-BUS for a replacement
bus station and urges it affiliated branches to give their support
to this campaign.
Raph Pigott, advised that there was a Natiional Shop Stewards Network
conference on Saturday June 13th. He asked if we would send a delegate.
The meeting agreed to send a delegate and to cover their transport
costs..
Finance
The Finance Report was presented to the meeting and was accepted.
Trades Council's Conference - May30/31.
Pete Norfolk gave a report on the conference. He noted the 2 resolutions
which were from this Trades Council were accepted. He gave a flavour
of the conference and the conference activities.
Essex County Association of Trades
Union councils - June 6th 2009
Pete Norfolk reported on the quarterly meeting. The 4 Trades Councils
in Essex were represented and reported on a range of activities. In
addition the recent Trades Council conference was discussed.
The next meeting of the County Association will be September 5th 2009.
Delegates Reports
Updates from delegates and their branches and unions were taken.
The meeting closed at 10pm.
The next meeting will be Thursday July 9th 2009
