THE 2023 TUC Congress will be held in Liverpool from September 10-13, and there will be one motion, one debate, which will be looked forward to by all local trades councils activists. This is the motion from the Prison Officers’ Association, which will be seconded by the Communication Workers Union.

It reads: “Congress accepts that trades councils have a rich history in the trade union movement and play an active part in communities supporting the wider movement and TUC campaigns.

“Further it is recognised that trades councils have a combined affiliated membership of hundreds of thousands of members throughout the movement. Yet trades councils are seriously under-represented within Congress.

“Currently, they are entitled to a single delegate to Congress and can submit only one motion. Trades councils’ total affiliated membership, in a single trade union, would mean a far larger Congress delegation.

“Congress therefore agrees a rule change, so that at Congress 2024, the trades councils shall be entitled to 1. A Congress delegation of three; 2. A single seat on the TUC General Council; and that the trades councils’ Congress delegation shall be entitled to speak and vote on any motion, amendment or other Congress business, in addition to its own single motion.”

This opportunity to reclaim some long-lost rights for trades councils has been a long time coming. Despite the TUC itself being established in 1868 by trades councils, in 1895 the TUC’s parliamentary committee, dominated as it was then by Liberal Party-supporting general secretaries, simply excluded all our trades councils from Congress.

Scottish-based trade unions opposed this crude exclusion, and in 1897, established their own Scottish TUC, with full participation from trades councils.

In 2023, Scottish trades councils can each send three delegates to the Scottish TUC Congress; they have two reserved places on the Scottish TUC General Council; each trades council can send three motions and three amendments to Congress.

The Wales TUC was established much later, in 1970, but that nation, too, recognises the value of trades councils’ participation: each of the eleven Welsh trades councils can send three delegates to the biennial congress, (with one from an equality strand); they have two places on the Wales TUC General Council; trades councils can send two motions, and submit two amendments to motions, for the Wales TUC Congress.

What a contrast with the TUC Congress itself. Before 2009, an estimated 200-odd local trades councils were allowed just one observer to Congress.

No right to have a proper delegate, no right to vote, no right to speak in debate — nothing.

In 2009, thanks in part to strong support from the late, great, Bob Crow and the RMT, Congress allowed the trades councils’ own national conference to submit a single motion for Congress debate.

However, as we still only had single observer status, our motion had to be moved and seconded by other unions.

A few years later, Congress allowed us to send a delegate who could actually move our own conference motion, but our delegate was still prevented from having any voting or speaking rights, so could not even vote to support our own motion. That, I am afraid, is still the situation. It is unacceptable and needs to change.

The third-class status of trades councils at our TUC Congress, compared to Wales and Scotland, is a disgrace, a disgrace that can be redeemed at the 2023 Liverpool Congress in September.

What are the main arguments that have been used in past debates to keep trades councils disenfranchised?

The problem of double-representation
 

Answers: 1) If a small number of trades councils delegates enter congress with speaking and voting rights, they would still be under an obligation to comply with their own unions’ policies. 2) All TUC-affiliated unions have accepted “double-representation” in Scotland and Wales for decades, so why the double standard when it comes to TUC Congress itself?

The problem of trades councils setting TUC policy
 

Answers: 1) trades councils are expected to discuss all relevant issues at their meetings, our work is not limited to supporting TUC campaigns, union strikes and disputes. 2) Unions at the Scottish and Wales TUC Congresses have been comfortable with discussing, then voting for or against motions from trades councils. They have not felt threatened at all. 3) Would a small trades councils conference delegation of three, and a right to enter any Congress debates or discussions, really threaten Congress democracy? Three votes out of a total of, maybe, 750 delegates’ votes?

Trades councils activists work 24/7 to carry out TUC policies. If the TUC call a regional or national demonstration, it is the trades councils, as well as unions, that make sure those events are well supported.

In 2022, Bridgwater and District trades councils, down here in Somerset, had 48 unions and union branches affiliated, a total affiliated membership of 16,000 workers.

The Clarks warehouse workers, at Street in Somerset, won their battle against fire-and-rehire in 2021, and Mendip Trades Council, as their community union recognised, was central to the campaign support and organisation.

Sheffield trades councils worked with the Bakers Union to establish a ground-breaking Sheffield Needs A Pay Rise campaign, targeting low-paid precarious hospitality workers, a campaign which the TUC still needs to help roll out to other cities.

Right now, Dorset trades council is right smack bang in the middle of the storm over the Bibby Stockholm refugee barge, doing its best to stave off racist and anti-refugee hostility with scant resources. Every one of our roughly 200 trades councils has similar solidarity stories.

I have written enough. As a trades council activist for 47 years, I can only finish by appealing to the good sense of all delegations to TUC Congress 2023 to help right a historic injustice: support the POA motion.

Dave Chapple is South West TUC trades councils rep.