Received from: CWU, National Education Union
Comprising Motion 01, 02 plus amendments and 03
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, with less than 50 per cent of public sector workers and less than 12 per cent of private sector workers in a union. Younger workers are also less likely to join a union and new research shows a similar trend with lower-paid workers.
The cause of this is clear. The unbridled growth of the gig economy, outsourcing, agency work, new technologies and AI has encouraged employers to adopt cheaper more fragmented employment models, which are nearly impossible to effectively unionise. The decline in membership has been accompanied by growing inequality. Real wages for most workers are barely above their pre-2008 level.
This is a pivotal time for the trade union movement. The Labour government’s transformative agenda on employment rights offers an unparalleled chance for union growth. Truly realising its potential requires effective organising, particularly in the private sector and amongst young workers. Success hinges on our ability to equip reps and organisers with the skills to leverage new rights and digital tools, fostering inter-union collaboration, and navigating new legislation adeptly.
Congress welcomes the new TUC strategy to support union organising seeing it as crucial for union growth securing high-quality, unionised jobs across the UK. Congress notes the TUC’s digital campaigning and organising support for affiliates, including the new Digital Organisers Academy, as well as the TUC’s Digital Lab supporting digital change in unions.
Congress welcomes the TUC’s expanded trade union education offer. Empowering reps and organisers to fully utilise new Employment Rights Bill provisions is vital for union growth. Congress notes the ongoing issues regarding the funding of in-person TUC Education training for union reps.
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. Collective bargaining is an effective way to redress income inequality and the misery it causes. Individual rights in the workplace can only take us so far – we need a raft of new collective rights and sectoral bargaining agreements, alongside greater cooperation between unions and new models of unionism.
Congress agrees that the TUC:
i. produces concrete steps to establish sectoral collective bargaining and enduring structures that embed union organisation and capacity, including a sectoral bargaining strategy to be agreed by the General Council, and a plan to introduce sectoral level agreements in at least three sectors
ii. convenes a working group and summit to both produce the sectoral bargaining strategy and report to the General Council, in six months, on greater cooperation between unions and new models of trade unionism that can organise more effectively within sectors of the economy based on:
– The co-ordination of a significant organising drive across unions with a commitment to developing a common sectoral bargaining agenda across sectors to be agreed by the General Council. With a focus on tackling inequality, insecure employment and poor working conditions.
– Greater co-operation between unions, and an end to inter-union competition to prioritise the interests of working people.
iii. campaigns for the Labour government to build on the new deal for workers and remove significant legal and structural barriers to trade union organisation, collective bargaining, extending sectoral bargaining agreements in this parliament, to address growing work and wealth inequality. 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. takes action to improve member recruitment and retention through better data analysis, recognising this as a key growth opportunity.
v. provides direct support to affiliated unions in understanding and utilising their data for retention, organising and growth, acknowledging challenges faced by smaller and mid-sized unions.
vi. builds effective links with social justice campaigns that are in the interests of working people.
Congress also calls on the General Council to demand the government to:
a. fulfils its pledge of the “greatest number of insourcings in a generation,” starting with the civil service. Bringing contracts back in-house will boost accountability, improve services, and secure better conditions for workers, including younger workers.
b. makes union recognition, and contribution to established grouped trade union facility time arrangements, a condition for receiving public funding in all sectors, including multi-academy trusts, free schools, and publicly funded independent schools.
Mover: National Education Union
Seconder: Communication Workers Union
Supporters: Accord, NASUWT, Public and Commercial Services Union
Composite 3: Recognition and respect for migrant workers
Comprising Motions 14, 15 and 16 and amendments
The government’s white paper heralds significant changes to the UK’s immigration system. It will end overseas recruitment in the NHS and social care for any role below degree level, double the qualifying period for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) for work visas, and reshape and limit immigration for work.
Congress asserts that migrant workers are not responsible for poor pay or exploitation within the labour market. Exploitation was rampant in social care before overseas recruitment started. Restrictions on migrant workers do not protect against exploitation; it makes exploitation more common.
Congress believes that scapegoating migrant workers for the ills of our labour market doesn’t tackle the far right, it encourages them. The creation of more short-term, rights-restricted schemes risks creating super-exploitation of precarious groups of migrant workers.
Migrant workers have kept vital services running. Congress opposes any moves to retrospectively extend the qualifying period for ILR from five to 10 years. This would breach trust and leave workers trapped in exploitation for another five years, rendering them second-class citizens in the UK for longer.
Congress believes that the rhetoric of some ministers and further immigration legislation legitimise the arguments of Reform UK and other far-right parties.
Congress recognises that the Skilled Workers Visa scheme, introduced in the aftermath of Brexit, has consistently failed to meet its intended objectives. While the policy was designed to facilitate the entry and retention of essential workers to address skill shortages across the UK, its rigid criteria and income thresholds have instead exacerbated labour gaps in critical sectors.
The current framework has led to the unjust deportation of workers – many of whom are Black and from marginalised communities – simply because their earnings fall below arbitrary thresholds. Alarmingly, this includes dozens of civil servants employed by the government itself, highlighting the contradiction of a state that underpays its workforce while penalising them for it.
Closing the Social Care Visa scheme to new applicants while increasing income thresholds for renewals leads to vital care workers being deported and unsafe staffing levels.
Congress condemns this policy failure and calls for the repeal of the existing legislation with an immediate replacement developed in full consultation with the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and include robust protections for all current visa holders, particularly those already contributing to public service.
Until such reforms are enacted, Congress commits to supporting all workers facing deportation under this flawed system. We further demand an immediate suspension of all deportation proceedings related to the Skilled Workers Visa until a fair and humane alternative is implemented to lower visa renewal thresholds and address staffing crises through raising wages and establishing minimum staffing level requirements in care.
Short-termism and underinvestment created the NHS’s workforce crisis. Insufficient allied health professionals (AHPs) have been trained to meet current and future demand, whilst terms and conditions contribute to a retention crisis. Nowhere is this more evident than radiography, with staff shortages the root cause of excessive waiting lists for diagnosis and cancer treatment.
The government is investing more, including funding more radiography equipment and staff, but it will take many years to close the gap between demand and supply. The UK is reliant upon successfully competing in the global marketplace for skilled AHPs into the 2030’s, regardless of how many new student and apprenticeship places government fund.
The NHS has pockets of excellent practice but for a majority of new internationally recruited AHPs the offer is insufficient and uncompetitive. Proposed changes to immigration rules are also counter-productive, particularly doubling the qualifying time to secure a right to remain to 10 years, actively discouraging women with young families from choosing the UK.
Congress therefore calls on the TUC and its affiliates to campaign for:
i. a sector-wide visa scheme in social care, enabling migrant workers to challenge bad employers without the threat of dismissal and removal
ii. retention of the five-year route to ILR, and a commitment not to apply any change retrospectively
iii. greater protections for migrant workers from exploitation and strengthened access to trade union rights
iv. a rights-based visa system for migrant workers.
Congress calls on the TUC to:
a. work with partners, including Stand Up to Racism, to oppose the scapegoating of migrants in areas with Reform UK MPs and councils.
b. champion the importance of international recruitment in sustaining an NHS recovery
c. actively oppose any immigration rule changes that make it harder to recruit and retain internationally trained AHPs
d. press government to fund competitive recruitment and retention offers so the NHS can compete internationally
e. assist AHP unions in identifying and promoting best practice in recruiting, onboarding and retaining any overseas professionals.
Mover: UNISON
Seconder: Public and Commercial Services Union
Supporters: National Education Union, GMB, Society of Radiographers
