CWU General Conference 2022

This years Annual General Conference took place in the Bournemouth International Centre from Sunday 24th April 2022 to Friday 29th April 2022.

T&FS members ‘will not back down’ in their fight for a fair deal

The final day of T&FS Conference did not see delegates any less spirited, as they debated motions on issues such as joint approach agreements, engagement with Openreach over P&D processes on member’s personal issues, ensuring high levels of bargaining standards and child care.

Ending conference, deputy general secretary Andy Kerr wished well to all members in the struggles up ahead, telling delegates that “I always see these attacks and challenges as massive opportunities for us.

“We will be getting more members in, getting density in, and building membership.” Join the CWU

Drawing attention to VMO2, he paid tribute to the “loyal members” who have “stuck with this union” despite the CWU not being recognised, and said that coming months will be “our chance” to “put the CWU on the map” in that company, as well as many others.

Discussing BT, he said that the company “will have to start to listen”, as will other companies, “who will have to understand that this union won’t back down, and we will fight hard for any members we’ve got anywhere”.

But he urged all members to “get out and talk” in the coming months, as the fight in various companies grows and grows. “we’ve got to be out there, winning people’s confidence, growing the campaign among our members – in the end, that is how we win.”

Our previous branch secretary, Steve Phillips, talking on Conference Prop 50, To reject the ‘First Past The Post’ electral system and to support the introduction of a form of Proportional Representation. Conference engaged in a lively debate over the merits of proportional representation, resolving to hold a national policy forum debate on whether or not the union adopts a pro-PR position.

The Report from the first CWU Conference Equality Day – ‘a massive success’ – can be viewed – Here .

Documentation and Agendas.

Conferences are motion based. There is around 700 delegates representing almost 187,000 members that attend the conference. Representation at the conference is based on a count of Branch membership.

Branches will be aware that following the decisions made at the Special Redesign Conference in 2018 it was agreed that there would be a requirement to hold an Equality Day during the period of Annual Conference.  Annual Conference 2020 would have been the first of the biennial 6 day conferences which would have incorporated a 3-day General Conference that included an additional day dedicated to Equality issues.

However, conference in 2020 which was due to be held in Bournemouth did not take place due to the ongoing pandemic, but we managed to roll forward the deposits paid to the Bournemouth International Centre from 2020 to a future date.   Given the lack of availability and that we still need to hold a 6-day conference event the BIC could only provide us with one date at the end of April.