Following an Extraordinary General Meeting on the 5th August 2024, the Committee gave notice that they have agreed to seek a merger with the South East Anglia Branch. The rational behind this decision is that, in the view of the Committee, the Branch can remain as a strong voice both regionally and nationally within the CWU. This is against a background of reduced level of membership across the Branch area with people leaving the principle employer (BT/Openreach).
This reduction affects the amount of facility time the Branch gets and hence the amount of officers it can have to represent its membership. The aim of merger is to help reduce duplication of attendees at various meetings, hence to reduce costs and to maintain its reps. This means that the Branch can continue to represent all members in their workplace regardless of who they are employed by.
The approval for the merger will need to be initially approved by the Union’s National Executive and both branches have entered into correspondence to seek this approval. Once this has been obtained a membership vote is expected to take place in the autumn to seek consent from the membership of both branches by a simple majority. This membership vote will be conducted by Head Office under a postal ballot.
More details will follow in due course.