National Union of Rail, Maritime And

RMT

NATIONAL UNION OF RAIL, MARITIME AND

TRANSPORT WORKERS

Unity House

39 Chalton Street

London NW1 1JD

THE 20th NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL ORGANISING

CONFERENCE OF ENGINEERING GRADES

REPORT AND DECISIONS

Venue was held at

Kings Conference Centre

47-51 Kings Street

Norwich

NR1 1PH

Was held on

Thursday 20th April & Friday 21st April 2017

Conference Secretary:

Alan Cadden

9/6 Magdalene Drive

Edinburgh

EH15 3EB

Scotland

Mobile 07504 233 139

Email: (

NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL ORGANISING CONFERENCE OF ENGINEERING GRADES 2017

CONFERENCE AGENDA

(Order of items and decisions was subject to change and at discretion of our conference president)

Order of Items and business that took place

1.  Opening of Conference each day by the Conference President John Kennedy

2.  Apologies each day

3.  Welcome conference by the Norwich Branch Representative Alan Jary

4.  Welcome conference by the Lord Mayor of Norwich Marion Maxwell

5.  Address conference by the Assistant General Secretary Mick Lynch and take any Questions and Points from the floor

6 Guest speaker Andrew Teager from the Transport Benevolent Fund to address conference and take Questions from the floor

7 Guest speakers RMT Learning Organisers John Holmes and Petrit Mihaj to address conference and take Questions from the floor

8 Election to appoint Two Tellers

9 Conference Secretary Report by Alan Cadden

10 Election of Two Auditors

11 Endorsement of Balance Sheet for year ending 2106

12 Election of Standing Orders Committee (to comprise of five delegates who are not part of our Executive committee)

13 Address by National Executive Committee Member Paul Reilly

14 Conference Executive Committee Eve of Conference Meeting Report by Vice-President Malcolm Williams

15 Conference Resolutions

16 Standing Orders Committee Reports by Vice-President Malcolm Williams (Not Required)

17 Conference Emergency Resolutions --- None Submitted

18 Two Resolutions for the Annual General Meeting – Delegates and Branch moving resolutions @ the 2017 AGM

19 Guest speaker Labour MP for Norwich South Clive Lewis to address conference

20 Guest speaker from Thompsons Solicitors Andrew Hutson to address conference

21 Election of Four Conference Officers and Ten Executive Committee names and branch for 2017/18

22 Select a Liaison Committee from and by the Executive Committee for attending meetings

(Three delegates from the Six Group of Grades from as broad a spectrum as possible in areas not already covered)

23 Confirm Venues and dates for hosting Conference meetings in 2018 and 2019 and 2020

24 Any other Business

25 Vote of Thanks

26 Closing of Conference each day by the Conference President John Kennedy

Opening of Conference

The Conference President John Kennedy to opened conference and thanked everyone for attending.

Apologies

Apologies were taken on behalf of the General Secretary Mick Cash and President Sean Hoyle and Steve Metcalfe from Lancaster district branch and Nick Kempson from Willesden 4 engineering branch who has recently taken ill and is a regular delegate at this conference and we send our best wishes to him.

Welcome Conference by the Norwich Branch Secretary Alan Jary

Norwich branch secretary welcomed all the delegates to conference and introduced the Lord Mayor to welcome everyone and to address conference.

Alan also said he worked with the S&T within network rail and had been there for thirteen year’s and Norwich branch has approximately 400 members and he thanked the members and Regional Organiser Steve Smart for all their efforts towards the organisation of this conference.

Welcome Conference by the Lord Mayor of Norwich Marion Maxwell

The Lord Mayor welcomed conference to Norwich and spoke about some of the history of Norwich including the three railway stations it had and there buildings and Norwich city football team and Ed Balls being the chairman on the board of directors. She spoke about being a councillor and working for Unison in education and training and as head of union studies at the city college Norwich and finished up mentioning some of the famous people of Norwich and thanked the conference for letting her speak and wished us all well and hope we will enjoy Norwich.

Address Conference by Assistant General Secretary Mick Lynch

Mick made apologies for the General Secretary Mick Cash for not being able to attend conference due to being at ongoing talks taken place on the VTEC dispute.

He thanked Norwich Branch and their challenge toward this conference and welcomed delegates and everyone else to conference. Mick spoke about the Labour party and the coming election and supporting Jeremy Corbyn and progressive politics and campaigning for a socialist party and he covered Brexit and the privatisation of the railways and public ownership of our railways which is not what we are going to get under European parliament. On the DOO disputes he paid tribute for our rank and file members and ASELF members not crossing our picket lines and went on to speak about their leaders and the decisions that were made along with the betrayal of the TUC.

Mick mentions the RMT has kept its organisation going after the sad death of Bob Crow and that we are in a healthy position He also covered the IOC ‘s and anti-trade union laws, voting , picket lines and balloting systems in place now and went on about Network rail maintenance council arrangements and the PTR&R selection process, the new collective bargaining agreement structure and cutting back release time for reps to attend meetings. Stood off agreement which we are actively pursuing these arrangements and OH Assist which is very poor in the current way it works and we need to set up a national system.

Also regarding the S&T 3 Man teams is the norm taking place in some areas and 3 people are on the base roster but some of the staff might be of on some type of leave.

We are proposing a meeting with all the company council reps covering the S&T grades to find out there concerns throughout the UK.

On fleet issues Mick mentions LUL Fleet are now in their 44th day of dispute on an overtime ban as the company are continually undermining agreements and he mentioned the fleet charter and maintenance issues are ongoing. On the Infrastructure workers charter we want to know the current numbers within the companies and address the issues regarding gaining membership and getting a campaign with the aims of the charter and organising through this industrial organising conference. There have been copies of the Fleet Engineering Depot Workers’ Charter and The Infrastructure Workers’ Charter booklets handed out to the delegates and the Branches can order them from head office for our members to get non-members to join the RMT.

Mick finished by saying the union remains together through the strength of the membership and thanked all of us for our continuing efforts.

Any Questions and Comments or Points from the floor on Mick Lynch’s speech to conference

Mick then took questions and any points from the floor and gave answers back

Guest speaker Andrew Teager to Address Conference from the Transport Benevolent Fund

Andrew Teager from the TBF gave conference a background of what the registered charity is about and its membership is from those working in the public transport industry and the fund is there for your benefit. We want to intervene at branch level and he spoke about having health issues, in particular problems with your feet, neck and back and we also cover charges for prescription prepayment certificates, bereavement grants, medical consultations, scans and tests and different types of therapy.

This is for a £1 a week and covers your partner and dependent children

Any Questions and Comments or Points from the floor to Andrew from the TBF

Andrew then took questions and any points from the floor and gave answers back

Address conference by the RMT Learning Organisers John Holmes and Petrit Mihaj Briefing on RMT Learning Project, Apprenticeships and Ault Learning

John Holmes who is assisting Petrit Mihaj in RMT learning in signing up apprenticeships which cover all ages in the workplace and network rail learning teams are looking for some help from branches, reps and our co-ordinators and getting them more involved.

Petrit Mihaj spoke about the current projects and the secured funding as the government has agreed to increase the number of apprenticeships and union reps who need to speak to their employers such as within network rail and have a good standard of apprenticeships in place.

We have to be able to run courses involving branches and union learning reps and cover all the agreements set out.

There are leaflets on RMT Learning R18 apprenticeships setting out the information you require and Apprenticeships Toolkit booklets showing the resource required and the back of the hall.

Any Questions and Comments or Points from the floor to our Union learning organisers

Petrit then took questions and any points from the floor and gave answers back

Conference Business

Election to appoint two Tellers

Nominations were taken from the floor and the two tellers appointed were agreed

Elected as tellers for the conference were ---1 David O’Donnell Fife and District Branch

2 Chris Collins LU Engineering Branch

Conference Secretary Report

Conference secretary welcomed delegates and everyone else to our conference here in Norwich. Regarding delegate slips, I only received them from 16 branches proposing 31 delegates to attend this conference and I then give that information onto the host branch secretary for their benefit for making arrangements to cater for, but as you see there are a lot more attending conference today.

I have mentioned in the any other business section on page 15 for your views of our conference rules in the Constitution and Standing Orders which were set up from the amalgamation of the workshop grades conference and the conciliation grades conference to become the Engineering grades conference. Basically if any changes are to be made then how do we implement any changes?

The balance sheet on page 4 of the final agenda shows the bank balance for year ending 2016 was £1454.28p and the balance in the bank on the 28th March 2017 was £2259.28p and that included our allocation from head office of £850

I have 50 booklets with 4 tickets in each booklet to sell for the London Widows and Orphan Fund for their summer draw 2017, delegates who wish to purchase them at 25p a ticket or one booklet for a £1 can see me during conference and keep up our tradition of giving each family a gift or a gift voucher and take the families of our late colleagues on at least a day trip this summer. The draw will take place on Wednesday the 5th of July 2017.

Finally I would like to thank Norwich Branch for all the work they have done in arranging this conference and particular Alan Jary and I thank you for all attending and I hope you all enjoy conference and your time here in Norwich.

Election of two Auditors

Nominations were taken from the floor and the current two auditors were elected unopposed and agreed

Currently in place are the following two nominated members who stay local to the current conference secretary which is the normal conference arrangement and it was accepted that they stayed in place.

1 Alex Hogg Edinburgh 1 and Portobello District Branch

2 David O’Donnell Fife and District Branch

Alex Hogg confirmed the audited balance sheet presented as correct and thanked the conference secretary for the work he has done.

BALANCE SHEET OF THE NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL ORGANISING CONFERENCE OF ENGINEERING GRADES 2017

FOR THE YEAR ENDING 31ST DECEMBER 2016

INCOME / EXPENDITURE
1. Bank Balance Brought Forward / 1.309 / 28 / 1. Postage & Phone / 12 / 00
2. Grant from Head Office / 850 / 00 / 2. Printing & Stationery / 63 / 00
3. Bank Interest / 3. Cost of Meeting Room / 120 / 00
4.Cost of hall for conference / 120 / 00
4. Other Income (Detail) / 5.Other detail of Expenditure
EC Expenses
Refreshments / 270
120 / 00
00
Expenditure Total / 705 / 00
In Bank / 1.454 / 28
TOTAL / 2.159 / 28 / TOTAL / 2.159 / 28

Bank Reconciliation Statement

Balance as per Bank Statement at 31st December 2016 / 1.454 / 28 / We, the undersigned, hereby certify that we have examined the whole of the books, including the Cash Books, Receipt Book, bank statements and documents in connection with the above accounts and we are satisfied that the Return is a true and correct statement
Total / 1.454 / 28 /

A Hogg

/ Auditor

D O’Donnell

/ Auditor
A Cadden / Secretary
Date: 31 December 2016

Endorsement of balance sheet

Balance sheet statement for year ending 2016 in our conference final agenda on page 4 shows all the finances for 2016.

This Industrial Organising Conference of Engineering grades 2016 to be adopted and be moved as being a true and correct statement

Adopted---- By John Kennedy Conference President

Moved------By James Brown Liverpool 5 Branch

Seconded-- By Neil Herbertson Berwick Rail Branch

Voting on Standing orders committee