NORTH WEST

REGIONAL WOMENS COMMITTEE

Wed 9th April 2014- Minutes

CWU Office, Rusholme Telephone Exchange, Rear of 54 Dickenson Road, Rusholme,

ATTENDEES

Karen BossonSecretary Manchester Combined

Jacqui StewartAsst SecCentral & West Lancs

Nicola McGlynnvice ChairEast Lancs Amal

Gail RobertsonManchester Combined

Beverley KenyonBootle Financial Services

Sandra HodgkisonCheshire No1

Michelle NaveseyCentral West Lancs

Debbie ClaytonNW No1

Joanne PerryGreater Manchester Amal

Clare DrummondGuestGreater Manchester Amal

Duncan HealeyGuestNWRLEC

Elaine TaylorGuestPostal Organiser

Dawn TaylorGuestNUT Divisional Officer

APOLOGIES

Carl WebbRegional Sec

Tracy BuckleyLiverpool Clerical

Debbie PhillipsNorthwest Central Amal

Elaine DalgleishNorth Lancs & Cumbria

Cathryn HeathFinancial Services

Emma RobertsSimpson Millar

BRANCHES NOT ATTENDING / NO APOLOGIES

Lancs & Cumbria Combined

Merseyside Amal

Merseyside and SW Lancs

  1. CHAIRPERSON’S OPENING REMARKS

In Karen S’ absence, Nikki Chaired

  1. INTRODUCTIONS/APOLOGIES

Introductions were made and apologies as recorded above. Nikki welcomed the guests and those who were new to the meeting

  1. MINUTES OF LAST MEETING/MATTERS ARISING

Minutes agreed. No matters arising.

  1. ACTION POINTS

Action points discussed and updated.

AP1 April 14 – Karen B

Look into holding future meeting at the People’s History Museum in Manchester

  1. GUEST SPEAKER – Elaine Taylor CWU – Organising and recruiting

Elaine gave a really good overview of what the organisers do for women in the CWU, including mobilising around issues, mapping the workforce and creating workplace committees. A document on why women find it hard to participate in trade unions was discussed as well as one on women and decision making that had been produced as part of the Strength, Relevance and Equality proportionality branch forum.

  1. FINANCIAL REPORT

2013 audit had been completed. Thanks to Gail Robertson for her help.

Previous balance£2935.84

Income£652.47

Expenditure£282.22

Latest balance£3306.09

Affiliations and donations will be made as agreed at the AGM

The invoice had been received for the new promotional items costing £1330 and is due to be paid

  1. SECRETARY’S REPORT

Karen B reported or gave info on the following and discussions took place:

Women in Science and engineering conference

TUC Women’s Advisory Committee

CWU NW Political forum

Talk given at Liverpool Clerical’s AGM

International Women’s Day event in Liverpool

Updates to the NW Women’s section of the CWU NW website

LTB 010/14 – Women’s higher incidence of work-related disorders report

Royal Mail Group domestic violence guide

CWU Annual Conference 2014 including motions submitted by the NW

Building Tomorrow Together booklet on ‘Getting women members active’

The ‘I got flowers today’ poem about domestic violence

The new NWRWC Campaign plan for 2014

European elections

Domestic Violence awareness project for the committee

It was agreed to set up a Working Party (WP) to design and plan the new project. Sandra and Debbie volunteered to work with Karen and Jacqui.

  1. WOMEN’S ADVISORY COMMITTEE (WAC) REPORT

Karen B gave a report on the first meeting of the new WAC that had been held in February. Joint WAC and RWC meetings were mentioned as well as the WAC priorities and new working parties (WPs) that had been set up. Glasgow had been proposed by the WAC for the location of Women’s Conference 2014. Women’s Talk magazine would be sent out in the next issue of the Voice just before Conference at the end of April.

  1. BRANCH REPORTS – incl Industrial issues

Gail mentioned some localised bullying happening within Openreach engineering.

Debbie gave an update on the changes happening in Ops and Admin within Royal Mail.

Beverley reported on how she had found a solution to an issue within Swiss Post

Jacqui updated everyone on the telecoms ‘Close the loopholes’ campaign and gave a brief report from the Disability Advisory Committee (DAC). Jacqui outlined an idea that the NW Equality committee were looking at to run a workshop on the Equality act in the NW and asked if anyone would be interested. There was a very positive response.

As it was Joanne’s first meeting, Clare talked about the Mary’s Meals backpack appeal she was running, recruitment in TNT and a transgender issue.

Duncan gave an update on the regional learning committee and its plans to hold an event on 14th May at Ellesmere Port

AP2 April 14 – Karen B

Let Carl Webb know the extent of interest for a NW Equality Act workshop

AP3 April 14 – Karen B

Arrange for Jacqui or Ted Stead to speak at a future meeting about disability issues

Arrange for speaker on Dementia

AP4 April 14 – Karen B

Take the issue of term time working to WAC for discussion

Dawn mentioned that the NUT has issues around capabilities regarding women

  1. INVOLVEMENT OF WOMEN

We discussed setting up workplaces visits which is an ongoing action point for the postal constituency members.

  1. AOB

None

Karen Bosson NW RWC Sec

07894 423892

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