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MEETINGS





NEXT GPTU Meeting: Weds 27 July 2011 Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London SE1 (Waterloo tube and Rail) above N.Mandela statue 6.30pm



Minutes GPTU Meeting: Weds 18 may 2011
  1. Apologies: Sue Tibbles, Ken Burgess, Douglas Rouxel
  2. Minutes of meeting 20/4/2011: Agreed for Accuracy
  3. Matters arising from Minutes of meeting 20/4/2011
    1. "Working Class representation" email group: more info needed
    2. Local elections: GPTU sends its congratulations to all those GPEW members who stood and all those who worked to support GPEW candidates.
  4. Brief Officers reports
    1. Treasurer: £170 in bank
    2. Secretary: messages of support sent to several disputes (see below).
    3. Youth and Students´ Officer:
      • NUS conference: Liam Burn elected as NUS president and four left wingers elected to NUS executive.
      • Liaison with left and green groups, hoped to establish a relationship between NUS and Young Greens.
      • Anti cuts campaigns high on agenda.
    4. Disability Rep;
      • Increasing media pressure on disabled people re "benefit scrounging" etc.
      • "Hardest Hit" march had been well attended with some GP members present, Caroline Lucas lobbied.
      • Messages that had recently appeared on the Labour Party website seemed opportunistic.
      • New Gov´t legislation was difficult to understand
      • Conference Motion on benefits needs signatures
      • The issue of low pay for care workers needs to be raised.
  5. Conference Motions
    1. Motion to Censure GPEX and to Call for the Creation of Model Employment Policies: Reported that a disciplinary had taken place but London Federation and GPRC(?) do not seem to have any report about this from GPEX. A shortened version of the motion will be circulated.
    2. Motion: For a stronger GPRC. Vote against recommended
    3. Delegate Conferences; motion to be withdrawn in the light of SOC advice, concerns re equalities issues and full consultation of members could be put as amendments to GPRC working group motion on this subject.
    4. House of lords Vote for recommended
    5. Maximum Wage SOC ruling re 2yr rule possible. Otherwise Vote for recommended.
    6. Immigration Controls Vote to refer back for amendment recommended.
    7. CoR: (Coalition of Resistance) Vote for recommended.
    8. 1m Climate jobs pamphlet/petition. Vote for recommended.
    6. NB: The above is not a full list of motions so far submitted , this is currently available on the policy forum of the GPEW members´ site. Motions require a proposer and three seconders to INDEPENDENTLY (ie separately) contact SOC (soc@greenparty.org.uk) clearly stating which motion they wish to propose/second. The simplest way to do this is to include the text in the email concerned. Members can only propose or second a total of four motions. The first agenda deadline (for voting papers and motions to be discussed at Autumn Conference) is Tuesday 31st May 2011. Motions and amendments at the first agenda deadline require four signatories as set out in Section A of Standing Orders for the Conduct of Conference (SOCCs). The final agenda deadline (for reports and amendments to motions and voting papers) will be Friday 15th July 2011.
  6. Conference Fringe: Offer from Martin Empson to speak on 1m Green jobs pamphlet and petition accepted. Agreed that a second speaker on youth unemployment might also be invited to be pursued.
  7. Conference Stall PM to liaise with Sue Tibbles
  8. Anti-cuts campaigns
    1. Lambeth anti cuts lobby and libraries campaign. Peoples´ Assembly; Lambeth Town hall 21/5.2011
    2. Brent NHS meeting Video on http://brentgreens.blogspot.com/2011/05/brent-fightback-nhs-meeting-12-may-2011.html
    3. Scottish TUC march Edinburgh (have contacted Scottish TUC for further info)
    4. Coalition of Resistance; Conference 14/5/11 calling for a further TUC demo and strike action.
  9. Pensions: possibility of multi union strike on 30/6/11
  10. NHS;
    1. redundancies taking place. London demo on 14/5/2011 a national NHS demo could potentially be very large.
    2. Fascist involvement with London Ambulance Service. Joseph Healy had blogged about this at http://greenleftblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/fascists-racists-and-london-ambulance.html he had also contacted GPEW London Press Officer, no response so far. Agreed that GPTU should write to LAS expressing concern.
  11. GPEW and Trades Unions Solidarity messages sent to TU/ NUS Branches at London met university , Robert Gordon University and Redhall bio-ethanol lock Website. Some design modifications required but new site could be put on line.
  12. New leaflet & Fundraising; New leaflet requires raising about £400.
  13. NL to be approached re quiz night and venues to be investigated. Other fundraising ideas welcome.
  14. Next meeting: 22/6/2011 Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London SE1 (Waterloo tube and Rail) above N.Mandela statue 6.30pm