Retired Members Conference North West Report

March 2009

The Conference was held on 5th March 2009 at CWU Headquarters, Wimbledon.

This year’s conference was overshadowed by the tragic death of Stan Skinkis.

Stan died in his hotel room on the morning of the conference.

The North West delegation stayed with Stan until the paramedics and police had completed their formalities. We arrived at conference about 30 minutes after the start. Conference had already paid its respects to Stan with a 2-minute silence.

GENERAL SECRETARY’S ADDRESS

Billy Hayes had addressed the conference with a message of support and acknowledged the role played by the CWU’s retired members in shaping the political debate on all issues that effect older people. He said how proud he was to have addressed some regional events held to commemorate the centenary of the introduction of the state pension during 2008 and pledged the CWU’s continued support for the National Pensioners Convention.

GUEST SPEAKER

Lord Tony Clarke was speaking as we arrived and spoke passionately against the Government’s intention to privatise Royal Mail. He was the Peer who shouted ‘Shame’ when Lord Mandelson introduced the bill in the Lords recently. He spoke of the ‘indecent haste’ with which liberalisation of postal services had been introduced in this country and attacked Postcom for being ‘a mouthpiece for the opposition’. With regard to the pension deficit Jane Newell the chair of RM Trustees didn’t escape his wrath either for having written a very political letter supporting Mandelson’s bill without the knowledge nor consent of the rest of the board. He promised to take the campaign against the bill to every Peer in the House.

THE DEBATES

Of the ten motions on the order paper this year seven of them, in my opinion, were rather inward looking though on wide ranging subjects from NPC funding to concern about the closure of public conveniences.

Our motion from the North West, which originated from Stan, called for the creation of a National Carers Service to be funded from additional tax on incomes in excess of £100,000. It received overwhelming support and will go forward to National Conference in June.

On a similar theme the RMAC proposed that the Carers Allowance be paid regardless of either the carer or their partner being in receipt of the State Pension.

Perhaps the most controversial motion concerned funding for the National Pensioners Convention. It proposed a rule change to donate 1p per member to the NPC. This would have meant around £135,000 per being paid to the NPC which is far in excess of any other funding from a single organisation the NPC receives. Delegates from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland pointed out that the NPC is not the main pensioner representative in those countries. Another major objection was that our union simply cannot afford such support for any organisation because of declining membership and the current subscription rate already being increased to counter it. Although everyone acknowledged the work done by the NPC sanity prevailed and the motion was defeated.

Royal Mail privatisation and its effect upon the pension fund got a good airing  as did a proposal to press the Government to expand services within the Post Office Card Account. Both motions were carried overwhelmingly.

The debate about the closure of public conveniences was brought to an abrupt end when someone ‘moved’ to the vote before all the double entendres had been aired. However it was recognised that the lack of toilet facilities con be a serious problem, not just for older people but for youngsters and people with medical conditions too.

The remaining motions about the publication of ‘The Link’, Retired Members Schools and adverts for retired membership to be carried in ‘The Voice’ were all carried with the latter one going forward to National Conference.

GUEST SPEAKER

NPC Vice President Dot Gibson has been a lifelong campaigner and showed she has lost none of her enthusiasm when she spoke passionately in a wide-ranging speech about the State Pension and its importance as a universal right. She also reminded us of the struggles waged by the labour and trade union movement to secure the Welfare State, the National Health Service and education and deplored the continuing, stealthy privatisation of services. Social care, she said, is the latest area that private companies have targeted. Private carriers such as DHL, TNT, Business Post and others were also targeted by Dot as companies that will sail close to the wind to avoid or minimise the effects of employment law.

OFFICER’S ADDRESS

Tony Kearns focussed on the Government’s intention to minimise the importance of the state pension over the medium to long term placing a greater burden on individuals to provide for their own retirement through private and occupational pensions.

He highlighted the fact that occupational pension benefits are continually being eroded and many smaller funds have collapsed altogether. He called for greater co-operation between trade unions and pensioner groups throughout the UK to combat this intention.

Tony then put on his treasurers hat and pointed out that the union cannot be immune from the recession. In a time of relative boom we have lost 57,000 members and predicted £5 to £7 million loss per year. This will have an effect on every department in the union and on the way we do things in the future.

Graham Wilson
Delegate