The final annual meeting of the GPM Sector South of England Branch was held on 7th February, 2009.
Future meetings will take place under the new Unite rule book which comes into effect on 1st May, 2009.
On the same date, the first meeting of the GPM Regional Industrial Sector for the South East of England will take place. This will be the first meeting of three former branches of the GPM Sector: South of England, South East, and Kent.
This gives us the opportunity to establish our sector as an important and influential sector within the south east region.
The recent meeting (formerly known as the Branch Annual General Meeting) dealt with many issues and received a number of reports from members of the committee and our regional sector officer, Steve Attwill.
The meeting was opened by branch president, Dave Lovelidge, who commented on the current economic situation and the fact that the Labour Government had been forced to move towards nationalisation of the banking industry – although it was noted that the motivation was not necessarily what we would have desired.
Reports of the recent work of the Executive Committee, the Sector Executive Committee and the South East Regional Council were given respectively by Dave Lovelidge, Alan Ritchie and Don Dolby.
A political report, given by Paul Blount, stimulated probably the most interesting and animated debate of the meeting. Paul put forward the idea that the Labour Party had ceased to deserve any funding from trade unions. He proposed that all financial support should be withdrawn from the Labour Party, unconditionally. This, Paul said, would be the only way that the Labour Party could be persuaded to return to its roots and the reason for its existence.
A lively debate ensued with many voices raised in favour of Paul's suggestion.
Elections to the new South of England Committee took place and a number of members were elected. This may be overtaken by events as outlined earlier in this report and directions are expected from the Unite Executive Council in the near future.
Steve Attwill gave his report on the activities within the GPM Sector in our region over the last 12 months. He also reported on the merger with the Kent branches due to come into effect on 1st May.
Steve mentioned a number of campaigns that had taken place in the region over the last year. He also commented that five members of our committee had visited Cuba in recent months – this is particularly pertinent this year as Cuba is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its revolution.
A motion on Lay Representation in the Union, calling for lay committee members to have the right to meet without the presence of officers or employees of the union, was endorsed unanimously by the meeting.
Two motions reaffirming our policies on increasing Statutory Redundancy Pay and increasing the Minimum Wage were also endorsed unanimously.
Simon Warner gave a very interesting report on a few months he had recently spent in Israel helping to give training to local press operatives.
The president then closed the meeting and wished everyone well for the future in the changing circumstances.