Northern TUC

A FUTURE THAT WORKS
Northern TUC Regional Campaign Plan
2013-2015

The Northern TUC enjoys the benefit of well organised, cohesive, broad and deep engagement from a wide range of trade unions in the north east and Cumbria. The successful delivery of the Regional Work Plan is entirely dependent upon that engagement, cohesion and cooperation between trade unions continuing and working well across geographies and sectors. The Regional Work Plan is constituted through three main dynamics; the debates and resolutions from the TUC Regional Conference, the national TUC’s Campaign Plan ( and ongoing work carried over from previous work plans and ongoing current issues.

The Regional Campaign Plan is presented within the national format to support efforts to demonstrate and ensure recognition of the significant contribution that the northern TUC makes to the broad work of the TUC.

At the time of writing the TUC is currently undergoing an organisational review which will see a shift of resources into campaigning work, plus efforts to establish strong regional integration.

The Regional Campaign Plan is both demanding and stretching. It reflects the key challenges and priorities as highlighted in the processes outlined above. It presents also an opportunity for trade unions in the region to focus on making trade unions stronger, reaching out to workers in struggle and to those who are not yet enjoying the benefits of trade union membership. It enables trade union members to gain from the significant added-value that membership and good workplace organisation affords.

The Work Plan seeks, as well as supporting workers in struggle wherever it is practicable to do so, to enable trade unions to continue to be a progressive force for good, making a real and positive difference to working people in the north east and Cumbria.

Kevin Rowan

Regional Secretary

Stronger Unions

  • Union value

The TUC will continue to expose link between inequality and poor standards with declining collective bargaining and promote trade unions and strong workplace trade union organisation as part of the solution. The TUC will showcase good practice where trade unions are making a positive difference in the workplace.

Building on progress through the learning and skills and health and wellbeing agenda the TUC will seek to take positive trade union messages into non-unionised companies and promote good relations with trade unions.

  • Union strength

The TUC recognises that well trained, confident workplace reps are key to successful trade unions. The TUC will work with unions to develop and brief and support union reps and officers to equip them with the skills to promote trade unionism in the workplace.

A key feature of the work of the TUC will be to continue to support union organising campaigns and strategies.

  • Union International

The Northern TUC recognises the importance of international solidarity and will continue to prioritise support for stronger unions across the globe, working with international organisations, Global Union Federations, union to union solidarity and support for indigenous communities.

Jobs, Growth and a New Economy

  • Work with LEPs, inward investment

The TUC will seek to facilitate and lead direct engagement with Local Enterprise Partnerships to ensure that the trade union voice is heard effectively in the three LEPs in the area; Tees Valley, NE LEP area and Cumbria and that the TUC is recognised as a key stakeholder promoting the growth of good quality employment in the northern region.

  • Campaigning for growth sectors, ‘green jobs’, manufacturing

The TUC and trade unions have been a key voice in promoting high quality employment in key sectors. The TUC will continue to campaign for growth in the low Carbon manufacture industries, advanced manufacturing, public services and all key sectors of the northern region economy.

  • Skills, health and wellbeing, High Performance Workplace

The TUC and trade unions contribute strongly to improving the quality of work for workers in the northern region. Through promoting and enabling participation in skills development, lifelong learning, through promoting better health, safety and wellbeing and through good quality employee engagement through trade union organisation trade unions and the TUC help to ensure workers have their voice heard in the workplace.

The TUC will continue to work with trade unions and employers to strive to achieve the High Performance Workplace. Central to this goal will be ongoing work and campaigns to enable workers to access learning and skills opportunities at work.

  • Youth Employment

The northern region faces a specific challenge of high youth unemployment and increasing long term youth unemployment. The TUC will work with trade unions, young people, public agencies and employers to provide good quality employment opportunities and support to enable young workers to gain good quality employment.

A major focus of this work will include working with trade unions, employers and the National Apprenticeship Service to grow opportunities for good quality apprenticeships, including seeking to tackle occupational gender segregation in apprentice participation. Work will include campaigning for improvements in apprentice pay.

Fair Pay and the Living Wage

  • Campaigning work on low pay / poverty

The TUC has done much already to highlight the scale and impact of low pay in the northern region and this will continue in the current Campaign Plan. The TUC and trade unions will seek to raise the issue of financial exclusion and its impact with relevant organisations and institutions, including campaigning against the exploitation of working people through payday loans and high cost finance, supporting increased access to and use of credit unions.

There has been some success in recent months in blocking the introduction of regional pay in the public sector and in seeing the interest in and commitment to deliver a Living Wage. But there is more work to be done on pay and wages, especially given the scale of in-work poverty across the northern region.

The TUC will campaign with trade unions for decent pay, including establishing Living Wages across low paying sectors and industries and supporting trade union campaigns for decent pay.

  • Public Procurement

Despite immense public spending cuts the public sector still accounts for £5billion of the regional economy. The TUC will work with trade unions and public sector partners to ensure that the investment of the public sector is deployed to contribute toward ‘good work’ outcomes, making innovative use of the opportunities afforded by the Social Value Act.

Public Services and Decent Welfare

  • Public Services Alliance

Ongoing cuts to public spending, based on an ideological approach to public services from the Coalition Government, would indicate that public services and public sector workers will continue to be at the forefront of the challenges ahead. The Public Services Alliance has proved to be an effective campaigning model.

In the Campaign Plan the PSA will continue to expose the impact of public spending cuts on service users, communities and workers in the public sector. The PSA will campaign and, through the Public Services Sub-Committee, organise to protect public sector employment.

The PSA will seek to win the battle of ideas, presenting an alternative economic philosophy to cuts, in particular promoting fair taxation and investment in jobs and growth.

Campaigning activities will include ‘Austerity Uncovered’ (June); the NHS birthday celebrations (July); challenging the privatisation of health services, the probation service, Royal Mail and prisons; challenging the marketisation, fragmentation and privatisation of education and education services and challenging attacks on trade unions.

Under the regional grouping of ‘Action for Rail’ the TUC and trade unions will seek to oppose the re-privatisation of East Coast Main Line and will campaign for rail service and infrastructure improvements.

  • Decent Welfare

The TUC, trade unions and local PSA coalitions have worked with community organisations, including ‘the Hardest Hit’ to highlight the unfair impacts of welfare reform on those most vulnerable. Welfare Reform continues to victimise those in most need and drive families into absolute poverty.

The TUC will work with trade unions, community organisations and others to provide information about welfare and to campaign against cuts to the most vulnerable in society.

At the same time the TUC, with trade unions, will seek to equip workers and communities to cope as effectively as possible with welfare reform, including increasing digital inclusion, building alliances with community organisations and supporting community campaigns against benefit cuts.

Respect and a Voice at Work

  • Employment Rights and minimum standards are being eroded by the Coalition Government. The TUC, with trade unions, will campaign to protect decent standards in the workplace and will seek to promote good quality employment rights and a strong voice in the workplace for employees.
  • Austerity has impacted dramatically on already underserved groups, especially young people and women over 50. The TUC will work with unions through its equality structures to achieve fairness at work and in wider society, including more equal representation.
  • The impact of austerity continues to fall hardest on under-served communities. The TUC, with trade unions will highlight and campaign for better equality outcomes for working people and in the wider community. Through the local PSA coalitions the TUC will seek to develop strong and effective partnerships with community organisations.
  • Through that strong workplace voice the TUC and trade unions will seek to work with employers to develop good employment practices in skills and learning, health and wellbeing and employee engagement.

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