100+ ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE CWU - 2005 EDITION

01 June 2005

FOREWORD

All too often as CWU activists we fail to appreciate and communicate our success stories. It is true that if you search and dig you probably can find out where and how the union has done well.

This small booklet brings together the big picture, a panoramic view of what belonging to the CWU means.

The details within these pages are a public record of the hard work of national leadership and often unnamed volunteer activists, without whom, none of the following could have been achieved.

Unions make a difference.

Billy Hayes
General Secretary

Officers and National Executive Council 2002-3

General Secretary
Billy Hayes

Senior Deputy General Secretary
Tony Kearns

Deputy General Secretary (Postal)
Dave Ward

Deputy General Secretary (Telecoms)
Jeannie Drake

NEC
National President: Pat O'Hara
Vice President: Andy Kerr
 

Carol Alcock Eddie Beese Davie Bowman Phil Browne Norman Candy Graham Colk Pete Donaghy Allan Eldred Maria Excell John Farnan

Steve Fishwick John Holmes Steve Jones Mick Kavanagh Jane Loftus Carl Maden Noel McClean Lesley McLean Colin O'Callaghan Bernard Roome

Beryl Shepherd Andrea Snowden Mark Taggart Phil Waker Ian Ward Dave Warren David Wilshire

Officers

Postal Martin Collins Ray Ellis Andy Furey Terry Pullinger Dave Ward Telecoms & Financial Services Sally Bridge Nigel Cotgrove Ian Cuthbert Brian Healy Bill McClory Grace Mitchell Simon Sapper Clerical Constituency Emma Forrest Keith Griffiths Dave Johnson Glynis Winestein Communications Kevin Slocombe

Education & Training Trish Lavelle Equal Opportunities Michele Emerson European Affairs John Baldwin Health & Safety David Joyce Legal Services Jim Moher Tony Rupa Organising Steve Baguley Research Jeremy Baugh

HEAD OFFICE OPERATIONS & MEMBERSHIP SERVICES

• We commissioned a comprehensive review of the union and its operations led by Professor Keith Ewing.
• We have totally restructured the financial recording and control mechanisms at Head Office to bring expenditure back in line with income.
• We have produced Strategic Plans for both 2002 and 2003.
• We have made progress in seeking Investors in People (IiP) accreditation.
• We have provided information and advice on an incredible range of legal, health & safety, equal opportunities, and conditions of service issues.
• We have operated membership services on insurance, personal loans, credit cards, travel, financial planning, motor breakdown, car leasing, cheaper gas and electricity, and eye care.
• We disbursed £50,000 in benefit payments from the National Welfare Fund in the course of 2002.
• We operate a professional Communications Department that briefs the media and produces material for union campaigns.
• We issue a "Branch Officers' Bulletin" every week with detailed information on negotiations and agreements.
• Letter to Branches are now issued electronically to every branch of the union.
• We send every member a personal copy of the union's newspaper "Voice" to their home each month.
• We run a comprehensive and up-to-date web site that can be accessed by any member any time of the day or night.
• We have an impressive Research Department that produces papers and briefs for our negotiators and our activists.
• We have produced the first ever Pay Handbook detailing the pay rates of all CWU grades in some 40 bargaining units and 36 companies.
• We have produced a policy document on nationalisation of the UK telecommunications industry, evaluating the arguments for and against.
• We have produced a policy document on London Weighting and affordable housing for key workers.
• We have a Women's Advisory Committee whose work is published through "Women's Talk".
• We have an Ethnic Minorities Advisory Committee which has produced a new leaflet on racial harassment.
• We have a Lesbian and Gay Advisory Committee whose work is publicised through "OutTalk".
• We have a Disability and Special Needs Advisory Committee whose work is publicised through "Disability in Focus".
• We have a Youth Advisory Committee which has created an innovative link-up with the Samaritans' emotional support service.
• We convened the first ever CWU National Youth Event in October 2002.

RECRUITMENT & ORGANISATION

• We have created a more accurate national membership database by improving the way we receive and process our membership data from the main employers of our members.
• We have begun the roll-out of a new Branch membership data system (MDS) that allows for the electronic transfer of information from Branches to Head Office and vice versa.
• We have actively encouraged the merger of Branches to strengthen service to members and, during 2002, the number went from around 240 to just over 200 branches.
• We have introduced for the first time a union-wide strategy for recruitment and organising published as "Improving Today & Shaping Tomorrow".
• We have produced a new range of recruitment and membership material that can be used across all of the areas in which our members and potential members work.
• We launched a series of new recruitment programmes focused on a variety of communications companies which included the broad-based National Recruitment Week.
• We ran a special 14 week campaign called "21 Today" aimed at improving Clerical membership and recruited an impressive 3,300 new members.
• We won a recognition ballot at Vertex - the outsource firm who handle operator services for Cable & Wireless - with more than 99% of those voting backing the union.
• We more than doubled membership at cable company Telewest, in spite of massive job losses in the firm, before going on to win a recognition ballot.
• We achieved recognition at Alphanumeric.

LEGAL & OTHER SERVICES

• We won almost £26M in legal claims in 2002 on behalf of our members - an outstanding achievement, benefiting many members in need.
• We introduced the CWU Legal Helpline, which provides free legal advice on non-work related issues.
• We introduced the CWU Road Assist Scheme, which deals with members' claims as a result of road accidents while off duty.
• We have developed the Employment Tribunal Panel further by training and guiding officials to represent more members ably in unfair dismissal and all forms of unlawful discriminatory treatment by employers.
• We have secured many reinstatements of unfairly dismissed members.
• We have promoted settlements of numerous claims for compensation - including important cases on acoustic shock - with over £750,000 recovered in 2002.
• We have campaigned with other unions to strengthen the protection of the law at work through improved UK and European Union workers' rights.
• We have campaigned for a Workers' Charter to repeal and replace anti-union laws.
• We have monitored closely the risk from anthrax following the US Postal Service experience of late 2001.
• We have produced and distributed a comprehensive Women's Health Pack.
• We promoted European Health & Safety Week in October 2002.
• We supported International Workers Memorial Day in April 2003.

EDUCATION & TRAINING

• We operate two training colleges, one at the Elstead Hotel in Bournemouth and one at Alvescot Lodge in Oxfordshire.
• We have now achieved a 50/50 balance of postal & telecoms members on courses at Alvescot.
• We delivered training on our own courses to almost 2,000 members in 2002.
• We put 40 members on courses run by Ruskin College, Oxford and the University of Southampton New College.
• We put another 130 members on the BSc Computer Science course at Queen Mary University of London.
• We have recruited and trained a total of 180 Union Learning Representatives nation-wide.
• We have opened a series of 19 learning centres in BT and the Post Office.
• We saw the graduation of students from the first intelligent Processing Solutions Ltd lifelong learning course.
• We have won one of the largest single funding awards by the Department of Education & Skills' Union Learning Fund (£848,000 over two years).

POSTAL SECTOR

• We negotiated the comprehensive and detailed Managing The Surplus Framework agreement which came into effect in March 2002 and most significantly excludes compulsory redundancy and provides for 65 to be the normal retirement age.
• We achieved a 5 day week for all postal members - a longstanding and fundamental objective of the Union.
• We prevented the implementation of the original and unacceptable proposals of Royal Mail for a new Tailored Delivery Service (TDS) which would have involved a four hour delivery span.
• We maintained cleaning members in the Royal Mail Group as direct employees of a Royal Mail subsidiary.
• We defeated the attempt of Royal Mail to outsource to Securicor the Cash Handling & Distribution Division.
• We defeated the proposal to outsource Vehicle Services and the subsequent Workshop Network Review Agreement has opened up the issue of winning external work.
• We negotiated agreements with Royal Mail on issues including Weekend Services and Network Changes, Address Interpretation, Simplified Sorting, Pocket Stamping/Sorting, Service Delivery Reporting Initiative, and Individual Performance Standards.
• We negotiated agreements with Royal Mail on Project Apollo Mail Order Returns and Project Apollo USO Parcels
• We negotiated agreements with Royal Mail on Easter, Spring & Christmas Letter Arrangements and MDEC Christmas Staffing Arrangements.
• We negotiated an agreement with Royal Mail on Cycle Helmets and High Visibility Clothing.
• We negotiated with Royal Mail terms of reference for at least six on-going projects.
• We had discussions with Royal Mail concerning at least 16 national trials or reviews.
• We negotiated agreements with Parcelforce on issues including the 2002 pay award, the 2002 pay award for sales grades, the Apollo Deport Rationalisation, the Apollo Remuneration Package, and the use of Maynard's Operation System Technique.
• We negotiated agreements with Logistics on issues including the 2002 pay award, the Discrete Network pay award, Use of Third Parties in Sameday Operation, a Code of Practice for Security Checks, implementation of the Transport Review, and Harmonisation of Vehicle Related Issues.
• We negotiated the 2002 pay award for Quadrant members.
• We negotiated comprehensive and favourable terms for RoMEC members who were covered by plans to move the unit into a joint venture with Balfour Beatty.
• We negotiated a new grading package for RoMEC members which, together with the RoMEC 2002 pay deal, provided increases in excess of 6% for a large majority of RoMEC engineers.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS SECTOR

• We negotiated a 3.8% pay deal in BT - among the highest level of settlements in the private sector.
• We negotiated new Maternity/Paternity Leave arrangements in BT
• We successfully negotiated with BT the final half hour reduction in working time that was part of the complex Newgrid agreement.
• We have progressed with BT extremely detailed negotiations with BT on the company's proposed Self Motivated Teams initiative.
• We completed negotiations with BT Customer Services which resulted in 800 staff in controls being promoted and receiving an immediate 5% increase in pay.
• We fought a successful campaign to retain BT Fleet within the BT Group.
• We won the battle to keep BT Mail Services as an in-house operation.
• We forced BT to shelve proposals to sell off redCARE to the American-owned Numerex Corporation.
• We completed successful pay negotiations with MIREC.
• We negotiated good TUPE terms for members transferred from BT to Computacenter.
• We achieved a new recognition agreement with Telereal.
• We achieved a new recognition agreement with Monteray.
• We achieved a new recognition agreement with Carillion.
• We agreed new Maternity and Paternity Leave, Flexible Working and Discipline Procedures with Accenture HR Services.
• We achieved an hour's reduction in the engineering week in Manx Telecom.
• We negotiated with HCL (Northern Ireland) Ltd a change of employment policy moving from 100% agency usage to a 70 (permanent): 30 (agency) usage, an immediate conversion of 200 agency people to permanent contracts, and an improved pensions package.
• We achieved an agreement on attendance pattern changes in Typetalk.
• We negotiated harmonisation of grades in TriVirix International.
• We achieved the introduction of a pilot sick pay scheme at Vertex.
• We signed a new Partnership and Facilities Agreement with Manpower.
• We signed a Partnership Agreement with Hays.
• We agreed a Best Practice Code (Phase 3) with Agency Employers.
• We achieved an important stage in a long-running - and on-going battle when an industrial tribunal granted 120 CWU members in Solectron the BT redundancy terms they fought for since the company decided to close most of its manufacturing operation in Cwmcarn.
• We negotiated new pensions in O2, including final salary for those previously in the BT pension scheme.
• We negotiated a new Telereal final salary pension scheme - a mirror of BT's pension scheme.
• We negotiated a new Accenture HR Services pension scheme which is actuarially comparable to BTPS.
• We negotiated a new pension scheme in Xansa for ex BT staff, maintaining final salary for those in the BTPS.
• We launched a major and long-running campaign called "Demand: Broadband".
• We published two detailed briefing booklets for activists on the broadband issue.
• We saw the Prime Minister announce important new initiatives in the use of broadband by the public sector - one of our campaign objectives.
• We have published an influential report on best practice in call centres.

FINANCIAL SERVICES SECTOR

• We reached agreement with Alliance & Leicester over outsourcing of Basingstoke Cash Centre to Securicor, including no change in terms and conditions until 2004.
• We reached agreement with Alliance & Leicester, following the sale of the credit card to MBNA, which kept Ashford open and avoided compulsory redundancies.
• We negotiated a 3.15% pay rise and more leave in intelligent Processing Solutions Ltd (iPSL).
• We achieved a recognition agreement in Sovereign Finance

EXTERNAL REPRESENTATIONS

• We have two members on the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and play a full part in the TUC's extensive work.
• We send delegations to the annual TUC Congress and the Scottish TUC and Wales TUC.
• We held a joint executive meeting with the GPMU on the theme of Organising & Recruitment.
• We have a member on the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party and play an active part in all the Party's work.
• We send delegations to the Annual Conference of the Labour Party and the conferences of the various Regional Labour Parties.
• We work particularly closely with a team of 11 Members of Parliament, one Member of the House of Lords, and two Members of the European Parliament who assist and advise us on political issues.
• We organised a mass lobby of Parliament to protest against unfair regulation of the Post Office.
• We have lobbied on the Communications Bill that will create a single regulator in accordance with long-standing CWU policy.
• We regularly make detailed submissions to all the regulators that affect the industries in which our members work, notably the Postal Services Commission (Postcomm), the Office of Telecommunications (Oftel), and the Competition Commission.
• We play a leading role in the activities of the international trade union representing posts & telecoms workers, Union Network International (UNI).