SUMMARY OF BRANCH MEETING 270723

The July meeting of GMB Northants Community Branch took place on Thursday the 27th July 2023 at 7pm on Zoom. 

Below are the summary minutes of the meeting. A full copy of the minutes are sent to attendees and available on request from the branch secretary
​
A PDF copy of the July Summary Minutes are also here

---

---

​SUMMARY MINUTES OF THE BRANCH MEETING HELD ON 27TH JULY 2023

Correspondence.

• Correspondence, 38 Degrees, various emails, and topics.
• Campaign for Trade Union Freedom, spying activities of the Tory government against trade union activists.  Historical evidence, 1962/8.
• Up-date on food banks we support.  Agreed to re-instate funding.
• Invite to an evening with Jess Phillips in Corby.
• Q2 audit signed and submitted.
• Members enquiries.
• War on Want, various campaign topics, particularly focusing on Israel.
• Gordon, now a volunteer for Corby Home Start.  Request for funding agreed, consistent with funding to food banks and Kettering Home Start.
• Report from Kettering Home Start.
• KCLP, local campaigning activities.
• Pat – Congress Report.
• Rachelle, report N99 branch, supporting parents and carers.
• Nicaragua, various campaign topics. Continue with affiliation.
• Workers Memorial stone Corby – update. 
• Nominations to the TUC committee, young workers – Sarah James.
• Gary Smith, GS – support our ticket offices.
• Regional Committee mins.
• Natalia Grayson, forming a National Care Committee.
• Neil – recruitment day at Asda.
• South Yorkshire Festival, 6th August 2023.
• Food banks – reports.
• Agency workers – law change update. Rachelle gave a report.
• International Transport Workers – campaigning reports.
• Cuba Solidarity Journal.

 
Secretary’s Report
Paula still keen to talk to the branch as reported from previous meetings.  Pat reported on how that is progressing.  Branch agreed to still go ahead with a special meeting.
Secretary gave a comprehensive report on food banks that we support in Northamptonshire.  Agreed, he would write an article for the website.
 
Digital Communications Officer
Website activity for last 30 days: we had 168 (-27) website visits (sessions) by 121 (-46) people (users) and they viewed 325 (-388) pages.

News Items Added to Website:
GMB CONGRESS 2023
ASDA KETTERING RECRUITMENT DAY
RULE 56 FATAL ACCIDENT BENEFIT
SUMMARY OF BRANCH MEETING 290623
JULY 2023 BRANCH MEETING
GMB EQUALITY CAMPAIGNING TOOLKITS

The July email newsletter was sent out on Friday 21st July to 1,570 members (May list) and has been opened by 705 members, a 45.2% opening rate
Twitter: 783 (+7) Followers. Last 28 days: Tweets viewed (impressions) 39 (-68%) Profile visits 51 (-40%)
Facebook: 296 (+8) Followers. Last 28 days: Posts seen (reach) 53 (+71%)

​Equality Officers Report
Comprehensive report on Congress. 
Concerns raised about gender politics and ‘who’ attends meetings.
Speakers – Bladder Cancer Charity – Agreed they should talk to the branch.  Pat and Secretary to arrange. 
International Women’s Day.  Need to think about making early arrangements. 
General discussion and concerns about not receiving reports from all our branch officers (namely youth and race).  Branch agreed that we need to extend the role of the Equalities Officer to bring back all ‘relevant’ equalities reports in order to keep the branch up dated and informed. 
 
 
Regional Organisers Report

• Full reports from Rachelle and general report on the demands of representation and recruitment in terms of volume of work.  Secretary thanked for his support as an Accompanying Rep. 
• Company reports included:
• Matalan – pay negotiations.
• NNC – pay and benefits.
• Lamass Road. Ground workers, Kettering and Corby.
• Ballots also expected at schools.
• Grand Union Housing Group. 
• ASDA – equal pay claims opened.
• Rachelle was thanked for all the hard work being conducted on behalf of the union/branch.  “not quite sure where she finds the hours…”

 
Accompanying Reps Report
Secretary reported on cases that he had covered in the month of June.
 
Workplace Report

• Neil reported on his workplace activities at ASDA. 
• Neil reported on his next recruitment day. 
• Lifelong Learning Committee report back.  Neil explained courses that will be coming on stream. 
• General discussion on customer shopping experience that is impacted from staff reductions imposed by the company. 

 
Any Other Business

• Pat, WASPY up-date.
• PCC report.

 
Next meeting 28th September 2023

---

summary_minutes_270723.pdf
File Size:	236 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

---