Our conference programme is as follows:
| 09:30 | Registration and stalls open | Central Hall: Registration in the first floor lobby. Stalls in the Lounge and Main Hall. | |
| 10:30 | Opening plenary: “Fighting back under Labour” Breakouts by industry |
Central Hall, Main Hall, hybrid, subtitles, COVID air filter | Kate Edwards (NHS Workers Say NO! and RCN activist, and one of the coordinators of Troublemakers At Work) will welcome you and introduce the conference.
We will hear from workers on the front line of struggle: Lee Fowler (Blacklist Support Group and Construction Rank and File), Tracy Edwards (#MeTU steering committee and Union Workers Union President) and workers in dispute including Claire Miller (UNISON, Manchester Early Intervention in Psychosis Service, due to strike on 16 October). We will then have breakouts by industry to meet other delegates and start the day’s discussions. See the updates handout with your printed programme for where each breakout group will be. |
| 11:30 | Break | ||
| 11:50 | Workshop 1: Essential skills for building and winning at work | Sachas Hotel, Jefferson Room | A practical skill-building workshop for anyone starting to organise at work, facilitated by Harriet Prescott. Harriet is a Rep with NEU Newcastle – a loud and outspoken Geordie activist who is dedicated to wiggling in at any possible moment and win for the members in the workplace and in the community. |
| 11:50 | Workshop 2: Democracy, misogyny, racism and abuse in our unions | Central Hall, Collier Room, hybrid, subtitles, COVID air filter | Exploring the issues raised by the #MeTU campaign and the connection between creating unions that tackle oppression and better union democracy.
Facilitated by Annette Wright (PCS). |
| 11:50 | Workshop 3: Precarious and migrant workers organising | Sachas Hotel, Roosevelt Room. No photography or filming please | Migrant and precarious workers are often found in sectors such as agriculture, construction, domestic and care work where exploitation is rife and union organisation minimal. Unions don’t always meet the needs of these workers, but there are exciting examples of organising, fighting and winning.
Speakers including Francis (co-founder of the Pan African Workers Association), Margarita Permonaite (a peer engagement officer at the Worker Support Centre, a Scotland-based organisation that engages and supports isolated and marginalised workers in labour sectors where there is a high risk of abuse and exploitation) and Garfield Hylton (Amazon worker and GMB Rep). |
| 11:50 | Workshop 4: Lessons from the strike wave | Central Hall, Main Hall, hybrid, subtitles, COVID air filter | A participatory session hosted by Kate Edwards (RCN) and Rachel Eborall (Unite), both from NHS Workers Say NO! will discuss what we’ve all learned from the strike wave that should be shared more widely. |
| 13:15 | Lunch Breakouts by union from 13:35 |
Central Hall, back of Main Hall, hybrid, COVID air filter | See the updates handout with your printed programme for where each breakout group will be. |
| 14:15 | Workshop 5: Communicating to win | Sachas Hotel, Jefferson Room | Discuss different ways to communicate within your workplace or union online and using printed material. A practical workshop facilitated by Dr Emma Runswick (BMA). She is a resident doctor in mental health and Deputy Chair of BMA Council, the doctors’ union NEC. She has been a key figure in the Pay Restoration campaigns and the ongoing ‘shift to organising’ in the BMA. |
| 14:15 | Workshop 6: Confronting far right ideas in the workplace | Sachas Hotel, Roosevelt Room | The large vote for Reform and rhetoric aimed at migrants and trans people means that some right-wing workers may feel more confident to express far-right ideas in the workplace. This workshop will explore ways to challenge these ideas.
Facilitated by Saira Weiner (UCU Liverpool John Moores University branch chair and NEC member) and Rachel Eborall (mental health worker in London and a member of Unite and NHS Workers Say NO!) |
| 14:15 | Workshop 7: Politics in the workplace: Palestine, BDS, climate and just transition | Central Hall, Main Hall, hybrid, subtitles, COVID air filter | Discuss the experiences of organising around political issues such as Palestine, BDS and climate at work. How do we make sure good policies, democratically decided by members, are enacted?
With Raymond Morell, Toby McKenzie-Barnes, Eve Merrell and Katy Fox-Hodess. Raymond is a Unite rep in the aerospace and shipbuilding sector who is helping a team rebuild the union at his workplace and across the company, and building solidarity for Palestine around MAP and BDS. Toby McKenzie-Barnes is a co-founder of the Worker-Climate Team, which maps and networks trade unionists across Britain taking action on climate. Eve Merrall is the Green New Deal rep for UCU at the University of Liverpool, interested in the role of Green Reps and collective bargaining in progressing a just transition. Katy Fox-Hodess lectures in employment relations at the University of Sheffield, having been active in US and UK unions since 2006. She is speaking as an organiser with Workers in Palestine. |
| 14:15 | Workshop 8: Confronting anti-strike laws | Central Hall, Collier Room, hybrid, subtitles, COVID air filter | Under Blair, Britain had ‘the most restrictive union laws in the western world’. Since then they have got worse. Starmer’s government promises to repeal the last two sets of laws, which would leave draconian laws in place. This participatory session will discuss ideas to confront anti-strike laws as well as campaigning against them.
With Tony Gaskell (Unite convenor, Cammell Laird shipyard), Jo Sutton-Klein (junior doctor and BMA activist) and Daniel Randall (RMT Bakerloo branch and London Transport Region). |
| 15:40 | Break | ||
| 16:00 | Closing plenary: “What next for rank and file organising?” Open discussion | Central Hall, Main Hall, hybrid, subtitles, COVID air filter | Ian Allinson (one of the coordinators of Troublemakers At Work, UNISON activist in public transport, strike solidarity coordinator for Manchester TUC and author of ‘Workers Can Win: A Guide to Organising At Work’) will give an update about Troublemakers At Work and facilitate an open discussion about the tasks and priorities facing workers. |
| 16:50 | Close and after-party | After Party from 5pm: Upstairs in the English Lounge, 64-66 High Street, Manchester, M4 1EA | Free entry with a conference wristband, £5 without |
Note: the table above does not display well on some phones in portrait mode. Turning it landscape may help.
We have identified organisations that speakers are involved in, but we want everyone at this conference to speak freely. Everyone is speaking in a personal capacity rather than on behalf of their organisations unless they say otherwise.
Copy of the printed programme.
For details of the venues and a map see here.
For more conference details and tickets, see our main conference page.