Established 1865

The year of our 150th anniversary, 2015, saw an increased affiliation toWB&DTUC, twenty-two branches although with fewer members, 13,304:ASLEF, Community (Wolverhampton Craft), Community (Region 4associates), Community 17000, CWU, FBU, GMB X13, Musicians’ Union,NASUWT, NUT, PCS (Central Valuation), UCATTUE191, UCU (W'ton College), UCU (University),UNISON General, UNISON (Sandwell), UNISON(Police Staff), UNISON University, UNITE-CYWWM7697, UNITE WM6150, UNITE WM6151 Lock &Metalworkers, UNITE WM 6503 Black Country RTC.

As a trades union council, we meet monthly to discuss issues of jointconcern to the local labour movement and make democratic decisionsto organise events and campaigns which bring the message of tradeunionism to the wider public.

Affiliated branches elect delegates to us, but fewer than their allocations.4 sister and 16 brother delegates attended meetings during the year alongwith 14 visitors.Delegate meetings averaged attendance 10.3 (down on last year). 60% ofthe attendees were delegates and the others were visiting trade unionists,unemployed or retired. Other delegates took part in our activities. OurSeptember anniversary (but not a delegate meeting) did however attract 70.

The Trades Union Congress set our prioritiesas a trade union council for 2016:

The key theme for the Trades Union Councils Programme of Work for 2015to 2016 sets out a positive vision of trade unions as we know them to be:a democratic force for fairness in the modern workplace.The key areas of campaigning for the year are:

1. Protecting workers’ rights to organise together2. An end to austerity economics3. A twenty-first century Europe4. Making devolution and decentralisation work5. Reaching out to young workers6. Fighting racism and defending black, Asian and ethnic minorityworkers7. Defending the Welfare State

This programme of work has been designed to ensure that trades unioncouncils can identify the role they can play in TUC campaigns and helpimplement the resolutions passed at the 2015 trades union councilsconference. www.wolvestuc.org.uk/index.php/wbdtuc/tuc-programme-of-work

President's Report 20162015 has been a desperate year. The electorate clearly rejected the failed neo-liberalism proposed by the Blairites in the Labour Party but with no otheralternative on offer, the worst possible outcome was the re-election of theConservatives to office with only 36.9 % of the vote (330 seats won), thistime without the support of the Liberal Democrats. Labour polled 30.4% ofthe vote (only 232 seats).

The Conservatives know they have a last chance to fulfil their promise madewhen they initially came to office - “to change the way that Britain wasgoverned forever”. The proposals they have made so far will certainly dothat, as they continue to dismantle the structure and democratic fibre of oursociety and hand it over to the markets, for their mates (and themselves) tomake big profits and pay less tax. Attacks on the Trade Union movement,continued privatisation of the health service, continued attacks on our welfaresystem, attacks on social housing and housing associations, mean we have toface real struggle in the coming years of this Government. ‘Reforms’ of theelectoral boundaries and electoral systems make that struggle harder.

The optimism supplied by the campaign for the leader of the Labour Partywas unforeseen. The election of Jeremy Corbyn, despite the media ridiculingwas unequivocal. All sections of the electoral college made him their numberone choice. His new, more principled and less misogynistic approach is abreath of fresh air in British politics, welcomed by the electorate.

It is dismaying then to watch the desperate thrashings of the Blairites trying toundermine this victory. Their total disrespect for democracy is disgusting. Itis time for those voices of destruction to shut up, ship out and to beaccountable to the membership and electorate.

The situation for the people in Wolverhampton is harder than for many otherareas of the country. We seem to have two worlds running alongside eachother. One where people in employment are over worked, under paid, stressedout and seriously fear for their continued employment and terms andconditions. Another where those not in employment find themselves brandedas lazy and work shy, financially insecure with a lack of welfare support,

facing the loss of their homes, forced into applying for low paid zero hourcontracts with few prospects and unable to make ends meet. They face fewerand overstretched services, with benefits being reduced and sanctions beingincreasingly used to deny them rights, which were hard fought for bypredecessors in our Union movement.

In Wolverhampton, the trades council has played a key role in continuing tooppose the fascists, continuing to campaign for local services not privatisedservices, for re-nationalised rail services. As we move into 2016 we hope thelocal Labour council will also now get on board alongside our campaigns tooppose the Government most strenuously.

Wolverhampton Trades Council celebrated our 150th Anniversary in 2015;but we are not as strong and vibrant as we could be. It is hard for TradeUnionists at the moment facing the onslaught on all fronts but it is importantto prioritise trades councilcampaigns and to assistwith the planning of theseat our meetings.Attendance by delegateshas to be a priority goingforward together. Ourmovement is mosteffective when working insolidarity.Reporting back to branches and involving members in the work is vital.

This year we lost two good comrades in monthly succession, Alan Millingtonand Norman Brackenridge. We paid tribute to their contribution and hardwork at our meetings. They leave a lasting legacy for us to follow, build anddevelop. They will be sadly missed in the movement.

We need to get back to basics; recruit, build branches, build campaigns andwork together in the Trades Council /TUC movement. We need to supportthe groundswell of opposition against the Tory Government and seek analternative economic strategy based on fairness and equality.Easy words to type but encompassed is a lot of hard work.We cannot shy from this in 2016 and going forward.

Marie Taylor President WB&DTUC January 2016

More people are nowviewing our websitewww.wolvestuc.org.ukfrom mobiles than desktops.So we redesigned thewebsite to work better onmobiles and have given ithopefully a fresher look ondesktops too. 82,000 pageviews in last year. 8 in 10who visit the website readabout national minimumwage; other popular pageswere: homepage;volunteering at festivals;Chainmakers' festival,socialist songbook and localunemployment. Our emailbase has grown 5% to 189local unioncontacts and we have several other databases of people interested in otheractivities locally. People sign up directly from our website.

Both economic activity in the West Midlands (7.2% of the value of the entireUK economy) and West Midlands jobs (8.4. per cent of UK) are down from2010 and even further from 1997. London is creating jobs at three times therate of the West Midlands according to new analysis published by the TUC.Food banks are still thriving locally.Wolverhampton has the highest rate of infant mortality in the UK, with 7.7deaths per 1,000 live births in the first year compared to the national averageof 4.3. It is higher than Cuba or even Poland, Belarus or Lithuania.The West Midlands region has the highest rate in Britain, one-and-a-halftimes that in the South East. The issue of infant mortality is a key indicator ofthe health of the local population.

TUC courses for reps are still being delivered in Wolverhampton, ten weeksstarting January, April & September at Beckminster House WV3 7RJ contactMike Edwards 01743 342 531

UNITE's DSG Defence workers, including those affected at Donnington,Shropshire, who spoke at our AGM in January 2015 accepted a new offer toend their long-running dispute over pay, voting in favour of a one per cent riseplus a £1,250 bonus.

The first Midlands TUC Women at Work Week in 2015 highlighted womenworkers; this year’s events are expected in the run up to InternationalWomen’s Day on 8th March 2016.Polly Toynbee, writer and Guardian columnist will be giving the 2nd annualMary Macarthur lecture Friday 4th March 2016 @Blackheath CoronationClub, George Avenue, Rowley Regis, B65 9BD booking needed 01212364454. The inaugural Mary Macarthur Lecture was given by the TUCGeneral Secretary, Frances O’Grady.

Volunteers from ASLEF, UNISON & WB&DTUC• leafleted 1,500 morningcommuters at Wolverhampton Railway station in March 2015 as part of thenational Action For Rail Campaign day in support of nationalisation of therailways.In August•when the government announced the price increases

for•regulated fares,Wolves TUC, ASLEF,UNITE, UNISON, NUTand Peoples Assemblymembers with a newbanner again handedaction•cards out to 1,000commuters to be sent toMPs.

In January 2016 Wolves TUC co-ordinated ASLEF, RMT, UNISON & UNITEmembers in another Action for Rail event at Wolverhampton Station as railfares rose again, calling for an affordable railway under public ownership.1,000 commuters leafleted with postcards for MPs.Over the last five years fares have risen nearly three times faster thanaverage wages and British passengers continue to pay up to 6x higher faresthan passengers on publicly-owned railways in Europe. Services are oftenovercrowded, late and under-staffed, while our heavily subsidised privatisedrailway wastes over £1billion a year.

Wolverhampton Workers' Memorial Day had a range of union speakersand Shadow Commons Leader Angela Eagle MP. Video and report onExpress & Star website. 55 attended•the theme for the day was "removingexposure to hazardous substances in the workplace". Wreaths were laid byUNISON General, UNISON University, UNITE-CYW, UCATT, CWU,WB&DTUC & LP.

Remember the Dead, Fight for the Living.Wolverhampton’s 25th annual Workers' Memorial Day:

Thursday 28th April 2016 @12.30pmat the Cenotaph, St Peter's Square Wolverhampton WV1 1TS

The May General Election brought in a surprise overall victory for theTories, though Wolverhampton bucked the trend. Rob Marris, the Vice-President of Wolverhampton, Bilston and District Trades Union Council waselected as Labour MP winning back his former Wolverhampton South Westseat from the Tories. Emma Reynolds MP in Wolverhampton North East andPat McFadden MP in Wolverhampton South East, both had increasedmajorities. Labour won 2 extra seats and held all others in the councilelections giving them 48 of the 60 seats.Further surprises came in the autumn, to some Labour MPs at least, when itbecame clear that they were out of touch with their Labour Party members,who had joined with a vision of socialism rather than the New Labour project;and elected Jeremy Corbyn as their leader.

Wolverhampton kept fascist-free again in 2015; Wolverhampton, Bilston &District Trades Union Council decision in 2006 to campaign against thefascist BNP whenever they stand was vindicated as no fascists stood thisyear, having consistently lost votes each time we campaigned against. Earlyin 2016 the Electoral Commission removed the British National Party fromregister of political parties.

Stand up to Racism March 19th 2016 march & rally, coaches from theBlack Country to London marking UN Anti-Racism Day as went in 2015.

1st May 2015 - 21st

annual festivalorganised by theWolverhampton MayDay Committee, whichwe helped establish,went well. Anothersuccessful event withbetween 200 and 300attended including aNorwegian uniondelegation from Industri Energi. 200 free meals served and 4,000 localhomes were leafleted. In total, 9,000 flyers were distributed. Total cost£1,330 this year – generous donations from UNISON, UNITE, NUT, CWUhelped it continue as a free community event. Headline act was Thatcher’sLove Child a Birmingham Punk/Oi! band. Our Secretary, Bro.Kelleher wasawarded with his TUC Silver Badge for Long Service at the event.

Wolverhampton May Day Committee launched their own websitewww.1stmaywolverhampton.org.uk

The next event will be 7pm Sunday 1st May 2016at the Pegasus, Whitmore Reans WV6 0QQ

Dudley TUC held several Unity rallies against a variety of far-right splintergroups that were bused in. Late in the year Dudley Council rejected plans torebuild Dudley’s old mosque and so a new site is still being sought.

The annual Trades Union Councils conference was held in Crewe andattended by our Secretary and President June 2015.

Greig Campbell co-ordinator of In The Shadow of Elizabeth, aproject, exploring the union fight to save Bilston Steelworkstrained 24 volunteers in a range of heritage skills to interviewthose who took part in the community action against theGovernment and British Steel. He spoke at our meeting andorganised several local events.

The Peoples' Assembly•took a coach from Wolverhampton nationaldemonstration to tell the new government: No to Austerity. The local People’sAssembly continues to try and publicise Black Country events butsees itself as a organisation in itself rather than act as an umbrella anti-cutsgroup. It has not generated any increased activity in Wolverhampton.

Fundraising @ festivalsWolverhampton TUC has sent local volunteer teams to work on the bars atmusic festivals for the last seventeen years. This year, over £1,600 wasraised by 8 volunteers at the Glastonbury festival where we worked 29 hourseach over 5 days on the bars. We also had a team of 5 travel to Suffolk towork at the Latitude festival and raised £450. £35,000 has been raised thisway through the Workers’ Beer Company (set up by Wandsworth &Battersea TUC). Half of this money we use for adverts and donations to theMorning Star and the rest for our campaigning.

We are recruiting up to March 2016 for bar work volunteers (seewww.wolvestuc.org.uk) If you offer to work, you must be available for thewhole of the festival and work a shift of6 hours per day during the event.Glastonbury 2016, dates required totravel/be onsite: Tuesday 21st June -Monday 27th June.Places for this festival are often verylimited but much more chance of gettingplace at other festivals so don't be toodisappointed, but apply anyway.We go to Glastonbury site by free coachfrom Birmingham.

Latitude festival 2016 on Suffolk'sSunshine Coast, travel Wednesday 13th

July, return Monday 18th July; we’veworked it for five years, an excellentsmaller arty festival. WB&DTUC will runtransport to site & beach!

This year's Women Chainmakers'festival in July, organised by MidlandsTUC,• was held at a new venue, alongCradley High Street where it will be again this year. Hundreds turned out forthe eleventh Chainmakers' Festival. We did not have a stall due to shiftpatterns.It celebrates the achievements of 800 women chainmakers against the localemployers who sought to deny them their rights. The women, led by tradeunionist Mary Macarthur, founder of the National Federation of WomenWorkers, met them with with forceful opposition and won a minimum wage in1910, following a ten week strike.

Women Chainmakers' festival will be on•SATURDAY 2nd July 2016organised by Midlands TUC•along Cradley High Street

Alan Millington, former President of Wolverhampton,Bilston & District Trades Union Council and Chair ofGovernors of Bilston Community College, AEU DistrictPresident, Morning Star supporter & Communist, sadlydied in August.

Burston Strike School rally Sunday 4th September 2016.Annual rally to celebrate the longest strike inhistory: Schoolchildren ‘went on strike’ in 1914 to supporttheir teachers, sacked by the rural squirearchy fororganising agricultural workers. Coach from Coventry:3 free places are sponsored by Wolves TUC each year

70 people enjoyed a greatnight of speeches and Attila the Stockbroker tocelebrate our 150th anniversary Sept 2015 @the Clarendon Hotel.150 limited edition, numbered, anniversary(40mm) badges to this design of our bannerhave been produced, with numberedpresentation card @ £5+ free Wolves TUC History book

Wolverhampton UNISON and UNITE sent coaches from Wolverhampton inOctober 2015 to demonstrate at the Tory party conference in Manchester. Itwas the first TUC organised demo since the Conservative government cameto power.

This year’s demo at the Tory conference isSunday 2nd October 2016 in Birmingham.

UNISON lobbied the council, held street stalls and launched a petition in theautumn to save Nelson Mandela House, Merry Hill House and Woden andBradley Elderly Resource Centres, which attracted 5,500 local signatures andwas presented to the labour council. The petition and deputations wereignored and all elderly care in Wolverhampton is now privatised. 250 jobsare due to go by April 2016.Earlier in the year, UNISON members from the Neighbourhood Warden

Service were axed after a 4,000 signaturepetition. Another UNISON campaign for disabledworkers at Old Tree Nursery, Pendeford,collected a 2,000 strong petition on top ofpostcard campaign. The Nursery is now beingrun by a Housing association and the workers gotanother year’s employment from the campaignbut are due to be made compulsorily redundantin April 2016.

At the Trade Union Congress in September, the long fought for motion waspassed that trades union councils conference will send adelegate to Congresses from 2016.

Norman Brackenridge was an active delegate of the FBUto Wolverhampton, Bilston & District Trades Union Councilfor over 40 years and served many years on the ExecutiveCommittee died the day after the September meeting he’dattended. His son Cnllr Greg Brackenridge addressed ourmeeting on the memory of his father and is now our newLabour Group Liaison Rep. Phil Goalby, FBU and NickKelleher, WB&DTUC gave orations at Norman’s funeral.

We again raised with the Midlands TUC, our problems with the WestMidlands County Association of TUCs which continues to exist but has failedto function and acts as a layer of bureaucracy stopping any meaningfulinvolvement in the Midlands TUC.As a result it was agreed that each trades union council has a seat on theMidlands TUC Regional Council and is able to send motions directly.

UNISON probation members took part in a July strike in support of theircampaign for fair pay. RMT, FBU and PCS were also involved in industrialaction.Junior doctors are in dispute and again threatening strike action at the startof 2016 against threatened new contracts that will increase alreadyexcessive hours.

Yet strikes in Britain are at a historic low. The Tories (despite a few rebels)and UKIP•still joined forces to vote for further anti-union laws:● employers to use agency temps to replace striking workers● restrictions on pickets and protests● attacks on union reps in the public sector● deny the right to strike to midwives, fire-fighters, teachers and cleaners

working in the Underground.

All three Wolverhampton Labour MPs voted to oppose the TU Bill.

UNISON organised transport for the November lobby and rally@Parliament against the Trade Union Bill.The campaign against the trade union bill is at a critical stage. Theparliamentary process has moved into the House of Lords, where we haveour best chances of defeating it or getting changes pushed through.But this means ensuring the bill remains in the public eye as much aspossible. We need to remind politicians and journalists alike of the vital roleunions and union members play in our society and economy.

8th to 14th February 2016 - week of action against the trade union billthroughout England and Wales.A week that takes the messageto more and more people, unionmembers or not, that this bill isbad for our country.

Clive Walder, a long standing leading rep in the CWU spoke at ourmeeting, weeks after he had an appeal against unfair dismissal rejected byBritish Telecom on 9th November, confirming his sacking after 38 years ofservice. Clive is chair of the CWU Birmingham, Black Country & Worcesterbranch and is a leading lay rep of the union.Contact Clive cliverwalder@hotmail.com to send messages of support andinvite him to your union branch.

Midlands TUC held its first Midlands Equality Conference for activists andrepresentatives and launched its Health & Safety Forum late 2015.

The way we register to vote in elections to Parliaments and Councilschanged in December; we now have to give our•national insurance numberand date of birth•as well as our name and the address where we live. It isbelieved that up to a million people didn't do this.• This will affect boundarychanges to voting constituencies as the number of MPs will be cut by 50 atthe 2020 election. It is believed that the way changes will be made couldgive the Tories an extra 15 seats.Wolverhampton could lose one of its three constituencies.

In time for Xmas, Britain began unilateral attacks on Syria after mostLabour MPs including Rob Marris voted against British bombing of Syria.However Pat McFadden & Emma Reynolds voted for bombing. UK hadpreviously used drone attacks against Isis, targeting British citizens there.Isis, according to the Financial Times is receiving $1.5 million a day in oilsales, much via our ally Turkey, yet the issue of economic sanctions has notbeen addressed. Nor has the fact that finances and weapons are coming inthrough Saudi Arabia, and Britain is still selling arms to Saudi Arabia. TheTories have no exit strategy and put no strategy forward for addressing theKurdish issue. Kurdish groups are fighting Isis quite successfully yet arebeing attacked by our ally Turkey.U.S. weapons have been handed over to Isis by the “Free Syrian Army”. Ourrelationship with and support of the “Free Syrian Army” is ambiguous andmany of the groups in this umbrella organisation support or sympathise withIsis. They are in a civil war to overthrow a government currently fighting Isis.Britain has so far failed to use diplomacy to end the Syrian civil war andachieve a democratic solution for the Syrian people to determine their ownfuture; involving the Syrian government, Kurds, other governments in theregion and any elements within the free Syrian army that actually arefighting Isis.

There has been no progress on updating our last 25 years history.Years 1990-1995 are in Wolverhampton City Archives and 1996 to presentannual reports are also on our website. The 125 year History ofWolverhampton, Bilston & District Trades Union Council is online atwww.wolvestuc.org.uk/index.php/wbdtuc/589-wbdtuc1865-1990

On the 30th anniversary of the end of the Miners’ Strike,we were lucky to be able to have John Harris, one of theiconic photographic documenters of the strike to give apresentation of his work in a projector show.We are currently in discussion with the Art Gallery to puton his collection.

We showed a film on the Shrewsbury 24 campaign whichcontinues to seek justice. Rob Marris took part in a

Parliamentary debate in December whichcalled the government to release all thefiles relating to the charges, trials, andconvictions of the the ShrewsburyPickets in 1973/4. The debate wascalled in response to the cabinet ‘s decision to withholddocuments. The next review will be in 2021.

UNITE are looking at establishing a local community branch and would liketo work together on anti-austerity campaigns; their organiser spoke to ourdelegates.

Wolverhampton Palestine Solidarity Campaign has again been activeSeveral film shows were held as well as leafleting supermarkets and a lobbyof Parliament and campaigning for the West Midlands Pension scheme todivest from Israel. Veolia has this year dis-invested from Israel and theLabour Party has stopped using G4S at their conferences.However, Co-op Bank closed Palestine Solidarity and Cuba Solidarityaccounts without warning. No longer an ethical bank as was taken over by aUS hedge fund who are now exerting political on a British institution. UnityTrust bank, set up by the TUC is the bank Wolves trades union council uses.

Thanks to outgoing officers:President: Marie Taylor (UNITE) Vice-President: Rob Marris (UNITE)Treasurer: John Grant (UCU) Minutes Secretary: Marion Halfpenny(NUT)

Auditor: Adrian Turner (UNISON)

Nick Kelleher, Secretary WB&DTUC January 2016contact number is 07538 045376

Bro.Turner’s tattoo ofJohn Harris’s photo

EVENTS in 2016

Thursday 21st January 2016 Annual General Meeting WB&DTUC8th - 14th February TUC Love Unions weekThursday 18th February WB&DTUC Delegate meeting1st week March 2016 Midlands TUC Women at Work WeekFriday 4th March Mary Macarthur lecture @Blackheath Coronation Club

Rowley Regis, B65 9BD booking needed 0121 236 4454March 2016 deadline for festival applications www.wolvestuc.org.ukThursday 17th March WB&DTUC Delegate meeting

(to be held elsewhere from civic centre)March 19th Stand up to Racism march & rally, coaches from the

Black Country to London marking UN Anti-Racism DayThursday 21st April WB&DTUC Delegate meetingThursday 28th April Workers’ Memorial Day

12.30pm @cenotaph/Workers’ Memorial Day Tree1st May, Sunday, 7pm Workers’ Day @ Pegasus WV6 0QQThursday 19th May WB&DTUC Delegate meetingThursday 16th June WB&DTUC Delegate meetingGlastonbury 2016 bar work volunteers 21-27 JuneSaturday 2nd July Cradley Women Chainmakers’ festival

from 11am, Cradley Heath High StLatitude festival 2016 bar work volunteers 13-18 JulyThursday 21st July WB&DTUC Delegate meeting

no August WB&DTUC Delegate meetingSunday 4th September Burston Strike School Rally,

3 free places are sponsored by Wolves TUC each yearThursday 15th September WB&DTUC Delegate meetingSunday 2nd October demo at the Tory conference BirminghamWB&DTUC Delegate meetings:

Thursday 20th October, Thurs 17th November & Thurs 15th December