The first full day of Congress (Monday) started for me with an early morning jog along Brighton beach. At 9.30am I took my seat with the UNISON delegation.
There was a number of important debates on Fire service, Zane’s Law, Prison safety, wealth tax, tackling the far right, tackling sexism and the probation service. There was a number of UNISON speakers.
The TUC General Secretary, Paul Nowak, gave a hard hitting address, attacking Reform MPs for voting against the Employment rights Bill and also for supporting US-style private health care.
During lunch I attended a fringe on “How should trade unions respond to the rise of Reform UK” with Hope Not Hate and addressed by UNISON assistant General Secretary Liz Snape. The lesson for me from this fringe is that we have to listen, understand and win over members who support Reform and not just condemn them.
Ellie Reeves MP, a former trade union lawyer now Solicitor General, gave a well received address to Congress as the Labour Party Sororal delegate.
In the evening I went to my second fringe of the day. “Worker-Centric Housing - how do we build 1.5 million homes for where workers want to live? By YIMBY Alliance with panel speaker Maggi Ferncombe from UNISON. I expressed my usual concern on this topic that we will not be able to build all these homes without more public subsidy.
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