Katrine Williams, President Cardiff County TUC, personal capacity
The national conference of trades union councils took place on 16-17 June. Trades councils are local groups of trade unionists, elected from union branches whose members work or live in the area.
It was very clear in the debates, the central role that trades councils can play in bringing trade unions together at local level, to coordinate support and solidarity for strikes and picket lines.
The conference took place against the backdrop of the National Education Union (NEU) calling further strike action of teachers in England in July, ongoing strike action by health unions and the rail unions, and many key disputes like GMB members taking strike action at Amazon in Coventry.
While local strikers have always appreciated the support from trades councils, there is a wider recognition across the unions of the key role we can play, and a new impetus to get more trades councils established in areas without one.
Delegates also debated the anti-union minimum service level bill and made clear that any attempts to attack our right to strike will be met with opposition. In Wales we are demanding that the Labour Welsh government should publicly commit to refuse to use it.
Discussions included fighting the far right, and climate change. The conference recognised how important it is for trade unionists to be in the lead in mobilising opposition to the far right wherever they threaten to show up in our communities, rather than outsourcing this work to others. Similarly, we need to be at the forefront of campaigning against climate change, to fight for the concrete measures needed and ensure that demands for a ‘just transition’ include for good quality, well-paid local jobs.
A number of delegates were Socialist Party members, reflecting the work we are doing on the ground to build and mobilise trades councils in the strike wave.
