Prospect at TUC Congress 2023: Tuesday and Wednesday highlights
Prospect has a delegation of senior reps at TUC Congress, which is being held in Liverpool this year. Here are excerpts from some of the motions that they have spoken on during the final couple of days of Congress, including motions on standards in public life; AI at work; support for the HSE; future of the BBC and solidarity with Ukraine.
Prospect delegation at TUC Congress 2023
Standards in public life
Speaking in support of an FDA motion on standards in public life, Prospect rep Eamonn Gilfoyle said:
“Culture is set from the top, and standards have been eroded throughout our public institutions.
“There is a steady drumbeat of by-elections resulting from misconduct scandals.
“There are endless attacks in the press on hardworking civil servants – 30,000 of whom are members of my union Prospect – by ministers seeking to blame officials for their own failings.”
He went on to add:
“Public trust in government and institutions takes generations to build but can be destroyed in a single news cycle.”
Prospect’s Toby James speaking at TUC Congress 2023
Speaking out on AI at work
Prospect supported a composite motion on regulating the use of AI at work.
Speaking in the debate, Prospect rep and NEC member Toby James argued it is not just about the future – AI is already in the workplace:
“It is hiring us, firing us, reading our CVs when we apply, and when it is making decisions – AI is informed by the data around it, and any biases in that data are replicated, learnt, and drawn upon.
Giving an example he said:
“Think about bias in recruitment data, a statistic that shows that most engineers are white, a statistic that shows that female staff earn less – these are the realities of our workplaces that we have been working so hard to change.
“Yet when AI models are determining who to hire, and how much to pay them, these are the ideas we’re feeding them – you can imagine the outcomes.”
Supporting the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
Prospect’s Public Services Sector President and HSE member, Geoff Fletcher raised Prospect’s campaign for the HSE to get the resources it needs to keep us all safe at work.
In a motion relating to the Covid-19 public inquiry, Geoff highlighted the impact funding cuts of 43% have had on HSE’s ability to function, and the challenges this posed during the pandemic: “HSE simply did not have the capacity to effectively regulate workplaces.”
He called on the government to take up the Public Bodies review’s recommendation that HSE become a non-ministerial department, which Prospect believes would bolster HSE’s independence.
Prospect rep Christine Daniell speaking at TUC Congress 2023
Re-committing to the BBC
Prospect Deputy Vice-President Christine Danniell argued that trade unions must campaign to secure the future of the BBC and Public Service Broadcasting, saying the BBC, “Remains a shining beacon of broadcasting around the world.”
“It must be defended.
“That’s why we’ve been running our #ALicenceToMore campaign to celebrate the first hundred years of the BBC as the bedrock of British culture, and ensure it plays a leading role in the next hundred years of our cultural lives.
“The licence fee model is critical to its success.
“Its opponents have completely failed to put forward an alternative that would enable the BBC to continue delivering its mission to inform, educate and entertain us.
“And some politicians who have supported the licence fee freeze are now criticising the BBC for having to implement the very cuts they have caused.
“Their actions have consequences, and we must make this clear as a formal review into the BBC’s funding model is expected in the autumn.
“The Bectu sector of Prospect will be fighting for the licence fee model, and a sustainable funding settlement that keeps pace with inflation, enables long-term planning, and ensures the independence and world-leading status of the BBC is here to stay.”
Fairness in the streaming model
Prospect President Ele Wade spoke in support of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain’s motion on streaming and fair pay for writers.
Praising the work of Prospect’s Bectu sector members, she told delegates that if they’d seen a British blockbuster series recently, “it’s not just made in Britain – it’s made in Bectu”.
Ele explained the impact that the industrial action being taken by the Writers’ Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA – who are fighting employers for a fair pay model in the streaming age – is having on Bectu members, with many out of work as production has ground to a halt.
She called on the employers to bring the strikes to an end by giving workers the fair deal they deserve.
Solidarity with Ukraine
Congress also expressed its solidarity with the people and trade unions of Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion in a motion supported by Prospect. The motion clearly called for “the immediate withdrawal of Russian forces from all Ukrainian territories occupied since 2014”.
Read about one Prospect member’s direct support for the Ukrainian people.
Senedd member Mick Antoniw has written on OpenDemocracy about the support from Welsh unions union, including Bectu.