TUC Congress 2025: protections against the threat of AI, supporting self-employed creative workers and Europe matters
Bectu spoke up for members at the TUC Congress 2025, held in Brighton earlier this week, where we joined around 600 delegates from 48 affiliated trade unions representing millions of workers across the UK.
The Prospect and Bectu delegation, led by Prospect President Ele Wade, and General Secretary Mike Clancy, made sure that across all four days of Congress business our members’ voices were heard across the trade union movement. We spoke on critical issues like AI protections, improving support for the self-employed, and ending damaging restrictions to EU touring.
Our delegation backed motion C10 AI and The Creative Industries, with Bectu sector president Sean O’Malley arguing that creative workers must have a voice and be consulted on the use of AI technologies in the workplace.
Congress backed demands for stronger legal protections, contract reform and transparency around how AI is trained and deployed.
Highlighting how critical self-employed workers are to the success of the creative industries, Sean also spoke in support of Motion 6 Self Employed Workers, saying:
“Improving working conditions in the creative sector is not just a matter of fairness but is essential to the long-term health, diversity and sustainability of the industry.”
On Europe, Congress carried Prospect motion C13 Europe Matters, which highlighted how post-Brexit restrictions are impacting our creative industries.
The motion called for government action to remove visa, carnet and cabotage barriers that are damaging touring professionals’ livelihoods, and for creative industry voices to be represented in UK-EU working groups in future. Read more here.
Prospect also seconded a National Union of Journalists motion, standing in solidarity with journalists working in Gaza and around the world. The motion condemned the killing and harassment of media workers, and called for stronger international protections to safeguard press freedom and the safety of all those working alongside journalists.
Seconding motion 72 on behalf of Prospect, Alice Black, Prospect NEC Deputy Vice-President and co-chair of Bectu’s Scottish Live Events branch, said the union “unequivocally condemns” the violence and starvation being inflicted on innocent civilians in Gaza and paid tribute to journalists risking their lives to report from Gaza. Read more here.
One of the main discussion points at Congress was around combatting the rise of racism and the far right. Prospect supported a number of motions on this theme, including one which encouraged members to attend planned mobilisations this weekend. Prospect also has a long-standing relationship with anti-racism organisation Hope Not Hate, which is the primary means through which we tackle this issue.
You can find the full programme of business, including all the motions and watch key speeches, on the TUC’s dedicated Congress 2025 website.