Community BDC 2024 – President’s Opening Speech

Community @communityunionJune 27, 2024

Community President Steve McGurk welcomed delegates to our 2024 Biennial Delegates Conference this week. You can read his full speech below:

Welcome to Brighton delegates.

It’s a pleasure and a privilege to address you for the first time as President of Community. I want to begin by paying tribute to my predecessor Dean Cox, and I look forward to carrying on his good work in the role.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to welcome my family to conference: my Mum, my wife Carolyn, my daughters Alana and Holly and my son Aaron. I’m so grateful to all of them for their love and support.

The same is true to the missing member of my family at conference, my Dad Brian who sadly passed away in 2022. He was the reason I got involved in the trade union movement and he was the workplace rep at RSBi in Glasgow before I took on the same role. He is much missed.

Speaking of the RSBi, I also want to thank fellow members and colleagues there for all the support they have given me.

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As well as working at the RSBi – which is the largest supported employment business of its kind in Europe – I also serve as Vice-President for the NLBD, the National League of the Blind and Disabled, which is a special and historic section of our union.

Some of you will know that the NLBD celebrates its 125^th anniversary this year, making it the oldest organisation campaigning for the rights of disabled people anywhere in the world.

Over its lifetime the NLBD it has been involved in some inspiring action. Perhaps the most famous example is the Blind March of 1920, when hundreds of visually-impaired people from across the length and breadth of the UK marched on London to protest the poor working conditions and poverty experienced by blind people. It was off the back of their campaign that David Lloyd George’s government finally passed the Blind Persons Act of 1920 – the first disability-specific legislation to be passed anywhere in the world. If that’s not an example of there being power in a union, I don’t know what is.

Over its 125 year life the NLBD has produced many great activists and leaders, from its founder Ben Purse – who was actually born 150 years ago this year – right through to the superb present day chair Robert Mooney. I’ve been proud to work alongside Robert, Community’s Scottish Regional Secretary Steve Farrell and others in challenging Glasgow City Council’s new ‘shared spaces’ strategy for the city centre which has had a hugely detrimental impact on blind and disabled people.

As the last 125 years have shown, we in the NLBD are always up for a campaign and that will never change.

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This year’s conference falls at a challenging time for our union, and no more so than for our members in the steel sector. We know that this is a time of huge uncertainty and worry for steelworkers at Port Talbot, Llanwern and other downstream sites across the UK.

In Scotland we saw first-hand at Ravenscraig in Lanarkshire how losing a steelworks can be devastating for the wider community it supports. The same is true for Ebbw Vale in Gwent and Redcar in Teesside.

We can’t let history repeat itself, and I know I speak for all of us here today when I say that we stand in full solidarity with our brothers and sisters in steel. Britain needs its steel sector now more than ever, and we can’t afford to let the industry fall victim to the terrible, bargain basement deal Tata and the Tory Government have signed off. Decarbonisation should never mean deindustrialisation.

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Delegates, we are gathered here today from a range of different backgrounds and from sectors which, on the face of things, seem quite different.

But while we may work in different spaces and different places, some of the challenges we face – and the expectations and aspirations we hold – could not be more similar.

We all want to security in our jobs, and the ability to provide for our ourselves and our loved ones.

We all want to be safe from harm when we go to work.

We all want our employers to treat us with dignity and respect.

We are all prepared to work hard, but we also want the time and space to enjoy our lives outside of our workplaces.

We all want the communities we work in and love to thrive.

And we all want to live in a fairer and more equitable society.

That’s why the theme of this year’s conference is ‘One Union’ – it sums up what we are and what we should always be:

A diverse range of people from a diverse range of sectors who are united by values, and determined to stand alongside each other in good times and bad.

You might be a primary school teacher from Aberdare, or a tanker driver from Aberdeen. You might be a prison officer from Kilmarnock, or a steelworker from Kettering. You might be a self-employed freelancer from Bradford, or an insurance handler from Belfast. You might be a textile worker from Somerset, or, perhaps joining Community for the first time this year, a dental nurse from Swansea.

Whoever you are, wherever you’re from and whatever you do for work – we are here for you. We’re one union, and we’re your union.

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Over the next two years, I want our one union to grow stronger. I want to see us represent people who haven’t been represented before or didn’t know they could be. I want to see us bring through new workplace reps, particularly from under-represented backgrounds.

We need to spur colleagues into getting more involved, and as one union we need to provide a welcoming and supportive environment which enables them to do so.

I’m sure we all know a work colleague who would make a brilliant rep, but they just need the confidence to find their own voice. Let’s get encourage those talented people, and show them that we see their potential.

And delegates, I’m sure you haven’t forgotten, we also have a General Election this year. This is a huge chance to turn the page on a government which has undermined working people at every turn, and shown total disregard for the sectors we work in over 14 long years. So for goodness’ sake, let’s give them the boot this year, and elect a Labour government under Keir Starmer which will be on the side of working people. We deserve it, and the country deserves it.

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Delegates, brothers and sisters, I want to finish by wishing you all an enjoyable Conference. Whilst it’s still a difficult time for many of us, I hope we will all leave here this week feeling energised and inspired. Our workplaces and communities need us, so together as one union, let’s rise to the challenge.