Conference 2026 – President’s Opening Remarks

Community @communityunion July 7, 2026

Community’s NEC President, Reg Gutteridge, has delivered the opening speech of our 2026 Biennial Delegate Conference.

“This union wasn’t just a thing that you joined, it was part of who you are. We are a family.” 🤝

Watch Reg Gutteridge, Community President’s powerful opening remarks as he officially opens our #StrongUnionStrongFuture Conference.

In this moving address, Reg pays tribute to… pic.twitter.com/4Rn1SI575K

— Community Union (@CommunityUnion) July 7, 2026

You can read his full speech below:

“Firstly, I want to start by thanking the previous President, Steve McGurk. He ran a fantastic conference in 2024 and I hope over the next few days to run this conference as well as he did.

“Secondly, I’d like to thank Jess Morden who has been my fantastic MP for the past 21 years.

“Jess has been a friend, ally, and champion of not only Llanwern steelworks, but the whole of our steel industry, and I want to thank her for all the work that she has done.

“Thirdly, I want to thank the General Secretary and all the staff at Community. Not just for the work that has gone into this conference, but for the work he and the staff do day in and day out for our members.

“I’ve known Roy for more years than I’d like to admit and throughout that time he’s stood up not just for our steel industry, but for every sector that’s joined our union.

“No matter the circumstances – Roy has always been available to the members and has shown the leadership to get us through the tough times and to grow our union.

“Because a union like ours goes beyond being just a union. My father and my grandfather had all been Community members.

“The union wasn’t just a thing that you joined – it was part of who you are.

“I could no more join Community than I could join my own family, because that’s what this movement is – a family.

“We’re a strong union with a strong future because we go beyond just being an organisation.

“Last conference our theme was One Union and I truly believe it is who we are today.

“Despite the different ways in which we work, we all still hold true to that most basic and primal idea that we are stronger when we stand together, when we speak with one voice, when we look beyond our differences to stand together in solidarity.

“It’s from there that we draw the strength of our union. It’s from there that we build, brick by brick, the future that every worker deserves. I’ve seen it here in South Wales where we are today.

“I’m a steelworker, my dad was a steelworker, his dad was a steelworker. That is a phrase that you can hear from so many people in South Wales.

“That’s why I know that when the blast furnaces at Port Talbot were at risk of closure, that those workers in Port Talbot weren’t just as risk of losing their jobs.

“They were at risk of losing a part of themselves, a part of their history, a part of what made them and their community who they are.

“I’m not too proud to say that I felt it. But what I also felt was the solidarity across our union. NEC members from across our union, from different sectors, asking what they could do to help.

“Members, not just from the steel industry, but from every sector showing their support and pushing our message further.

“Sadly, the blast furnaces at Port Talbot did close. But they closed because of the chaotic and short termism of the Tories. They did not close because we did not have the will to fight. They did not close because we did not have the strength to fight.

“We showed our strength. We showed how we can and will come together to fight the fights that are our own – not because they are a fight in the sector we work in.

“They could be a fight in an office we’ll never work in, a fight to support someone we’ll never meet, a fight to stand up for someone who is different to us in almost every conceivable way.

“But we fight for them because they are Community – because we are Community and so it is always our fight.

“It’s through our diversity and our willingness to stand shoulder to shoulder with each other that we draw our strength.

“It is what makes us the strong union we are today and will enable us to use that strength to build the strong future of tomorrow.

“My grandfather was a member of this union. My father was a member of this union. My daughter works for this union. And I believe a hundred years from this day there will still be a Gutteridge in this union. Because we are a strong union, with a strong future for all of us.”