CLERICAL AND SUPERVISORY GRADES MEET

19 What a pleasure it was to meet up again with old friends and new in the hospitable setting of the Scarborough Railwaymen’s social club. Our previous conference had been via Zoom, so it was great to join in live debates and enjoy the guest speakers in person. Conference was addressed by Scarborough mayor Eric Broadbent who spoke passionately about his 68 years as a union member, and how much harder it is to organise since the demise of the ‘closed shop’. Unusually, a good Q&A session followed before conference was officially opened by me before standing down from conference president to stand for the position of conference secretary. We were once again pleased to welcome for his 10th year our SAGS Steve Hedley, who as usual delivered a barnstorming and unifying speech remembering Bob Crow and spoke about how his importance to the union should be remembered to this day and this was warmly greeted by the delegates. A passionate address to conference followed with Steve reminding delegates about the fights we faced, with the future looking worse now than ever, with the continuing attacks on the working classes from the billionaire business bosses to the government funding of industries, but with no money being available for pay rises. With a billion pounds being paid out to shareholders, it's the working classes being made to pay for their lavish lifestyles. We need to fight for our terms and conditions and for our pay to be increased in line with inflation and our final pensions guaranteed. Two main items came under discussion, the general secretary’s proposal for union restructuring and our resolve to continue working with our sister conference on the Staff our stations campaign. After several years of supporting the Stations grades conference and the initiative to align our conferences in 2023 to further the campaign, conference felt that the criticism implied in the general secretary’s proposal was unjust. Conference resolved to ask the AGM to confirm its support for this body and also that we should be able to submit a response to be included in the NEC deliberations on this matter. Evenings were spent in the Railwaymen’s club for great social events and the usual banter! Thanks to the generosity of the delegates £520 was raised from raffles and donations with Wally Levey raising £170 for Widows & Orphans fund with his usual raffle and £350 being split between Dnipro Kids, a charity for Ukranian orphans and a selection of local charities selected by Joe Solo who had entertained us on the Friday evening Sunday continued with a long discussion about our union with contributions from regional organisers Micky Thompson and Gary Jackson who were exemplary. We attended the TPE picket line at Scarborough before returning to finish conference and make our weary ways home as the trains were mostly cancelled due to industrial action and suffered the indignities of bus travel to get home! We are a members’ led union, and the grades conferences are a crucial part of growing member involvement – long may they continue. CLERICAL AND SUPERVISORY GRADES MEET Delegate Willie Strang gives his take on the organising conference of clerical, supervisory and salaried grades meeting in Scarborough