Please see below the Motion from this year’s National Trades Councils Conference (held in Bournemouth on 8th 9th June 2019) to the 20-19 TUC Congress. Please lobby your own union for support as we expect it will meet with opposition from many unions.
Trade Union Councils are an essential part of the trade union movement and the real voice of the trade unionism in the community. However we are under-resourced and often forgotten or under-valued by the mainstream trade unions / TUC. This shouldn’t be the case. A greater participation at TUC Congress will ensure our voice is heard and that Trades Councils are recognised for the work we do. The TUC, Trade Unions and Trades Councils working together can resurrect our movement. We need to do this.
Motion 20 Trades Councils’ participation in Congress
Congress accepts that trades’ councils are the voice of the TUC at local level and have a combined affiliated membership of hundreds of thousands. Yet trades’ councils are seriously underrepresented within Congress. Currently, they are entitled to a single delegate to Congress and can submit only one motion. Trades Councils’ total affiliated membership, in a single trade union, would mean a far larger Congress delegation. Congress therefore agrees a rule change, so that at Congress 2020, the trades’ councils shall be entitled to 1. A Congress delegation of nine; 2. A single seat on the TUC General Council; and that the trades’ councils’ Congress delegation shall be entitled to speak and vote on any motion, amendment or other Congress business, in addition to its own single motion.
Below is an endorsement from John Hendy QC and attached here
is an article in the Morning Star by Dave Chapple Bridgewater TUC explaining the thinking behind the motion which came from his Trades Council and was proposed to the Bournemouth Conference.

From: John Hendy QC
To: ‘Dave Chapple’ <davechapple@btinternet.com>
Sent: Thursday, 13 June 2019 13:02:29 BST
Subject: RE: Bridgwater Motion for increased recogntion of trades councils by the TUC to be debated at Congress 2019!
A great motion Dave. About time. The reinvigoration of trade councils will be a crucial measure if unions are to regain their rightful place in society.
John
John Hendy QC |