Merry Christmas

I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

I will update this site after the USDAW National Organising Awards 2016 have taken place on Saturday 14th January 2017.

I will give a list of winners for the Awards and I will try to take some photos from the Awards night and upload them as well.

Thank you all for your support in 2016.

Jon Mcewan

Divisional Council meeting number 18

Wednesday 30th November I attended Divisional Council meeting number 18 at the USDAW Redditch office. 

Apologies were received from:

Jenny Chilton - Illness

Minutes from the previous DC meeting

We then read the minutes from the previous DC meeting. These were accepted. 

Minutes of the recent EC meeting

We received the EC Minutes from Maureen and Andrea.

The small claims limit in the court system is to be increased from £1,000 to £5,000 this would stop the USDAW solicitor's from being able to claim back there costs from the other side in most of the USDAW cases they deal with.

BHS petition fully backed by USDAW and the petition was handed into the Arcadia group recently.

The Midlands division has raised over £50,000 towards the 2016 USDAW MENCAP appeal.
This is a great achievement by the Midlands Division.

Minutes from other Divisional Councils

We took a look at the minutes from other Divisional Councils. These were accepted. 

Central office circulars and press releases

We looked through a selection of circulars from central office and a selection of press releases. These were accepted. 

Federation reports

East Midlands

No report

West Midlands

No report

Divisional officers report
We received the Deputy Divisional officers report from Gareth Davies.

Membership total  - 436,511 nationally and 56,396 divisional. 

We received the Divisional officers report from Gavin Dadley.

(1) Divisional Conference Saturday 19th November - Sunday 20th November - 

Our guest speaker - Jack Dromey MP gave a very good speech and took lots of questions and answered every one. He was well received and possibly the best speaker I've seen at one of our Conferences. 

The work shops ran by the Midlands Equalities group was very good. 

A raffle that was organised by the Divisional Council with many great prizes did really well. 

We raised £419 which has been sent to MENCAP.

I send a big thank you to everyone who supplied a raffle prize and to everyone who brought raffle tickets. This is an amazing amount to raise.

The conference went well and all workshops were well organised.

(2) Divisional Conference 11th and 12th March 2016.
the planned theme is Politics.

The Divisional officers report was read and all points noted/endorsed.

TUC Young Workers Conference

There is one place available.

Nomination - Matthew Wright
Reserve - Russell Jones

Co-op National Committee Election.
Only one nomination was received so Kevin Lowe is elected to the Co-op National Committee.

USDAW National Organising Awards 2016

After the Midlands Divisional award winners were revealed at the Midlands Divisional Conference I can now reveal the award winners.

1) Individual Organising Award - Julie Haycraft.
2) Individual Recruitment Award - Gareth Coates.
3) Team Recruitment and Organising Award - Phillip Turner & Andy Shepherd.
4) The Campaigns Award - Simon Willmott.
5) Health and Safety Rep Award - Jon Mcewan.
6) Union Learning Rep Award - Anita Adamczyk.
7) The Equalities Award - Joan Samuels.
8) Most Promising New Activist Award - Russell Jones.
9) Outstanding Achievement Award - Mark Halfpenny.

I send my congratulations to every category winner and I wish you all the best of luck and again well done to everyone who was nominated.

Any Other Business

We then moved on to any other business.

The next USDAW Midlands Divisional Council Meeting will be on Wednesday 25th January 2017. 

  The meeting was then closed  

Divisional Council meeting number 17

Wednesday 26th October I attended Divisional Council meeting number 17 at the USDAW Redditch office. 

Apologies were received from:

Gareth Davies 

Kate MacLeod - Holiday

Paul White - Illness

Minutes from the previous DC meeting

We then read the minutes from the previous DC meeting. These were accepted. 

Minutes of the recent EC meeting

We received the EC Minutes from Maureen and Andrea.

Due to a very low number of delegates for the National Young workers weekend - This had had to be canceled.

Kevin Dolan EC member for the North West division has resigned from the EC.

Minutes from other Divisional Councils

We took a look at the minutes from other Divisional Councils. These were accepted. 

Central office circulars and press releases

We looked through a selection of circulars from central office and a selection of press releases. These were accepted. 

Federation reports

East Midlands

Simon Willmott gave a brief report on the East Midlands Federation weekend and he will be providing a written report at the next meeting.

A raffle had raised £122.63 and a collection for the hotel staff raised £20.

West Midlands

Kate Macleod sent in a written report covering the West Midlands Federation weekend.

Divisional officers report
We received the Deputy Divisional officers report from Gavin Dadley.

Membership total  - 443,934 nationally and 56,478 divisional. 

Stand down - 200 reps since 1/1/2015

Who have signed up 1,898 new members. 

We received the Divisional officers report from Gavin Dadley.

(1) 9th - 13th November - Respect for shop workers week.

(2) Divisional Conference Saturday 19th November - Sunday 20th November - Britannia Hotel - Formerly called Hilton Hotel Bromsgrove.

A guest speaker - Jack Dromey MP has been invited to attend. 

There will be work shops ran by the Midlands Equalities group. 

There will be certificate presentations to the 2016 Academy members.

We will be organising a raffle with many great prizes and all proceeds to be equally split between MENCAP and the Salvation Army.

There are several raffle prizes that have already been sorted out by Divisional Council members, EC members and divisional officers.

The raffle will be drawn on the Sunday morning. The raffle tickets will be £1 a strip.

The Divisional officers report was read and all points noted/endorsed.

Midlands Regional TUC 2017/18

There are four seats available on the TUC's regional committee in the Midlands.

Members of the Divisional council were asked to consider if they would like to take up one of the seats. 

We discussed this and nominees came forward and after a vote the following was agreed.

Gavin Dadley will take seat number 1 as our Divisional officer.

Claire Thomas will take seat number 2.

Kate MacLeod will take seat number 3.

 Simon Willmott will take seat number 4.

Kate Macleod will be put forward for the womans reserved executive seat which is voted on by the whole of the regional TUC committee.

Ann Lloyd will be a reserve should any of the above members not be able to attend a meeting.

USDAW National Organising Awards 2016

After several weeks of the Divisional Council members reading through the 129 USDAW National Organising Awards nominations forms and many hours of re reading some of the forms - the time has come to vote for the person/team who we all think deserves to be the Midlands regional winners for each category.

We needed to pick one person/team for each of the 9 categories.

We all filled out our winners list and handed them into Gavin Dadley, Maureen Bowen and Andrea Watts who went to count up the votes and to see if there were any outright winners.

We then had a second round of voting, as we had two categories where we had a tie.

We then had a List of the USDAW National Organising Awards 2016 - Midlands Division Award Winners.

All USDAW National Organising Awards - Divisional winners have been contacted by letter from Gavin Dadley.

I have not named any of the winners in this report but I will do once the Divisional Conference paperwork has been received by all Divisional Conference Delegates, as the list of Award winners is printed in the Conference agenda.

I send my congratulations to every category winner and I wish you all the best of luck and again well done to everyone who was nominated.

Any Other Business

We then moved on to any other business.

The next USDAW Midlands Divisional Council Meeting will be on Wednesday 30th December 2016. 

  The meeting was then closed  

Preparing for the next USDAW Divisional Council Meeting 26th October 2016

I have been reading through the 129 USDAW Organising Awards nominations forms.
I need to pick one nominee/team nomination for each of the 9 categories.

This is the hardest part of being an USDAW Divisional Councillor, as I know that each person and team  nominated has done an amazing job representing USDAW and their members.
It makes it hard to decide when there are so many people who have done very similar things during the year.

I have decided on who I will be voting for in all of the categories and I will be voting for these at the
USDAW Midlands Divisional Council meeting on Wednesday 26th October 2016.

I'm pleased to say that every single person and team who has been nominated will receive a framed certificate in recognition for there nomination.

The 9 winners of the Midlands Divisional awards will be invited to attend the USDAW National Organising Awards Presentation night in Manchester on Saturday 14th January 2017 where they will be presented with there Regional Award and they will enjoy a three course meal, over night stay and the Awards ceremony revealing the National award winners.

I have been lucky enough to be a regional award winner and the experience of the awards presentation night is amazing.

I send my congratulations to every nominee and wish you all the best of luck.
I will not list any of the regional award winners until they have been officially announced at the USDAW Midlands Divisional Conference Sat 19th and Sun 20th November 2016.

Divisional Council Meeting Number 16

Wednesday 28th September I attended Divisional Council meeting number 16 at the USDAW Redditch office. 

Apologies were received from

Gavin Dadley - Union Duties

Simon Eggleton - 

Paul White - Illness

Minutes from the previous DC meeting

We read the minutes from the previous DC meeting. These were accepted. 

Minutes of the EC meeting
There minutes were read by Maureen.

A meeting to discuss and carry out a vote for the Labour party leadership was requested by 10 E.C members but this was not allowed.This happened as The  Deputy General Secretary had already started to call the EC Members.

ADM 2017 - Live streaming.

The 2017 ADM will be partly streamed live. This is likely to be the main timetabled debates and guest speakers.

I will update further at a later date.

ADM 2017 - Subs increase.

A vote was held to decide if a subs increase would take place in 2017.

The result is Scale A and Scale C will be increased by 2p each Scale.
This will of course be subject to S1 being debated on and voted on at the 2017 ADM. 

Minutes from other Divisional Councils

We took a look at the minutes from other Divisional Councils. These were accepted. 

Central office circulars and press releases

We looked through a selection of circulars from central office and a selection of press releases. 

These were accepted. 

Federation reports

East Midlands

No report

West Midlands

No report

Divisional officers report
We received the Deputy Divisional officers report.

Membership total ( presently ) - 435,187 nationally and 56,305 divisional.  

Academy 1.

8 officers started the 2016 Midlands Academy on 09/05/2016.

969 new members and 62 reps signed up so far.

We received the Divisional officers report from Gareth Davies.

(1) USDAW Organising Awards nominations are now closed and the Divisional Council will be voting on the regional winners at the October meeting. 129 nominations received.

(2) USDAW Midlands divisional conference - Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th November 2016 at The Britannia Hotel ( Formerly the Hilton ) In Bromsgrove. To cover Equalities and USDAW's 125th Anniversary. We will be organising a raffle with many great prizes and all proceeds to be equally split between MENCAP and the Salvation Army.

There are several raffle prizes that have already been sorted out by Divisional Council members.

The raffle will be drawn on the Sunday morning. The raffle tickets will be £1 a strip.

The Divisional officers report was read and all points noted/endorsed.

Black and Asian Members weekend workshop.

delegates and reserves to be listed once confirmed.

National Retail Trades Conference.

Nominated 1 Co-op - Julie Haycraft

Nominated 2 Co-op - Michelle Whitehead

Nominated 3 Co-op - Kevin Lowe

Nominated 4 Janet Ruff

Nominated 5 Sara Farrar

Nominated 6 Paul Holland

Nominated 7 Jenny Sailsbury

Nominated 8 Cheryl Wilson

Nominated 9 Narinder Rai

Nominated 10 Ian Bateman

National Retail Trades Conference Proposition.

The proposition was endorsed.

SATA National Conference.

Nominated 1 Richard McDermid

Nominated 2 Greg Hort

Nominated 3 Darren Vickery

Nominated 4 Sally Zanzottera

Any Other Business

We then moved on to any other business.

The next USDAW Midlands Divisional Council Meeting will be on Wednesday 26th October 2016. 

  The meeting was then closed  

Divisional Council Meeting number 15

Wednesday 31st August I attended Divisional Council meeting number 15 at the USDAW Redditch office. 

Apologies were received from

Jenny Chiltern - Holiday

Simon Eggleton - 

Maureen Bowen - Holiday

Minutes from the previous DC meeting

We read the minutes from the previous DC meeting. These were accepted. 

Minutes of the EC meeting
There was no E.C meeting in August..

We discussed the Vote of the E.C to not support Jeremy Corbyn MP and to support his opposition in the second Labour party leadership election in 12 months.

The vote was done by the Deputy General Secretary phoning all E.C members and asking who they wish USDAW to support. 

A meeting to discuss and carry out this vote was requested by 10 E.C members but this was not allowed and the Phone vote went ahead.

I will update with more info once I have it.

Minutes from other Divisional Councils

We took a look at the minutes from other Divisional Councils. These were accepted. 

Central office circulars and press releases

We looked through a selection of circulars from central office and a selection of press releases. 

These were accepted. 

Federation reports

East Midlands

No report

West Midlands

No report

Divisional officers report
We received the Deputy Divisional officers report.

Membership total ( presently ) - 434,033 nationally and 56,313 divisional. 

New Members 2016 - 5,606 divisional. 

Academy 2 Finished on Sunday 28th August 2016.

355 new members and 43 reps signed up.

Academy 1.

8 officers started the 2016 Midlands Academy on 09/05/2016.

789 new members and 46 reps signed up so far.

We received the Divisional officers report from Gavin Dadley.

(1) USDAW Organising Awards nominations are now open and so far 31 Nominations have been received.

(2) USDAW Midlands divisional conference - Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th November 2016 at The Britannia Hotel ( Formerly the Hilton ) In Bromsgrove. To cover Equalities and USDAW's 125th Anniversary. We will be organising a raffle with many great prizes and all proceeds to be equally split between MENCAP and the Salvation Army.

The Divisional officers report was read and all points noted/endorsed.

East Midlands Regional Labour Party Conference.

This will be taking place on Saturday 29th October and the following people will be attending as Delegates from USDAW -

Gavin Dadley

Simon Willmott

Andrea Watts

Claire Poole

Mark Pengelly will be a reserve.

Any Other Business

We then moved on to any other business.

The next USDAW Midlands Divisional Council Meeting will be on Wednesday 28th September 2016. 

  The meeting was then closed  

Divisional Council Meeting Number 14

Wednesday 27th July I attended Divisional Council meeting number 14 at the USDAW Redditch office. 

Apologies were received from

Paul White - Illness

Jenny Chiltern - Illness

Jackie Hendry - Illness

Kate MacLeod - Holiday

Gareth Davies - Holiday

Andrea Watts - Illness

Minutes from the previous DC meeting

We read the minutes from the previous DC meeting. These were accepted. 

Minutes of the EC meeting
We received the EC Minutes from Maureen.

An issues raised in a previous E.C meeting regarding the LGBT T-shirts was looked into and although the colours on the t-shirts are not the same as they should be it is acceptable as different countries use different colours in different orders.

J.Mcewan asked about the Live streaming of the ADM and what was discussed at the E.C meeting.

The E.C are still awaiting a report.

Thanks have been received from several charities who wrote to USDAW asking for a donation.

Minutes from other Divisional Councils

We took a look at the minutes from other Divisional Councils. These were accepted. 

Central office circulars and press releases

We looked through a selection of circulars from central office and a selection of press releases. 

These were accepted. 

Federation reports

East Midlands

No report

West Midlands

A written report was sent in by Kate MacLeod in her absence.

The Federation weekend involved all delegates and officials attending the Chainmakers Festival on Saturday.

There were three workshop activities. 

1) The Chainmakers of Cradley Heath. 

2) The History of USDAW.

3) USDAW 125 years.

It sounded like all had a great time at the Federation weekend.

Divisional officers report
We received the Deputy Divisional officers report from Gavin.

Membership total ( presently ) - 434,455 nationally and 56,365 divisional. 

New Members 2016 - 4,852 divisional. 

Academy 2 started Monday 29th February 2016 with 4 organising officers.

313 new members and 26 reps signed up so far.

Academy 1.

8 officers started the 2016 Midlands Academy on 09/05/2016.

576 new members and 27 reps signed up so far.

We received the Divisional officers report from Gavin Dadley.

(1) USDAW Organising Awards nominations are now open.

(2) USDAW campaign bus spent a week in the Midlands visiting various sites. 

The bus also went to the Women Chain makers Festival on Sat 2nd July.

The Divisional officers report was read and all points noted/endorsed.

The next USDAW Midlands Divisional Council Meeting will be on Wednesday 31st August 2016. 

Any Other Business

We then moved on to any other business.

The meeting was then closed