The bargaining for equality course supports all reps with understanding equality issues and how to bring equality into the mainstream bargaining and organising agenda. It provides all the tools needed to take the learning back to the workplace. The course aims to improve knowledge, skills and confidence of all reps, whether you usually deal with equality issues or not.

Aims of the course

• To enable reps to review some basic legal issues relating to equality and discrimination at work
• To help reps identify under-represented groups of members and understand the barriers preventing such groups from playing a wider role in the union
• help reps develop the knowledge and skills to incorporate equality issues into their collective bargaining with management
• enable reps to understand the concept of “mainstreaming” equality within the organisations they work for and their unions.
• To help reps plan how to build equality issues into their work as a rep back in the workplace

This free course is run as a weekend school to support reps to attend if facilities time is difficult to obtain. All accommodation and food is provided. There will be a charge for delegates who register but do not turn up and a full time official from your union will need to authorise your application form. Please note this is a Wales TUC event and priority will be given to applications from reps based within Wales.

Place: Dragon Hotel, Swansea
Dates: Friday 23rd April to Sunday 25th April
Times: Starting at 6pm Friday and finishing by 11.30am Sunday
Who is it for: Shop Stewards, Equality Reps, Health and Safety Reps and any other rep who would like to learn more about equality

For further information and an application form please contact Jo Rees at Wales TUC Cymru on 02920 34 7010 or email jrees@tuc.org.uk

Please follow the links below for more information and contact your union’s regional office if you would like to attend as a delegate or submit motions to any of these conferences.

Challenging Racism Conference, Cardiff - 30th October. Click here for more info.

Women’s Conference, Bridgend - 18/19 November. Click here for more info.

LGBT Conference, Cardiff - 30th November. Click here for more info.

A pan equality conference funded by the Welsh Assembly Government will also be organised and more details provided shortly.

There will also be screenings of films that have been chosen as winners in the annual Iris Prize Festival which is held in Cardiff every year organised by the Festivals Company, other gay films that have been shortlisted for international film festivals and the BBC Wales programme that follows Ian H Watkins as the places in South Wales that forged his childhood.

AN exhibition by NUJ photographers will be open during the course of the conference along with those submitted by LGBT people across Wales. Both have the theme of LGBT lives in Wales in 2009. There is a £100 prize for the winning submitted photography courtesy of NUJ Cymru Wales.
For more information on entering the competition click here.

Only one session of the conference will be restricted to official LGBT delegates from affiliated trade unions – all the other events and the films, exhibitions and other social events to be advertised at Chapter are open to all.

For more details visit:
LGBT Conference 2009

The survey aims to gather information on the type of issues that reps deal with, and the level of training and support that is in place for reps who deal with equalities issues. It also hopes to identify the barriers that prevent equality reps from carrying out their role effectively.

The survey can be filled in by any rep who deals with equalities issues, even if they are not an official equality rep.

Please download the survey here:
Equality Reps Survey (word doc)

Either email back to nhirst@tuc.org.uk
or print out and post to:

Wales TUC
FREEPOST SWC4648
Cardiff
CF11 9GY

All replies will be treated confidentially.

Replies should be received by April 30th. However, surveys returned after that date will still be useful. Everyone will receive a summary of the main findings and a full report.

Please advertise this widely. Thank you very much for your help. The information from the survey will support us all in our campaign for statutory rights and recognition for the important role that equalities reps play in our branches and workplaces.

More more information please contact Natasha Hirst on
nhirst@tuc.org.uk

This one day Equal Pay seminar will provide you with an update on recent legislation and provide practical examples of how other organisations have overcome the barriers to achieving equal pay for women and men. We shall facilitate you in developing a programme of action that is specific to your workplace with access to equality experts who can support you.

The seminar objectives are to:
• Provide up-to-date information about recent legal developments on equal pay
• Bring together employer and union reps to make progress in closing pay gap
• Strengthen employer-union partnerships through identifying barriers and solutions
• Develop workplace specific actions and supporting your leadership role
• Signpost practical follow up support for the employer-union partnerships.

You are encouraged to attend in partnership with your employer so that you can develop a shared understanding of the issues for your workplace and draft a programme of actions to take forward following the seminar. Individual applications are also welcomed.

The seminars are organised as part of the Close the Pay Gap Campaign, which is a partnership between the Wales TUC, EHRC and Welsh Assembly Government.

Seminars will take place in all parts of Wales on the following dates:

North and Mid Wales (Llandudno) 21st January
South West Wales (Camarthen) 29th January
South East Wales (Cardiff) 5th February

Please use the attached forms below (one for employers and one for reps) for applications and return no later than 2 weeks prior to your seminar date.

Contact Derek Walker on dwalker@tuc.org.uk for more information

Equal Pay Seminar Application form - Welsh (word doc)

Equal Pay Seminar Application form - English (word doc)

Wales TUC Challenging Racism Conference will be held on the afternoon of October 21st 2008, also at the Dragon Hotel, Swansea. We encourage unions to send black and minority ethnic members, although the conference is open to all trade union members.

For both of these conferences you will need to be on your union’s delegation. Please contact your union’s regional officer to express an interest in attending.

Both of these conferences will have motions debate to decide policy for the year ahead. We strongly encourage all unions to submit a motion to both conferences and the deadline for motions is Friday 3rd October 2008.

We will be holding a pan-equality event in between these two conferences, on the morning of the 21st October. This pan-equality event will be open to all who are interested in equality issues.

The agenda for the pan-equality event is still to be set but will include speakers on topics such as the Single Equality Bill, and workshops on generic equality issues. More details and registration information will be provided soon. Please contact Natasha Hirst on nhirst@tuc.org.uk for more information.

The End Child Poverty Campaign is organising a rally on Saturday October 4th in Trafalgar Square - please visit the End Child Poverty website for more details, or contact your union to find out if they are organising transport to the event.

The Budget 2009 is the last realistic chance for the Government to meet the 2010 target and keep alive its promise to end child poverty. The Keep the Promise March will be the UK’s biggest ever event to end child poverty this year to demand a better future for all our children.

Part of the Wales TUC 2008 Policy Seminar Series
Thursday 28 August 2008
12pm - 2pmat the Norwegian Church, Cardiff Bay

Buffet Lunch served 12pm - 12:30pm

Child poverty really exists in Britain today. Hundreds of thousands of children go without birthday parties, school trips or having friends round for tea because their parents are too poor to afford these ‘extras’. Unions are campaigning to persuade the Government to invest the extra £4bn needed to halve child poverty by 2010. We would all be better off in a Britain without child poverty: help turn that dream into a reality.

With a list of experts on the front-line of the campaign in Wales and the UK to End Child Poverty, find out the facts about child poverty, what action is being taken in Wales, what unions are doing and how you can be part of the campaign to Keep the Promise on 4 October 2008.

Child Poverty Seminar programme

Please RSVP: chartwell@tuc.org.uk

The event will be held in Cardiff (venue TBC due to greater interest than anticipated) from 12-2pm with a buffet lunch provided.

The network will be launched by Ruth Marks, the Older People’s Commissioner for Wales.

Ruth holding a discussion on how unions can work with the Commissioner’s office. This will be an opportunity to raise any issues that members have been facing with respect to age discrimination, pensions and so on.

This will be followed by a talk from Thompsons Solicitors on the Age Regulations and any case law and developments since the regulations came into force.

The event is aimed at all equality reps and officers and for any reps or members who have an interest in age issues. Please pass this on to those you think may be interested, especially to retired members networks if you have one.

Please email Clare Stisted on cstisted@tuc.org.uk to register your interest in attending.