Green Party

We received lots of positive feedback from attendees at the Association of Green Councillors conference in Norwich at the weekend. The speakers were inspiring, the workshops informative and the business meeting productive.

On Saturday I chaired a session on working with trade unions. The guest speaker was Chris Baugh from the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS). Chris gave an interesting talk, outlining how his union is working to make itself greener, in terms of its internal operations but also in terms of its policies on wider issues.

The questions put to Chris afterwards were wide-ranging. He agreed with the questioner who outlined the need for trade unions to think about the long-term as far as jobs are concerned.

For example, abandoning nuclear power would lose some jobs in the short term but investing in renewable energy instead would create more sustainable jobs for the long-term.

Chris agreed with a questioner who said that there is strong feeling against the Labour Party amongst the grassroots of trade union membership. PCS is not aligned to the Labour Party but most unions still are.

Many Unison members feel that the link with Labour should be broken but people at the top of the union have been trying to prevent a vote on the matter. One conference attendee, a member of Unison, said he thought it was only a matter of time before the Unison-Labour link would be broken.

The discussion inevitably then moved on to how the Green Party can continue to develop working relationships with trade unions. In Norwich, Green Party Councillors have worked with three different trade unions on different issues, including supporting the recent strike by council employees.

Chris Baugh said it was his view that the best way for the Green Party to build up relationships with the unions is, at least to begin with, at a grassroots level through councillors and local parties.

Chris also spoke of his support for the introduction of work place environmental champions - a subject on which Jean Lambert MEP has tabled a motion to Green Party conference.

In the photo above I am pictured with Councillor John Marjoram from Stroud (left) and Chris Baugh from PCS (centre) outside Norwich City Hall.

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