WO toolkit 2012 complete.pdf - GMB

SECTION 6
ABOUT GMB
Although it is your day to day union work within your workplace that will have most impact on your
members’lives,you and your members are part of a trade union with over 600,000 members covering
most of private industry and the public services.
GMB is part of the Trades Union Congress(TUC)which has almost eight million members.Locally your
GMB branch may belong to a Trades Union Council linking several unions in your town.Internationally
GMB is committed to making our members’terms and conditions of employment the best in Europe.We
support the European TUC and lobby the European Commission and the European Parliament through
our own GMB Brussels office.As an active member of GMB you have an important part to play in
influencing the policy of the union and the TUC.
GMB is also linked locally regionally and nationally with the Labour Party.The union encourages its
members to support Labour,including by becoming individual members of the Party.Your GMB officer
can help you join your local Constituency Labour Party or become more active in it.
GMB ORGANISATION
ORGANISING LOCALLY–GMB BRANCHES
Your first point of contact with the wider union is as part of your GMB branch.Depending on the size
and type of your workplace the branch may cover just workers where you work or it may include
employees in other workplaces.The key official of your branch is the Branch Secretary.It is important
for you as a GMB workplace representative and active member of GMB to have a close working
relationship with your Branch Secretary.
It is also important that you attend your branch meetings where information can be passed to you and
you have the opportunity to participate in GMB’s democratic decision making.
ORGANISING REGIONALLY–GMB REGION
Your branch belongs to one of nine GMB Regions.Each Region is headed by a Regional Secretary who is
responsible to a Regional Committee of elected lay members(i.e.people like you not employed by GMB)
which meets regularly to oversee the work of the union in your part of the country and a larger
Regional Council also of elected representatives which normally meets twice a year.
ORGANISING NATIONALLY–GMB CONGRESS
GMB holds a Congress every year to decide union policy and it is through your branch that you can
contribute by submitting motions to that Congress.This is the body that ultimately makes all the
decisions in the union.
When Congress is not meeting the Central Executive Council,lay representatives elected from each
GMB Region meet to carry on the business of the union.
ORGANISING IN YOUR SECTOR–GMB SECTIONS
As well as being part of a Region and branch structure you and your members belong to one of three
industrial Sections of the union,each headed by a National Secretary based at GMB National Office.
The three sections are:
• Commercial Services
• Manufacturing
• Public Services
The National Secretary for the section and any National Officers in that section report regularly to a