Fight the EHRC Not Reps!

At UNISON’s National Delegate Conference, which ran from 16-19 June in Brighton, Lambeth Local Government Branch Submitted an Emergency Motion on the EHRC, calling for the union to publicly oppose and campaign against the implementation of their revised guidance on single sex spaces into law and campaign positively for a law which enshrined trans rights and self-id.

The motion, which had been checked over by a former Standing Orders Committee (SOC) member, was ruled out of order and not published in the motion book due to fear of putting the union in legal jeopardy.

Delegates from Lambeth challenged the standing orders committee on this and received the response that the information was to be kept private due to “legal privilege”. Further challenges were made about what legal privilege meant when members submitting a motion could not hear the legal advice on their own motion.

Branch delegates decided to print the motion under the heading “The Motion They Didn’t Want You to See…” and distribute it outside the conference hall.

On the penultimate day the SOC pulled Lambeth branch delegates Ruth Cashman and Simon Hannah up for distributing the motion. They were asked to apologise, but refused.

On Friday morning they were expelled from the conference. Supportive delegates raised points of order to ask why, and point out that transphobic speakers were still in the hall, but the chair shut down this debate, eventually saying that the delegates had been rude to her personally, though there was no meeting with the chair and the delegates were ejected by staff. The delegates were also accused of undermining the SOC by publishing the motion.

Many branches put in complaints — we hope that this will lead to the General Secretary launching an investigation into how the SOC and the conference chair behaved. Ruth and Simon addressed a lively, impromptu demonstration outside the conference centre at lunchtime.

Lambeth Branch is incredibly proud of our record on trans rights and will continue to stand in solidarity with our trans siblings and comrades, push back against the tide of transphobia and the bureaucratic hijinx which give it room to grow in the labour movement.

Lambeth’s motion has been available on the branch’s website since they first passed it. Read it here.