The theme for Trades Union Councils in 2018 is “Changing the world of work for good“. It sets out a positive vision of trade unions as we know them to be: a democratic force for fairness in the modern workplace. It highlights the role that trades union councils play in developing and promoting trades unions and in campaigning on the core values of the TUC and the union movement.

The Trades Union Councils Programme of Work for 2018 tasks the Trades Union Council movement with –

1. opposing the Tories’ attacks on the NHS and building the resistance alongside our NHS staff and their unions;
2. supporting campaigns for new council and social house building programmes;
3. supporting industrial action taken in opposing employer or government initiatives that lead to a reduction in staffing or safety;
4. supporting all trades’ union opposition to the cuts;
5. supporting the TUC’s “Great Jobs Campaign” and union campaigns for decent pay and conditions at work and increasing collective bargaining coverage;
6. campaigning for fair treatment of migrant workers;
7. speaking out for equality, and against discrimination and harassment on the basis of ethnicity or religion;
8. lobbying the Labour Party to establish, before the next general election, a ‘shadow’ Defence Diversification Agency;
9. working to raise awareness of the Welfare Charter and campaign for the abolition of the Universal Credit benefits system