Month: April 2016

Your Voice on the Co-op Board

Posted on by hazelablears

Please Vote for Me as your Number One Choice

As a Co-op Member you now have the chance to Vote for your Member Nominated Director to make sure your views are heard and acted upon by the Co-op Board. For the last year I have been working for you, raising the issues you have told me you care about and pushing for action and change.

  • I want our colleagues to have the best Pay and Rewards package in Retail

  • I want us to use every pound of our buying power to create jobs and apprenticeships and support other Co-ops and local small  businesses

  • I want to open up our democracy to many more young people by reducing the £1000.00 spend to stand for office

  • I want our Fairtrade goods to be available in every store

I have been to every Board meeting and every Members Council where MNDs were invited, I have visited stores regularly and have met colleagues from every part of our business to get their insight on what needs to change to improve our plans to Rebuild and Renew our Co-op.

But  it’s not just the last year that counts.I have been an active Co-operator for 30 years, I was a member of the Co-op Comission in 2001, took the first ever Co-op and Social Enterprise Strategy through Government  in 2007 and in 2013 I helped to put the Social Value Act on the Statute Book. I am a volunteer Director of Aspire, a new Health and Social Care Co-op in Salford, and I am helping more  Co-ops access funding through Social investment.

I want to continue to use all my experience, energy and committment as a lifelong co-operator to work for all of you to help Rebuild our Co-op in line with the Values and principles of our Founders so we can not only be proud of our history but of our future too.

  • With thanks toMark Crumlin the brilliant store manager at Myrtle Street store in Liverpool and his fantastic bakery

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Good news for the Co-op and the Co-op Party

Posted on by hazelablears

I am delighted that the Co-op Group Board is recommending that the Co-operative Party subscription is approved at this year’s AGM on 21 May, and recommending that Co-op Group members vote to support it.

To me, as a Member Nominated Director on the Board, this is a very welcome decision and one which I have consistently promoted. If supported by members at the AGM, it will reaffirm and renew our historic, democratic partnership with the Co-operative Party.

I have been a Co-op Party member for more than 25 years and I know how important the Party’s work is.

The Co-op is more than just a business and our partnership with the Party is one of the ways we show it.

Because we believe in changing society, it is right that the Co-op supports engagement in the democratic and political process, at the same time as we set an example as Britain’s leading ethical business.

The Party’s policy work and engagement with national and local government has been vital in creating a better environment for all co-operatives and growing the co-operative movement. I believe the Co-op Group, as Britain’s biggest co-op, is absolutely right to support this work, not just in our own business interests, but in the interests of all Co-ops.

The Board’s decision is being communicated to Co-op Group members, asking  them to support Motion 12 under the heading ‘Approving our political spending on things like subscriptions and donations to parties.’  Online and postal voting starts on Thursday 21st April for members who are not attending the AGM in Manchester in person.

The Members Council is also supporting the recommendation, and, like the Council and the Board, I hope members will use their votes to support this important element of our co-operative democracy.