This week, I have been out of London at RMT's Annual General Meeting in Nottingham. I am one of eight delegates from the union's London Transport region who met up with over 50 delegates from the rail, maritime and transport industries around the country to make the union's policies.

Over the next few days, i will post on this blog reports of what we discussed and decided. I'll report on my contributions to the deliberations - after all, since union members elected me to go and represent you, you are entitled to know what I got up to!

I proposed a resolution on behalf of the union's Women's Conference entitled Anti-Social Hours, Shifts and Short Notice Duty changes. This is (something like) what I said in my proposing speech:

"Call them reserve staff, relief staff, cover staff or pool staff, we have thousands of members whose working lives are continually messed around by their bosses.

"Being on the roster is bad enough, what with the dead earlies, dead lates, nights and so on, affecting your health and your sleep. But for reserve staff, its even worse. You can be on one shift one day and another on another. You might get your duties a few days before, or if you are lucky a few weeks. Then you can have them changed at the last minute. This is totally unacceptable.

"Let me explain how this resolution got here. We held a women's meeting in the London Transport region, and asked all the women who came what issues concerned them. They told us about issues in wider society, such as abortion rights, and international issues. Of the workplace issues they mentioned, one of those they felt most passionately about was reserve staff being messed around with short-notice duty changes. Some said they found it almost impossible to cope, juggling their childcare or other commitments with ever-changing shifts.

"So we brought this resolution to Women's Conference and then to this AGM. Like so many other 'women's issues', it is an 'all-workers' issue too.

"The key thing is not just to moan, but to do something about it. This resolution calls on our Executive to run a campaign for more rights for reserves.

"On London Underground, we produced a 'know your rights' guide for reserve staff that fits in your wallet. Members can use it as ammunition, so when the manager or the roster clerk changes their duties unreasonably, they pull out the 'know your rights' guide and say "It says here that you can't do that."

"The resolution also calls on the Executive to demand more rights for reserve, relief, cover and pool staff; for caring responsibilities to be taken into account, and for no short-notice duty changes without staff's agreement.

"We must assert the basic principle: Life is not something we should have to fit around work. Work is something that should fit in with our lives."

Jim McDaid from Bakerloo line branch seconded the resolution very ably, and the AGM passed it unanimously. Let's hope it leads to more action on this crucial issue!