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Billy Hayes, CWU UK General Secretary, at the union's 2012 Conference, conferred a very deserved honorary membership of the union to Philip Bowyer former Deputy General Secretary of UNI Global Union. In making the award, Jane Loftus, President of the CWU, referred to the fact that Philip had started working for the union in the 1970's and had gone on to become the General Secretary of the PTTI (later to become Communications International - CI) and then when that organisation had merged with three other global union federations, had become the Deputy General Secretary of UNI Global Union.



She said that Philip had delivered outstanding service to communication workers throughout the world in his long and extremely worthwhile career with the global trade union movement. She said there was no doubt that Philip had made a valuable contribution to improving the lives and freedoms of workers in all parts of the world and he was a deserving recipient of the highest honour that the CWU could give to members, that is honorary membership.



In his response to receiving honorary membership, Philip told delegates that he accepted it with a great deal of pride. Pride that he had been able to take the skills he had learned at the union and to use them to help better workers lives globally. He said the job hadn't always been easy and he also felt pride that he had been able to be part of the trade union movement's efforts to stamp out apartheid in South Africa, to build the Solidarnosc trade union movement in Poland and build free and independent unions in countries such as Chile with the ousting of the Pinochet regime.



He said he believed this award recognised the responsibility that CWU members had placed in him to carry out the aspirations of UK workers for better jobs and working conditions for communications workers globally and he was proud to have served the union in this way.