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Conferences 2010

National delegate conference: fringe events

Set out below are details of the official fringe meetings being held during Conference week.

The meetings will all be held in rooms within the Bournemouth International Centre, unless otherwise noted. Please confirm details at Conference.

Sunday, 13 June 2010

  • Medical procedures in schools, colleges and nurseries - who is responsible?
  • Facing up to the challenges of redundancies and cuts in Local Government
  • Love your Libraries

Reveal full details

Event: Medical procedures in schools, colleges and nurseries - who is responsible?

12.45pm-1.45pm: Westbourne Suite (sandwiches and refreshments provided)

Increasing numbers of UNISON members working in education are being expected to administer medicines and medical procedures to children and young people. Who is responsible and what should UNISON's policy be?

Chair: Frances Lee, Chair of UNISON's National School Staff Sector committee

Speakers: Sean Fox, Haringey branch

DCSF spokesperson (tbc)

Christina McAnea - UNISON National Secretary for Education and Children's Services

Event: Facing up to the challenges of redundancies and cuts in Local Government

12.45pm-1.45pm: Branksome Suite (refreshments provided)

The scale of job losses is already high and set to become even worse in the years ahead. In this meeting we will consider the most effective campaigning strategies to protect our members' jobs. We will also discuss the preliminary results of a freedom of information request on redundancy levels and associated issues.

Speakers: tbc

Event: Love your Libraries

5.15pm-6.15pm: Branksome Suite (refreshments provided)

Do come along to the Local Government library fringe. You will receive a warm welcome with teas, coffee, biscuits and good company. UNISON's report into the Library Inquiry will be available at the Fringe.

Discuss together:

The outcomes of the UNISON Inquiry.

How you can influence the future of the library service in your authority.

What effect the cuts are having, where are they, and does this mean shared services?

What should the UNISON plan be for libraries in the future?

Speakers: Steve Davies, Senior Researcher, Cardiff University

Monday, 14 June 2010

  • Social work under pressure: time to take control
  • Shared services and total place
  • International Rally

Reveal full details

Event: Social work under pressure: time to take control

12.45pm-1.45pm: Tregonwell Bar Area (sandwiches and refreshments provided)

Social workers are working under intolerable pressure across the UK. Services are facing cuts at a time when demands are rising and there is an ongoing shortage of staff to do the work. UNISON is campaigning in all four UK administrations for reforms that will really make a difference to front-line practice.

How can we help practitioners get some more control over their working lives? How can we get more social workers actively involved in the fight to improve working conditions? Can we negotiate lasting improvements on workload and supervision?

Come along to hear about the latest developments, debate the issues and exchange ideas.

Speakers: tbc

Event: Shared services and total place

5.15pm-6.15pm: Branksome Suite (refreshments provided)

Total Place is the new buzz word for public service reform. Is Total Place the new shared services? Will councils take over PCT's? Or will they both just be privatised? What does "Total Place" mean for the workers? Come and joint in the debate!

Speakers: Health Service Group speaker (tbc)

Jane Dudman - Editor, Guardian Public

Richard Leese - Leader, Manchester City Council (tbc)

Merv Butler - Secretary, South Tyneside Local Government Branch

Event: International Rally

7.30pm-9pm: Purbeck Lounge (refreshments and buffet available)

Meet conference international guests invited from: Canada, USA, Palestine, Israel, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Mauritius, South Africa, Iraq, European Public Services Unions (EPSU) and Public Services International (PSI)

The opportunity to talk to guests after the meeting

Sponsored by: NEC International Committee, Cymru/Wales, Eastern, East Midlands, Greater London, Northern, Northern Ireland, North West, Scotland, South East, South West, West Midlands, Yorkshire & Humberside

Tuesday, 15 June 2010

  • Violation of trade union rights in the Philippines
  • Tackling bullying at work
  • Defend our schools
  • 'Primary justice' a new approach to criminal justice
  • Cuba Solidarity Campaign Havana club rum reception
  • Denis Goldberg - a life for freedom in South Africa

Reveal full details

Event: Violation of trade union rights in the Philippines

12.45pm-1.45pm: Durley Suite

Amnesty International and the Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines discuss 'The violation of trade union rights in the Philippines'. The Philippines has become one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a trade unionist. Extra-judicial killings and targeting of trade union and labour activists are frequent, and a culture of impunity makes it difficult and dangerous for unions to organise. Strikes are often met with force and foreign investment encouraged by providing union-free militarized export processing zones.

This meeting offers an opportunity to hear about the current situation in the Philippines from a human and trade union rights' perspective.

The meeting is organised by CHRP and Amnesty International UK.

Sandwiches and refreshments provided.

Speakers: Speakers from the Philippines, Amnesty, CHRP and UNISON (tbc)

Event: Tackling bullying at work

12.45pm-1.45pm: Meyrick Suite (refreshments provided)

UNISON believes that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect at work and that bullying and harassment is totally unacceptable behaviour. The Health and Safety Fringe Meeting will look at the scale and extent of bullying at work and will focus on what branches can do to tackle the problem.

Speakers: Dr Charlotte Rayner, Portsmouth University

Event: Defend our schools

12.45pm-1.45pm: Tregonwell bar (sandwiches and refreshments provided)

This fringe will highlight the campaign against the Lib-Con Govt's planned Academies Bill

Speakers: Alisdair Smith: Secretary of the Anti Academies Alliance

Tom Wilson: Head of TUC Unionlearn

Christina McAnea: UNISON National Secretary Education and Children's Services

Chair: Jane Carolan, NEC

Event: 'Primary justice' a new approach to criminal justice

5.15pm-6.15pm: Branksome Suite (refreshments provided)

'Primary Justice' describes a new approach to the delivery of criminal justice, focusing on locality, community and prevention. It is the result of a Parliamentary Inquiry into the justice system, supported by the Local Government Information Unit. Primary Justice proposes a single ring-fenced budget for safety and justice at upper tier local authority level to include 35% of the current national prison, police, probation and courts budgets, and allowing local authorities to commission local justice services out of it, eg neighbourhood policing. Primary Justice also opens a broad debate on police force accountability, as well as the accountability for the whole of safety and justice locally.

Come along to this fringe meeting to contribute to UNISON's thinking on Primary Justice, at this important time for influencing the new Government on justice and community safety.

Speakers: Matthew Lay: UNISON Police and Justice Service Group

Hilary Kitchen: Local Government Information Unit

Other speaker(s) (tbc)

Event: Cuba Solidarity Campaign Havana club rum reception

5.15pm-6.15pm: Purbeck Lounge (Havana club cocktails and refreshments provided)

This reception is a unique opportunity to hear first hand from two Cuban women on the latest developments in Cuba and the challenges they face. This year is the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Cuban Women's Federation (FMC).

Six months after the Haiti earthquake almost 1000 Cuban trained medics are still working there. The fringe will also provide an update on the work of Cuba and Venezuela in Haiti and show a short film about the role of Cuban doctors in the aftermath of the earthquake.

Speakers: Carolina Amador Perez, FMC
Ana Milagros Martinez Rielo, FMC
Samauel Moncada, Venezuelan Ambassador
Keith Sonnet, UNISON Deputy General Secretary

Event: Denis Goldberg - a life for freedom in South Africa

5.30pm-7.30pm: Westbourne Suite

Denis Goldberg, longtime UNISON friend, will be signing copies of his autobiography, The Mission. Denis was convicted alongside Nelson Mandela and spent 22 years in prison for fighting apartheid. His ongoing commitment to "try and realise in practice the vision we had that our children shall not be hungry, shall be well-cared for, go to school, have jobs to go to and to be able to laugh a little" is inspiring to everybody who questions how they can contribute to achieving a just and equitable world.

Wednesday, 16 June

  • Changing the climate at work - learning the lessons from the UNISON green pilots
  • Doing your duty: making best use of new public sector equality to achieve real change
  • Show Racism the Red Card
  • The hidden workforce - vulnerable workers
  • Million Voices: Socially just solutions to the global economic climate

Reveal full details

Event: Changing the climate at work - learning the lessons from the UNISON green pilots

12.45pm-1.45pm: Branksome Suite (sandwiches and refreshments provided)

UNISON branches have been taking part in a series of TUC green workplaces pilots, supported by the Union Modernisation Fund. This fringe will be an opportunity to be inspired, to hear how the branches got on and to take part in a discussion about how we link up the green agenda with our mainstream campaign to protect jobs and quality public services.

Speakers:
Sarah Lewis, Great Ormond Street Branch
John Jones, United Utilities Branch
Phil Thompson, Leicester City Council Branch
Other speaker(s) (tbc)

Event: Doing your duty: making best use of new public sector equality to achieve real change

12.45pm-1.45pm: Purbeck Lounge (sandwiches and refreshments provided)

The Equality Act 2010 brings a new equality duty on public bodies across all protected groups from next April. Till then, we must continue to exploit the potential of the existing race, disability and gender duties. The panel will inform us about the new law and discuss strategies to eliminate discrimination, advance equality, and foster good relations in the workplace and in public services. In a difficult climate of change, how can we use the equality duties to the benefit of the workforce and our communities?

Chair: Angie Marriott - National Black Members and National Disabled Members Committees

Panellists: Barbara Limon - Equality and Human Rights Commission

Barbara Cohen - Independent consultant on equality and diversity

Liane Venner - Head of UNISON's Membership and Participation Unit

If you have a question for the panel, please email it no later than 6pm Tuesday 15 June to s.mawhood@unison.co.uk stating your name, branch and region.

Event: Show Racism the Red Card

12.45-1.45pm: Tregonwell Bar Area (refreshments provided)

Come along and hear about Show Racism the Red Card and UNISON's joint work

Chair: Norma Stephenson
Leroy Rosenior, footballer
Ged Grebby, Show Racism the Red Card

Event: The hidden workforce - vulnerable workers

5.15pm-6.15pm: Purbeck Lounge (refreshments provided)

The hidden workforce describes the army of low paid vulnerable workers whose work has been outsourced. Our public services depend on them. Yet these workers whose contribution is so vital often suffer exploitation and bullying at work. Paradoxically it's these workers, the ones who need a trade union most, who are the least well organised. UNISON is committed to reaching out and supporting these workers. This is no easy thing, given the huge pressures faced by activists in the workplace already.

The fringe meeting is an opportunity for you to hear about the work that is being done to support Branches and activists to engage with the hidden workforce. More importantly it is also an opportunity for us to hear your views.

Dr Sian Moore from Working Lives Research Institute will be speaking and she will be joined by two outsourced workers.

Chair: Helen Black, UNISON Regional Secretary

Speakers: Dr Sian Moore, Working Lives Research Institute

Vulnerable workers giving testimony to the problems they have encountered.

Event: Million Voices: Socially just solutions to the global economic climate

5.15pm-6.15pm: Meyrick Suite (wine and nibbles provided)

The greed and irresponsibility of the banks has created a global economic crisis that is hitting jobs, pensions, and funding for public services, in the UK and internationally. Find out about some of the ways UNISON members can organise and campaign for alternatives that can protect public services, control international finance, and shift investment into equitable and sustainable job creation.

Chair: Jane Carolan, UNISON NEC

Speakers: John Hilary, War On Want
Anna Marriot, Robin Hood Ta
Colin Meech, UNISON Capital Stewardship programme

Thursday, 17 June 2010

  • Bonfire of the Liberties - New Labour, human rights and the rule of law
  • Young, gifted and unemployed: What can trade unions offer the 'lost' generation
  • Demand change! Prostitution is exploitation - end the demand
  • What happened to the right to strike?
  • Justice for Palestine: Time for action
  • Why we should bring the troops home - Stop the War Coalition
  • The Struggle for Workers Rights in Latin America
  • 'The Flaw' - Exclusive Preview Screening

Reveal full details

Event: Bonfire of the Liberties - New Labour, human rights and the rule of law

12.45pm-1.45pm: Meyrick Suite (sandwiches and refreshments provided)

Professor Keith Ewing of King's College London will give an overview of New Labour's record on human rights and a panel of speakers will give first hand accounts of experiencing employer blacklisting, control orders and detention without charge.

Professor Ewing has recently published a book which confronts the corrosion of civil liberties under successive New Labour governments since 1997. It argues that the last decade has seen a wholesale failure of constitutional principle and exposed the futility of depending on legal rights to restrict the power of executive government. It considers the steps necessary to prevent the continued decline of political standards, arguing that only through rebalancing political power can civil liberties be adequately protected.

Speakers: Keith Ewing, Kings College London

Event: Young, gifted and unemployed: What can trade unions offer the 'lost' generation

12.45pm-1.45pm: Purbeck Lounge (sandwiches and refreshments provided)

Youth unemployment is at a crisis level and impacting not just on our young people, but also on their dependents, their families, their own well-being, and on our economy. The Labour Government introduced a package of measures including a rapidly expanding apprenticeships programme and the Future Jobs Fund, with the public sector being looked to as a major provider of such opportunities. The TUC has launched its Next Generation Accord, with the support of UNISON, seeking to press for better support for young members and through which trade unions are pledging to up their game in supporting young workers and encouraging them into active trade unionism. But how do we make this work? What are the challenges ahead? Come and join the debate at this important fringe meeting.

Chair: Wendy Nichols, National Executive Council

Speakers: Matt Dykes, TUC Youth Policy Officer
Roger McKenzie, UNISON West Midlands Regional Secretary
Nigel Szymczyk, Chair, UNISON Connexions Committee
Gemma Tue, National Young Members Forum

Event: Demand change! Prostitution is exploitation - end the demand

12.45pm-1.45pm: Branksome Suite (sandwiches and refreshments provided)

The national women's committee and conference are supporting the Demand Change! campaign, which aims to promote an increased understanding of the myths and realities surrounding prostitution and calls for prostitution to be seen and widely understood as a form of violence against women. Whilst women can be bought and sold, there can be no gender equality in the UK.

In Motion 117, we are calling on the UK government to adopt a human rights based approach to prostitution which decriminalises those who are purchased for the purpose of prostitution, offers support to exit the sex industry and criminalises the purchase of sex in order to curb demand. This fringe meeting offers an opportunity to discuss how we can take forward the campaign. For further information visit www.demandchange.org.uk

Speakers: Denise Marshall (Eaves)
Anna Van Heeswijk (Object)

Event: What happened to the right to strike?

5.15pm-6.15pm: Meryck Suite (sandwiches and refreshments provided)

With the ever growing use of anti-union injunctions to prevent legitimate strike action, the democratic decisions of union members are being increasingly undermined.

Recent high profile examples in the BA and Network Rail disputes have brought this problem to the fore but there have been countless examples across the country some of which have affected UNISON members. Employers are seizing on the balloting provisions of the anti-union legislation to intimidate unions from taking action.

In light of these developments is it still possible to take lawful industrial action in the UK? What are the implications for trade union rights in the wake of the general election? How should unions prepare and respond? Speakers will discuss the issues facing the labour movement and will provide a platform for the launch of a post-election strategy.

Chair: Bob Oram, UNISON NEC

Speakers: Keith Ewing, IER; John Usher, United Campaign; Jane Carolan, UNISON

Event: Justice for Palestine: Time for action

5.15pm-6.15pm: Purbeck Lounge (refreshments provided)

Speakers will give an account of the current situation in the Occupied Territories and Gaza; they will outline what the trade union movement can do to support the Palestinian people.

Refreshments provided.

Speakers: tbc

Event: Why we should bring the troops home - Stop the War Coalition

5.15pm-6.15pm: Branksome Suite

The war in Afghanistan has gone on for nearly 9 years. Tens of thousands have died, including now nearly 300 British troops. The war is deeply unpopular, but politicians refuse to accept public opinion and instead justify the war. The British government has spent #12 billion on the Afghan war since 2001, yet public sector workers are told they have to face cuts. Come and hear the case for ending the war and bringing the troops home.

Speakers: Jeremy Corbyn MP
Lindsey German (Convener, Stop the War Coalition).

Event: The Struggle for Workers Rights in Latin America

5.15pm-6.15pm: Tregonwell Bar (refreshments provided)

What the Tory Coalition Means for International Solidarity

Chair: Seamus Milne (The Guardian)

Speakers: Didier Leiton Valverde, an organiser with the Costa Rican banana workers' trade union SITRAP who was sacked by the US multination corporation Del Monte for his trade union activities.

Yannick Etienne, of the Haitian workers' organisation Batay Ouvriye which fights for better rights and conditions for employees in several sectors of the economy including in the garment assembly plants where employers ruthlessly crush organising efforts.

Gloria Manzilla, a former leader of the Colombian public sector workers trade union FENALTRASE who was forced to flee Colombia after her husband, also a union activist, was assassinated by a State-sponsored death squad.

Domingo Perez, General Secretary of UNE, the Nicaraguan Public Sector Workers Union.

Event: 'The Flaw' - Exclusive Preview Screening

12.45pm: Tregonwell Bar (lunch provided)

Think the economic crisis was caused by too much public spending? Think again. This powerful documentary, to be shown in cinemas later this year, reveals the real roots of the credit crunch and global recession: economic inequality, low pay, and lack of affordable housing. The filmmakers will be present to take questions and talk about links with UNISON's Million Voices campaign. This is a world premiere with UNISON members being the first to see it

Friday, 18th June 2010

  • Defending professional registration cases - dealing with barring and fitness to practice cases
  • UNISON members - learning and organising: a Banner Theatre production
  • Demand Change!

Reveal full details

Event: Defending professional registration cases - dealing with barring and fitness to practice cases

12.45pm-1.45pm: Branksome Suite (sandwiches and refreshments provided)

And featuring an update on UNISON's campaigning with the ISA and Disclosure Scotland.

Regulation of workers who have close contact with children and vulnerable adults is intended to give protection to the "client", but is it rough justice for the wrongly accused worker?

The Protection of Vulnerable Groups Scheme in Scotland, and the Vetting & Barring Scheme in the rest of the UK pose real challenges to UNISON representatives struggling to ensure the rights of members. The meeting will hear about the issues that UNISON has been campaigning on, and the support we can give to members under investigation.

We will also be looking at the work of the PRRU (UNISON's new Professional Registration - Representation Unit) and the partnership working that is leading to growing success in Fitness to Practice casework.

Speakers: Gail Adams, UNISON Head of Nursing, John Freeman, Head of the PRRU

Event: UNISON members - learning and organising: a Banner Theatre production

12.45pm-1.45pm: Purbeck Lounge

A union learning funded project working with Banner Theatre which will include a 30 minute live performance of video interview material, film footage and live music and song to explore stories of UNISON members and demonstrate how the union has promoted life-long learning and the learning and organising agenda

Event: Demand Change!

12.45pm: Main Hall

A dvd in support of the campaign to call for the government to apply the 'Nordic Model' to tackle prostitution by decriminalising those who sell sex acts and supporting them to exit prostitution, whilst at the same time criminalising those who purchase sex acts.

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