- Conference
- 2004 National Black Members' Conference
- Date
- 30 October 2003
- Decision
- Carried
The recent revelation at the 2003 National Delegate Conference, that UNISON members had voted for the BNP and in effect had supported the election of BNP candidates into local authority seats has rocked the confidence of black members in this union.
In Yorkshire & Humberside we have tried to raise the issue of racism in UNISON via the conference process only to be defeated by the will of conference. However, in defeating our motions UNISON’s leadership has done very little to underpin or address the concerns of black members regarding the quality of anti- racist campaigning and representation services we are receiving from the union.
This left the Yorkshire & Humberside Regional Black Members Group (Y&HRBMG) with no option but to establish its own representation service for black members in the Region. We have successfully run this service for two years with the support of some branches who readily accept that they do not have the time or perhaps the empathetic skills or perhaps the confidence of black members to handle complaints of racism effectively.
Despite the success of the service and our use of the service to increase membership into UNISON of black members in the region; and the role of the Y&HRBMG in attempting to establish black members policies on facility time to support the work of the region – without proper valuing and resourcing of the work Y&HRBMG and an effective anti-racist campaigning strategy from the leadership of the union little of our work has received the recognition it deserves and opportunities have been missed to acknowledge that more needs to be done to ally the fears of black members in UNISON.
The Yorkshire & Humberside Regional Black Members’ Group is now faced with a situation where whole cadres of black members are now threatening to vote with their feet and boycott UNISON as their union of choice. In other areas of the Region we are finding black members amongst other members are being poached by rival trade unions on the pretext that other unions are more openly challenging the racist threats within their unions, in the establishment and within Labour Party policies.
This is a serious threat to the membership of black members in UNISON – a threat which was discussed with the Assistant General Secretary responsible for equalities, at a recent black members conference in Leeds on 21 October 2003.
It defeats the efforts of the Y&HRBMG and other regional black members’ groups in UNISON to have little strategic leadership on the serious issue of racism in UNISON and the lack of an effective anti-racist response to the rise of racist and right wing tendencies within and outside of UNISON. It is simply not enough to state that UNISON is reflective of society and therefore as institutionally racist as society. UNISON collects subscriptions from the largest group of organised black members in the country and Europe and as such, suggests a level of services and security for black members in return for those subscriptions.
Clearly, there is a disconnection between black members’ expectations of an anti-racist response and the role branches believe they should be expected to play in delivering this agenda. The lack of effective leadership on these issues serves only to entrench the concerns of black members.
It is also appreciated that branches are in ever developing difficult employment relation’s positions. That branches face acute difficulties in the face of the effects of creeping privatisation and its consequential effects of service transfers outside of the controls of local authorities and public interests.
However, the option to do nothing or delegate responsibility solely to branches is no longer a viable option. Black members are seriously questioning UNISON’s poor anti-racist stance as an employer and as a service provider.
Conference therefore instructs the National Black Members’ Committee to:
1) meet with the General Secretary and the President of UNISON to raise the concerns expressed in this motion at the highest level;
2) establish a joint National Executive Council/National Black Members’ Committee working party to develop a solution focussed and outcomes based plan aimed at addressing the concerns expressed in this motion;
3) bring forward any relevant rule change necessary to entrench this plan firmly in UNISON policy;
4) provide regular briefings about the progress of this matter in recognition that so serious is this issue that it will take longer than one conference cycle to address but no longer than two conference cycles to conclude and bring forward concrete plans.