- Conference
- 2024 Police, Probation and CAFCASS Conference
- Date
- 13 June 2024
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
West Midlands Region Motion to Police and Justice Conference 2024
Continuing the Legacy of UNISON’s ‘Year of’ Celebrations within the Police and Justice Service Group
UNISON has a proud tradition of helping workers to fight for fairness and equality in the workplace and wider society. This tradition has been reinforced by UNISON’s decision to dedicate a year each between 2022 and 2024 to the celebration of Disabled Workers, Black Workers and LGBT+ Workers. There is more to our union than providing a representative for a member’s Grievance or Disciplinary hearing, and UNISON’s ‘Years of’ have underlined this by recognising the work of our members who are Disabled, Black and LGBT+ as well as the struggles these workers face, and the fight is still not won.
The mantra we often use when it comes to growing our union is that ‘like recruits like’. If you can see someone you identify with represented in an organisation’s structures, then you are more likely to want to be an active part of that organisation. For many of our members, attending Self-Organised Group meetings or Conferences are a pathway into union activism. One of our regional Service Group Committee members has described how she chose to become a Branch Officer after her experience of attending Black Members’ Conference because at that Conference she heard speakers who ‘look like me, sound like me and cry like me.’
To secure a legacy from its ‘Year of’ work, UNISON must continue to highlight, promote and support this aspect of the union’s work. This motion calls upon the Service Group Executive to
• Work with a focus on both intersectionality within the Service Group and the issues which members with Protected Characteristics face at work and in wider society.
• Use the data gathered at SOG conferences to identify the levels of attendance of delegates from the Police and Justice Sector and use this along with surveys of branches to understand what barriers might be preventing attendance at SOG meetings and Conferences.
• Promote the work and membership of Self-Organised Groups to the Service Group. This is to ensure that Police and Justice Service Group activists are represented in and encouraged to be active within Branch, Regional and National Self-Organised Group structures.