UNISON president Eleanor Smith told the national disabled members’ conference today how, as a maternity nurse, she saw the impact of the government’s cuts programme on disability.
Neo-natal issues can lead to illnesses such as cerebral palsy she said, and all of this was being made worse by Tory cuts.
She spoke of how disabled workers joining an occupational pension scheme were threatened by the government proposals on pensions.
Disabled members may have to retire early – meaning they will have less years in accrual, they may require reduced working hours and they may have to take disability related breaks.
All this adds to the urgency of the pensions campaign.
And, urging delegates “to keep the pressure on and do all we can to make 30 November a massive success,” she told conference: “I cannot tell you how proud I am to be president of the union at this time … a time when teaching assistants, nurses, paramedics, cleaners and lollipop ladies are prepared to stand up and say enough is enough.”
She asked delegates to support her presidential charity, the Afro Caribbean Leukemia Trust, which aims to improve an area where “insufficient healthcare systems offer inadequate care to hundreds of thousands of Afro Caribbean people.
“Afro Caribbean people have a one in 100,000 chance of bone marrow match. ACLT aims to improve those chances.”