On a busy afternoon, UNISON’s local government conference debated a wide range of subjects.
Moving a motion on contractual rights, John McLaughlin for the executive, cited how senior managers seem to be able to have their contracts honored, even when they have failed in their job.
Yet he pointed out that, for the likes of ordinary UNISON members, honoring contracts is a myth, with employers able to rip up a contract and replace it with another, worse one.
The motion called “upon a future Labour government to reverse the hostile anti-trade union and worker measures” that it has put in place. and improve contractual rights of ordinary working people.
On the question of combined authorities, Glen Williams for the executive described them as “a way of playing the game”.
He said that there were “serious potential pitfalls” to combined authorities – not least in terms of a potential threat to terms and conditions – but pledged that the executive would provide help to branches on the issue.
And Roger Bannister from Knowsley stressed the need to have “across-the-region” approaches to dealing with prospective combined authorities.
Delegates called on the executive to liaise and work with other service groups in the regions that are potentially affected by the creation of combined authorities “to ensure that all citizenship issues are addressed”.
