Conference backs range of measures to build on general election result

Wide range of measures proposed will help further develop the campaigning work that helped to produce the general election result

After an inspiring speech from Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, UNISON’s national delegate conference this morning backed a wide-ranging emergency motion on building on the work that brought about the general election result.

Sporting a Celtic shirt for her last conference contribution, Jane Carolan for the national executive council said that Mr Corbyn had nearly proved himself an invincible, just like her football team.

The media had predicted that his Labour Party would ship “loads of goals,” but teamwork had almost sunk “the Maybot.”

And Ms Carolan went on to say that the Labour gains were down to the party having a “socialist manifesto. A manifesto this union played its part in. Labour for the many, not the few.”

A speaker from Bolton West stressed that the “battle isn’t over – the Tories are clinging on; trying to cling on with the DUP”, but Patrick Gannon from Manchester noted that “there are a million of us and we have Jeremy’s back.”

Among a raft of measures, delegates called on the NEC to:

  • campaign with Labour, through Labour Link, on nationalisation and anti-privatisation;
  • use the hung parliament to campaign for fair funding for public services through progressive taxation and a Robin Hood tax.;
  • call for, and plan, a joint trade union/TUC national demonstration in support of policies outlined in the Labour manifesto;
  • continue to promote the union’s Public Service Champions campaign to highlight the importance of our public services and those who work in them, and the threats to those services.