National media team
These numbers are for media use only, not for queries about membership or general enquiries about the union. If you email outside office hours, please do follow up with a call, text or WhatsApp message so you can be sure that we’ve seen.
Liz Chinchen E: press@unison.co.uk M: 07778 158175
Fatima Ayad E: f.ayad@unison.co.uk M: 07508 080383
Anthony Barnes E: a.barnes@unison.co.uk M: 07834 864794
UNISON has welcomed a decision to ditch plans that would have allowed police and intelligence agencies to spy on unions. Trade union activity will now be exempt from police interception warrants after an amendment was accepted to the Investigatory Powers Bill. There had been concerns that phone records and emails of union officials could have […]
UNISON’s legal team has won the inaugural Solicitors Journal award for employment team of the year, against stiff competition
Huge drop in the number of NHS students if the NHS bursary is scrapped, will mean even fewer qualified new recruits from 2020 – causing trusts to spend more on agency staff or overseas recruitment to make up the inevitable shortfall in numbers
Commenting on Michael Gove’s comments about the NHS, UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis said: “No-one should be taken in by this latest bout of NHS scaremongering from the Brexit brigade. “Nurses, health visitors, midwives and other health workers who have come to work in the NHS from across the EU have thrown a lifeline to […]
Commenting on new figures showing a deficit of £2.45bn in NHS finances, UNISON head of health Christina McAnea said: “This is yet another set of damaging figures that show the NHS is under unprecedented financial pressure. “Patients are suffering as already scarce resources dwindle further still. Targets for A&E admissions, waiting times, and cancer diagnosis […]
Commenting on the Queen’s Speech, UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis said: “Today the government has announced another set of plans that fail to tackle the real problems Britain faces. “Ministers are keen to sell today’s plans as a wide-ranging set of social reforms, but what the proposals lack is a real plan to rebuild Britain […]
UNISON has today (Monday) informed the East of England Ambulance Service that it is to ballot frontline ambulance staff over possible strike action concerning managers’ failure to tackle the problem of excessive working hours and lack of sufficient breaks. In December 2015, 2,995 shifts finished over an hour later than planned, and in January 2016 this rose […]
Young people are being encouraged to vote remain on 23 June to safeguard the rights of millions of workers – and their own futures. UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis today (Friday) called on the 64,000 young workers represented by the union – including nurses and teaching assistants – to turn out at the polls. Speaking […]
Commenting on the launch of the Vote Leave battle bus today (Wednesday), UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis said: “No one should be fooled for one minute by the dubious claims branded along the side of the Boris battle bus that the NHS could be a Brexit winner. “If Boris Johnson really cared about standing up […]
The government has failed to listen to more than 70,000 signatories to a UNISON-backed parliamentary petition calling for it to be written into UK law that it is up to council pension funds to decide where they invest their cash, says UNISON today (Wednesday). The petition on the parliamentary website urges the government to amend […]
Commenting on the news today (Friday) that the government has abandoned its plans to force all maintained schools still linked to local authorities to become academies, UNISON head of education Jon Richards said: “It’s reassuring that ministers have listened to the many arguments put to them and decided against pursing their ill-thought-out plans to force […]
Commenting on the decision today (Thursday) by the Academies Transformation Trust (ATT) to announce jobs cuts and a major restructuring across its secondary and primary schools in the East and West Midlands, and the East of England, UNISON head of education Jon Richards said: “This decision has come as a bolt from the blue, and […]
More than half (52%) of school support staff across the UK have experienced stress, anxiety or depression as they struggle to cope with their workloads, according to a new survey published today (Tuesday) by UNISON. Two-fifths (41.5%) of those who took part in the survey said they had difficulty in completing their work, and more […]
Fatal accident involving ambulance staff in North Wales has ‘devastated’ colleagues
