Social Care Workforce

Conference notes with concern that community, health and local government social workers have long been vilified in the media when things go wrong. Individual social workers have seen their careers destroyed when they have been held to account for the failures of the employer to fund the service properly. Portrayal of social workers in television […]

Fair representation for Disabled Members in UNISON

Conference is concerned about the level of discrimination currently faced by disabled people. Cuts to public services, welfare reform, changes to health and social care, reductions in disabled students allowances and bedroom tax have all targeted disabled people. To fight this campaign against disabled people, disabled people need to be politically and societally active. We […]

Challenging Growing Inequality

For the past 30 years the economic philosophy has been that wealth would ‘trickle down’ to working people, and it has also been argued that austerity was necessary to build a future for subsequent generations and lift living standards. The reality has been that ordinary people have not seen the quality jobs and higher living […]

Tackling vulnerable employment and casualisation

Conference is deeply concerned that job insecurity, in-work poverty and workplace exploitation have become the hallmarks of the so-called economic recovery in the UK. While the growth of zero hours contracts has rightly attracted the public’s attention, they are only the tip of the ice berg. The proliferation of short hour contracts, false-self employment and […]

Meeting the training needs of UNISON activists in challenging times

The challenges facing the trade union movement in relation to developing and training activists have rarely been as difficult as they are now, yet the need to ensure our representatives are confident and skilled is greater than ever. Last year the coalition government announced that full funding for trade union education at level 3 and […]

Campaigning for our public services and those that provide them

Conference notes the decisive role that UNISON must continue to play in campaigning for effective public services that embody the values of a good society – care and compassion, dignity and respect, fairness and equal treatment, accountability and the public good. Conference further notes that the context in which we must campaign is characterised by […]

Domestic violence, a gendered issue

Conference notes that research from the home office has shown that nearly 90% of severe and repeated domestic violence is experienced by women. The Home Office report on domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking (findings from the British Crime Survey) reported that “women are the overwhelming majority of the most heavily abused group. Among people […]

Equality Facility Time

At the Discrimination Law Conference in January 2014 Professor Sir Bob Hepple QC said that “if a new government enacts only one new piece of equality legislation it should be to require equality representatives at workplaces” – such representatives would require a legal right to time off to “be involved in drawing up and enforcing […]

Care of older people

Conference supports integrating health and social care services providing the principal aim of doing so is to improve the quality of services particularly for older people. Conference believes that services can only be successfully integrated if social care is made, like health, free at the point of need. Conference therefore welcomes: 1)The Labour Party’s policy […]

Solidarity with Palestine

Conference hopes that a lasting ceasefire between the Israeli Government and Palestinian Organisations can be established, but recognises that this will not happen or be sufficient unless the illegal siege and occupation are ended. UNISON welcomes Palestinian attempts to establish a unity government and urges the UK Government and the EU to support and encourage […]

Black Well Being

Conference austerity is having a severe and negative effect not just on the pocket but also on the health and well being of UK citizens, especially Black people within their communities. With research showing an increase in job losses for Black members through reorganisations and restructures and some of these situations leading to an increase […]

ENCOURAGING DIVERSITY IN WOMEN’S COMMITTEE’S – BLACK WOMEN

In UNISON more than 70% of our total membership are women. UNISON is committed to fair representation and proportionality (Rule D4.1). However, we know in the public sector where many of our members are Black Women we see very few represented at Branch, Regional and Committee level; despite statistics nationally telling us that Black people […]

CONSOLIDATING ANTI-RACISM WORK WITHIN THE UNION

UNISON’s long-standing campaigns on equality, human rights and anti-racism make us an attractive and welcoming union for Black members and for migrant workers. As a result we have a large and growing Black and migrant workers membership and strong self organised groups for Black members. However, racism remains ever present in society. In Northern Ireland, […]

BLACK PEOPLE AND MENTAL HEALTH

Physical and mental well-being cannot be taken for granted, especially in today’s climate of an ever increasing workload, job cuts, austerity measures in services and service providers, the threat of redundancy and the pressure for some securing and sustaining employment, workplace stress, are some of the factors many people are now trying to deal with. […]