Our NHS Our Future

Conference condemns the government’s white paper for the NHS in England, “Equity and Excellence – Liberating the NHS”, which amounts to the largest upheaval in the 62-year history of the NHS, and the funding cuts to the NHS that are affecting services across the UK. Conference asserts that the government has no mandate for such […]

Supporting members in the private and community sectors

Conference notes with concern the growing number of staff and UNISON members transferring to the private and community sections, and acknowledges the problems faced by branches in working with members and employers in these areas. Conference recognises that UNISON must commit to organise within outsourced sections as they grow in prominence for public service delivery. […]

Defending Our Right to Industrial Action

Conference recognises and applauds the many successful and momentous campaigns of industrial action that trade unions have staged over the last thirty years. Campaigns that have succeeded despite an increasingly severe legal framework intended to stifle the ability of workers to withdraw their labour in support of a legitimate trade dispute. Conference acknowledges that taking […]

Cuts to Benefits and Welfare

Conference notes that the Conservative led government seems determined to embark on wholesale attempts to dismantle the welfare and benefits system. These deep and rapid cuts to benefits weren’t in any election manifestos. And now, nearly a year in, there are few people left who don’t know that these cuts are unfair and will hit […]

Abolition of the Two Tier Code

Conference deplores the Tory approach to procurement, and further outsourcing of public services. Conference further condemns the government’s abolition of the central government two tier code that protected contracted out workers from employers wanting to force down their terms and conditions and is concerned that it will be removed in other parts of government where […]

Organising

Conference congratulates branches and regions that have ensured that UNISON continues to meet the challenge of recruiting and organising new members in what is an increasingly hostile environment. The onslaught against public services and the dedicated workers who deliver them by this Conservative led government means that building and sustaining strong workplace organisation must be […]

The International Campaign Against Public Service Cuts

The Conservative government, with the support of the Liberal Democrats, is attacking our public services. UNISON faces many challenges in defending these services and those who work hard to deliver them. Our union’s record of international solidarity can strengthen UNISON’s response. Across the European Union national governments and the European Commission are pursuing policies aimed […]

Education

Conference notes that education has been at the forefront of the Conservative-led Coalition’s attempts to re-shape the UK and the education and childrens services of England. The common thread is one of disempowering and cutting democratic public authorities and encouraging the growth of private education providers and markets. These developments in turn put pressures on […]

Opposing the Far Right

Conference notes the ongoing threat from the far right and that across Europe far right political parties exploit the impact of austerity measures and continue to gain support. In parts of Britain Muslims are effectively under siege, already this year there have been arson and other attacks on mosques, firebombing of a Halal shop, and […]

Apprenticeships

UNISON supports the creation of properly-negotiated apprenticeship schemes which pay apprentices at the rate for the job, provide high quality training and which are not used as cheap labour to substitute for existing jobs. UNISON also believes that apprenticeship schemes should seek to tackle gender stereotyping, noting the 2010 TUC and YWCA England and Wales […]

Cops Off the Streets

Like all other public sector service groups, jobs of Police and Justice staff are under intense attack nationally and have been since this Tory/Lib Dem coalition showed their intention soon after being elected to shrink the public sector. We face a ‘double whammy’ in that not only are our frontline jobs being made redundant, we […]

Women and the cuts

Conference notes the attack on women that is being instituted by the Tory-led government. Their first budget showed a disproportionate effect on women which was highlighted by the Fawcett Society. We are all aware that the public sector is being made to pay the price of the excesses of the banking and finance sector. Even […]

Stop the Attacks on Local Government Services

Conference notes that the ConDem government has refused to reduce the national deficit by alternative methods e.g. increasing taxation levels on multi-nationals, the implementation of the ‘Robin Hood’ tax, and forcing tax-dodging billionaires to pay their taxes in the UK. The result has been a massive attack on Local Government Staff and the services they […]

Youth Services in Crisis

Conference is deeply concerned about the disproportionate level of cuts to youth provision in the statutory and voluntary sectors. The workforce is facing major redundancies and those workers who survive the cull are facing attacks on their pay and conditions. Losing the skills and expertise of youth and community workers made redundant will have a […]

Campaigning Against College Cuts

Conference is outraged by the savage funding cuts being inflicted on Further Education and Sixth Form colleges by the Tory led Government. Cuts that will both threaten large scale job loses in colleges and lead to increasing hardship and deprivation in the communities that our colleges serve. Conference notes that many of the colleges facing […]