Support ‘The Total Eclipse of the S_N’ Campaign

Conference notes and deplores the racist comments made in April by Sun columnist Kelvin McKenzie about Everton FC midfielder Ross Barkley. Further comments made in the same column were derogatory about the City and people of Liverpool. These comments were made just days before the 28th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster. Conference notes the appalling […]

Working globally for LGBT rights

Conference celebrates our union’s rich history of international work and recognises that the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) group has incorporated this into its own work. UNISON continues to raise LGBT issues in the different international forums in which we work and raise trade unionism in all LGBT forums in which we engage. Conference […]

Activity-Based Budgeting

Conference welcomes Motion 121 passed at National Delegate Conference 2016. It notes that Motion 121 was intended to introduce a new process of activity-based budgeting, which would meet branch needs by facilitating funding for the activity required for branches to be successful in meeting the union’s objectives. Motion 121 acknowledged the vital role branches play […]

Media Portrayal of Older People

Conference notes with concern the negative and profoundly damaging images of older people, both as individuals and collectively, that are continually and consistently put out by the mass media in Britain. This includes portrayal of the age group as having access to large pensions, doing little that is worthwhile and at the same time being […]

Social care is now beyond a crisis.

This service group conference notes with alarm the continuing and deteriorating crisis of social care underfunding that makes it hard for local authorities and provider organisations to ensure decent jobs and quality services. This service group conference supports the provisions of UNISON’s ethical and residential care charters. The charters provide a set of minimum standards […]

Funding for health and social care integration

This conference recognises that buried under the jargon of Sustainability and Transformation Plans, Local Care Organisations, Place-Based Plans and Geographic Footprints there may be potential opportunities for improvements in services by removing artificial barriers between health services provided by the NHS and social care services provided by local government. However, as is all too common […]

Inclusive equality policies in local government

This conference is proud that our predecessor local government unions were the first to place lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality on the bargaining agenda, starting with a 1976 NALGO conference decision to include sexual orientation in non-discrimination clauses in all collective agreements. This has developed over the decades, been taken up by other […]

The LGBT impact of cuts to local government services

Conference notes that cuts to local government services are biting ever deeper. With the current Tory Westminster government’s economic policies, there are no signs of any relief. This impacts negatively on our members providing those services in innumerable ways. It includes job losses, increasing severity and complexity of service user needs, and reduced pay and […]

Crisis in social care – call for a special conference

This local government service group conference calls upon the NEC to organise a special one-day delegate conference on the crisis in social care as a major step towards developing a union-wide organising and publicity campaign in defence of publicly owned and democratically controlled, good quality social care and social work services. This conference believes that […]

UNISON and the WASPI campaign

Conference is aware that in recent years governments have increased the state pension for all women born on or after 6 April 1951. The Conservative government’s Pension Act (1995) included the provision to raise the pension age of women from 60 to 65, in line with men’s retirement age. The subsequent Pension Act (2011) implemented […]

Schools Funding and Facility Time Arrangements

Conference recognises the importance of recruiting and organising support staff in schools as part of our campaign against the government’s 8% cuts to school funding by 2020 (as predicted by the National Audit Office) . These cuts are already hitting a wide range of staff particularly in academy schools and will also hit the quality […]

NJC pay claim and campaign 2018 onwards

Conference welcomes the National Joint Council (NJC) committee’s decision to lodge the 2018 pay claim early so our pay aspirations are clear to the Local Government Association (LGA) during the negotiations on the review of the NJC/GLPC pay spines. Conference condemns the UK government’s continuing refusal to give public service workers, and particularly local government […]

Facility time

This Conference notes that motions on cuts to facility time have been debated and passed at Local Government Conference in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. This Conference notes that the motion passed in 2013 called for the development of “…practical and immediate support measures for branches facing cuts to facility time”. This Conference notes that […]

Child marriage is child labour

Conference notes that in September 2016 the International Labour Organisation (ILO) launched the Alliance 8.7, an initiative which will bring together all interested parties to join forces in achieving UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development target 8.7, aiming at a world without forced labour, modern slavery, human trafficking and child labour. Conference welcomes the initiative, […]

Immigration and the effects of the EU Referendum and the Brexit Vote

The EU Referendum on 23 June 2016 and the decision of the United Kingdom (UK) to leave the European Union sent shock waves through communities with the immigration debate becoming ever more toxic. The campaign itself resulted in unacceptable language and propaganda being used about immigration generating fear, division and a ‘them and us’ rhetoric. […]