General Election

“This Energy conference notes that following the closing date for motion submissions a general election was called for the 8th June. Subsequently political parties have during the hustings and manifesto launches made numerous comments about the failings in the energy market and the need to directly intervene to protect consumers or bring elements of the […]

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 […]

Workplace domestic abuse policies

Conference notes that following on from a women’s conference decision in 1998, a model domestic abuse workplace policy and accompanying guidance were produced. It is the intention that all UNISON workplaces have such a policy in existence, and many have been negotiated in the public sector. However, they are still not commonplace in the private […]

Supporting our Supporters

As the Energy Industry has changed from the “glory’’ days of privatisation to the very complicated structures we now have to organise within so too has the range of problems affecting our members and representatives. The Energy Sector has faced major changes including the splitting off of the distribution businesses, company mergers, business diversification, the […]

Call Centre Charter – how far have we come?

Conference notes the increasing numbers of our energy members working in call centres. Call centres can leave workers chained to their workstations under extreme pressure to provide faster responses to more and more callers. Conference welcomes UNISON’s Call Centre Charter, launched in 2012, to seek to establish a decency agenda for these members, allowing them […]

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 […]

Activist Learning and Development within Energy

Many lay activists have benefited over the years from specific utility linked training courses supported by UNISON’s learning and Organising team. The most well known is the Negotiating Skills course for workers in a Utility setting. We have also had the opportunity in the past two years to do a specific pay bargaining course for […]

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 […]