Rule I Disciplinary Action

Rule I 8.4 Add new point 8.4 “censure of the member;” and renumber current rules accordingly.

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 […]

Rule G Branch Organisation

Insert new rule G 1.3: “Each branch shall submit to the Regional Secretary current branch email and postal addresses for communications with the Union.”

Rule G Branch Officers

Insert new Rule G 4.1.6: “A member shall hold only one of the branch secretary or branch treasurer posts at any one time, unless otherwise determined by the National Executive Council.”

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 […]

Sure Start

Conference notes the disproportionate effects the cuts on public services will have on women, in particular cuts to Sure Start. Users of the services are almost exclusively women as are the staff employed. Sure Start provides vital services such as Early Years play and development, family bonding, speech and language and family support services to […]

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 […]

Improvements to the State Pension

Conference is concerned at the ever-increasing discrepancy between the basic state pension and the poverty threshold. In 2009 the National Pensioners’ Convention’s figures state that the poverty threshold is £165 pw whilst the basic state pension is £97.25 pw, a discrepancy of £65.75 pw. Much of the blame for this can be laid at the […]

Pensions

The government has formed an independent Public Service Pensions Commission to undertake a fundamental structural review of public service pension provision by Budget 2011. We believe that the fact that private sector pensions are inadequate does not mean that public sector pensions should be. This action if taken will have a detrimental effect on Black […]

Organising The Union

Conference recognises the long term decline in numbers of trade union membership in the UK since 1979 from 13 million to 6.6 million members today. We note that this decline is reflected across many European and North American countries including Germany, France, Spain, Italy, USA and Canada. We also note that the average age of […]

Equality in Marriage and Civil Partnerships

Conference welcomes the progress in equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people under the last Labour government. Notable achievements include the introduction of civil partnership for same sex couples and the Gender Recognition Act, which gives trans people the opportunity to gain legal recognition of their acquired gender. Conference notes that in the […]

Keeping Public Sector Services Public, the challenges presented by Mutual and Social Enterprise Organisation

Mutual and Social Enterprises will figure large in the efforts of the Con Dem government to redesign the delivery of public sector services. In order to address the many challenges that this will present to our union and members this union needs to prepare against them and consult widely in order to have a coherent […]

Campaigning Against the Tory Led Government

Conference condemns the Tory led Government’s savage and ideological attack on working people and the institutions and services upon which they rely. In addition to the deepest and most sustained cuts to public spending in living memory, we are also witnessing wholesale attempts to dismantle the welfare state and to undermine the concept of collective […]

The Coalition Government Attacks on Public Services and the Trade Union Response

Conference condemns the Coalition government’s concerted attacks on public services and the welfare state. These attacks are driven by political ideology, not economics – a continuation of the Thatcher/Major government commitment to free market economics which cynically exploits and exaggerates the effects of the economic downturn to roll back the welfare state and open up […]