Housing

Conference congratulates members in Barnet UNISON on their successful campaign to protect the jobs of sheltered wardens and welcomes the decision of Slough and Hillingdon councils to bring their ALMOs back in house. Conference is alarmed at the emergence of proposals for stock transfer in Northern Ireland, the proposals by some councils with ALMOs to […]

Love Your Libraries

This Service Group welcomes the Love Your Libraries campaign launched by UNISON in February. Library services make an essential contribution to local communities and educational achievement. However the service has suffered years of funding cuts and the threat of closures is growing. Despite the pressures, many libraries are developing innovative and imaginative ways of serving […]

“Easy Council” No Frills Public Services?

Conference notes: The recent policy by the Government to encourage Local Authorities to be the lead in commissioning all public services (“place shaping”) in a local area. This is in the context of all the major parties approving the privatisation of public services and the ongoing economic crisis with calls from all the major parties […]

Local Government Service Cuts

Conference notes our own NJC campaign for better services and better jobs; that public spending is coming under further attack; and local government is bearing the brunt of these attacks. The union needs to mobilise to defend our members’ jobs and to protect services vital to our communities. Conference also notes the Public Works Campaign […]

DOMESTIC ABUSE

Conference welcomes the support of the National Women’s Committee in addressing the issue of domestic abuse but there is further work to be done. This Conference calls on the National Women’s Committee to work with Regional Women’s Committees, the NEC and Service Groups to re-focus on the failure of many employers to develop workplace policies […]

BLACK WOMEN AND BREAST CANCER

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the UK. More than 45,500 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year and the disease causes almost 12,000 deaths each year. Eight in ten cases of breast cancer are diagnosed in women over the age of 50. Black and Asian women are significantly more […]

DOMESTIC ABUSE TRAINING

This conference believes that domestic abuse training should become statutory in public sector organisations such as the Police, NHS, Local Government and Social Services and should become part of the workforce strategy. On average every week two women are killed in England and Wales by their partners or ex partners (Crime in England and Wales […]

MARY SEACOLE – TURN HER INTO STONE

In June 2009 a proposal to raise public funding to erect a monument to this positive black female pioneer and her significant achievements was aired on national television. The ambition to erect a statue of her “going forth”, to be sited in St Thomas’ Hospital grounds on the lawn opposite the Houses of Parliament, was […]

AUNG SAN SUU KYI – THE ELECTED BUT IMPRISONED LEADER OF BURMA

Conference, hear the words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, speaking about Aung San Suu Kyi. “I think of my sister Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi every day. Her picture hangs on the wall of my office, reminding me that, thousands of miles away in Asia, a nation is oppressed. Every day I ask myself: have […]

REGIONAL RAPE CONVICTION RATES – IT’S A POSTCODE LOTTERY

Conference, every thirty four minutes a crime of rape is reported to the police. For every rape reported, many more are not reported. One in four local authorities has no specialised support services to help the victims of rape. Conference notes with dismay the Fawcett Society statement that there is a growing gap in rape […]

JOB SHARE CONSEQUENCES

The role of job sharing a post in an employer’s organisation or at Branch or Regional committee seems to work well for women and in the case of UNISON seems to be an effective tool to engage women from various Service Groups to become first interested then active lay members. It seems to fall down […]

WOMEN AND CYCLING

In early 2009 SUSTRANS (sustainable transport Charity) commissioned a survey of one thousand women to better understand why women only travel by bike for less than one per cent of journeys in the UK compared to fifteen per cent of journeys in the Netherlands. SUSTRANS found that while many women have access to a bike […]

BUYING SEX IS NOT A SPORT

Buying Sex Is Not a Sport is a grassroots campaign to raise awareness and effect change around sex trafficking and prostitution and the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic games. As the demand for prostitution has historically increased around major sporting events, those concerned with the sexual exploitation of women and girls have already begun working and […]

THE PERSONALISATION AGENDA

Conference notes that the introduction of direct payments, along with pilots of Individual budgets, have the potential to increase choice and control for disabled and older women over the services they receive. However, we are concerned that there are insufficient safeguards to protect disabled women who choose to employ their own personal assistants as well […]

FREE SANITARY PRODUCTS FOR WOMEN ON LOW PAY, THE MINIMUM WAGE, OR IN RECEIPT OF BENEFITS

Sanitary protection is not a luxury for women but is a necessity. There may be more than one woman in a family and this is a drain on already stretched financial resources at a time when the cost of living continues to rise. Sanitary protection products maybe something that are cut back on at this […]