Conference notes with concern the increasing numbers of looked after children in the UK. Since 2006 the number has increased by 13%, and continues to grow year on year. The reasons for children being looked after are complex, but they include abuse, neglect, parental substance abuse, disability and involvement in the youth justice system. Poverty, […]
Conference motions
Conference notes with concern that research published by the False Economy campaign in August 2011 showed that numerous support services for women were having their funding cut or withdrawn, according to data gathered from 265 Local Authorities in England. Services in other parts of the UK are similarly under threat. Research has demonstrated that there […]
Conference notes that the coalition government’s measures to reduce the deficit are steadily undermining the hard-won gains of women in the workplace and in society: 1)At least 65% of public sector workers are women – cuts in public sector jobs, wages and services will therefore impact on women more than men; 2)Women’s unemployment is now […]
Conference notes with dismay the resurgence of food banks across the UK. In September 2011 it was announced that jobcentres in England and Wales will refer people whose benefits have been delayed, or have been refused crisis loans, to charity-run food banks that will give them a food parcel containing basics such as tinned soup, […]
Conference agrees that violence against women is a crime. All women, regardless of their race or sexual orientation, have the right to live without fear and to be free from prejudice, discrimination and violence. Conference is therefore appalled that in countries across the world, “corrective” rape takes place, where women are raped as a way […]
Conference notes with concern that the proposed changes to public sector pension schemes and the state retirement age are disproportionately impacting on the lives of women. Women are already statistically more likely to have lower pensions, primarily due to time taken out of the workplace and part-time working to meet caring responsibilities, and low pay […]
Women’s Conference confirms UNISON’s backing of Campaign for Better Transport’s campaign ‘Save our Buses’. An increasing number of local authorities have looked to save money by reducing the number of socially necessary and school bus services they support because of cuts to government funding. Once again, as statistics show that women use buses far more […]
Conference notes that women rely disproportionately on state funded legal advice services for civil law cases (sixty two per cent of applications being made by women, especially in areas like education and law). Legal aid will be cut for welfare benefits, education and medical negligence advice and severely reduced for debt, unemployment, family law, housing […]
The budget cuts being imposed on the public sector is having a huge impact on women, two thirds of the public sector workforce is made up of women, who carry out a variety of roles. In some regions almost fifty per cent of the female population is employed in this sector. Those traditional job roles […]
This Conference is proud of the reputation that UNISON has on International work. In the Greater London Region, the Regional Women’s Committee (RWC) has been developing links with the Nicaraguan Communal Movement (NCM), through the Nicaraguan Solidarity Campaign, and in 2010 co sponsored the development of a social project for the improvement in living conditions […]
In the year 2000, at the Millennium Summit, one hundred and eighty nine members’ of states of the United Nations declared that they would spare no effort to achieve a set of eight goals aimed at raising the level of development, health and prosperity of the globe by the end of the year of 2015. […]
Mary Seacole was born Mary Jane Grant in 1805 to a free black Jamaican woman. Her mother ran a boarding house for British soldiers and sailors in the capital city, Kingston. Her mother was known as a “doctoress” and passed on much of her knowledge of healing, using the arts of Creole medicine. In 1836 […]
As the economic vice bites deeper and the whole world struggles to maintain status quo on everything from stability in the stock markets to coping with the effect of massive unemployment, there will always be a type of entrepreneur to exploit natural resources and turn a profit. These people pride themselves in supplying a rare […]
Delete 2.2 No delegate shall serve on standing orders committee for more than three consecutive years. Replace with: 2.2 No delegate shall serve on standing orders committee for more than four consecutive years.
Conference knows the history of the struggle that women have fought for the right to equality for all aspects of our lives. From the days of the Suffragettes and the Women’s Social and Political Union women have fought for rights to education, equal pay, decent childcare, maternity and parental leave, health care, equal rights for […]