Conference notes that even before the pandemic mental health and stress at work were among the leading issues raised by young workers. Conference notes that the pandemic has only exacerbated young workers’ concerns about mental health, whether that is due to working in stressful conditions on the front line, or due to isolation from friends, […]
Conference motions
Next year, in 2023, UNISON will celebrate 30 years as a trade union. At its creation, UNISON became a union with the majority of its members being women and from the start put rules in place to ensure proportionality. Delegates to UNISON conferences and committees across all its structures ensure that two-thirds of those nominated […]
Conference notes with alarm and shock the report from the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), into the abhorrent and discriminatory workplace culture at Charing Cross Police Station that was published on 1 February 2022. The report identified the exchange of hateful and offensive messages between a group of 19 police officers. Numerous messages were […]
Despite efforts to eradicate misogyny, discrimination, bullying, sexism, aggression and intimidation in our workplaces, society and in our union, we still have a long way to go. If we are to achieve a truly equal society, we must consider what more needs to be done within our own movement. UNISON with over one million women […]
Conference notes with extreme concern the decisions taken by UNISON National Executive Council to change UNISON rules without National Delegate Conference approval as set out in the Rule Book. While the National Executive Council has power to interpret rules, the power to change them is vested solely in the National Delegate Conference, the supreme democratic […]
Conference notes with grave concern the impact of the 2016 Trade Union Act on our union’s ability to take large scale industrial action in support of legitimate trade disputes. The main lesson of the first five years of this restrictive legislation is that, repeatedly, national industrial action ballots are returning high majorities in support of […]
D 2.9 Renumber existing Rule D 2.9 as D 2.9.1 and add a new rule as D 2.9.2: “D 2.9.2 The election of chairs and vice-chairs of the committees shall occur in accordance with the union’s commitment to fair representation as set out in Rule D 2.14.3 and in particular the proportion of posts held […]
Westminster’s First Past the Post (FPTP) voting system has created a toxic environment by repeatedly returning extreme governments against the wishes of most voters. In 19 of the last 20 general elections parties to the left of the Conservatives won the popular vote, yet the Tories have governed for two-thirds of that time. This has […]
Our Women members are our greatest asset. Conference welcomes the election of Christina McAnea as the first woman General Secretary of a major trade union. Representing more than a million women working across the range of public services, UNISON with its commitment to lay democracy and proportionality and fair representation enshrined within our rule book […]
Conference notes that we are in a worsening cost of living crisis with inflation at the highest rate for 30 years and a record increase in household energy bills. according to Office of National Statistics data, inflation using the government’s preferred measure of the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 5.4 percent in the 12 […]
Conference notes that the Covid-19 pandemic has drawn attention to a previously hidden problem in this country. The shocking lack of support many workers get when they are sick. These issues are well known to UNISON members who work for a variety of different private contractors in our public services. The Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) […]
Conference opposes this government’s continued attacks on public sector pensions, the latest of which comes in the form of the recent consultation “Local Government Pension Scheme: Changes to the Local Valuation Cycle and the Management of Employer Risk” launched in May 2019, from the Ministry of Housing, Local Government and Communities. These changes, if implemented, […]
Insert a new rule after D 6.2.4: “D 6.2.5 The National Young Members Forum may establish a national conference of young members from branch and regional groups.”
Conference notes that at the time of writing, the UK is still set to leave the EU on 29 March but that the terms of its exit and whether it will exit at all remains very unclear. Conference believes that regardless of whether the UK has left the EU on 29 March under the terms […]
Facility time is a fundamental right of trade unionists in the workplace. It ensures we support our members at disciplinaries, and that policies of the organisation’s our members work for are scrutinised and negotiated effectively. UNISON already provides brilliant resources for our branches such as the ‘Facility Time, Guidance for branches’ document most recently revised […]