Conference believes the current immigration process leads to unfavourable treatment of Black workers who do not have full legal rights to reside in the UK. They face a large number of issues including: 1) Application Fees : The basic ILR (Indefinite leave to remain in UK – permanent stay) fee of £1875 per applicant is […]
Conference motions
Conference notes the continuing national housing crisis and the exponential rise in homelessness. Conference welcomes the introduction of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 which extends the previous 28 day period for ‘threatened homelessness’ to 56 days and makes clear that a valid Section 21 notice (Housing Act 1988) also constitutes being ‘threatened with homelessness’. For […]
In recent news it has reported that the number of unemployment has hit a record low. What these statistics do not report is that a large proportion of this is because of the increase in zero hours contracts. Employers have increasingly been turning to zero hours contracts as part of the general attack on staff […]
This National Black Members Conference notes that whilst Jeremy Corbyn and Labour did not win the General Election on 8 June 2017 they far exceeded expectation and substantially damaged Theresa May and the Tories ambitions of a Tory overall majority. Labour won 40 percent of the vote nationally. This was due to an inspiring manifesto, […]
The National Health Service (NHS) Blood donation and Transplant reported that Black people make up just 2.7 percent of active blood donors, despite representing 10.4 percent of England’s population. Blood donation is required from all communities and ethnic backgrounds to meet the needs of all patients in England and North Wales now and in the […]
Conference welcomes the work that has been done by UNISON thus far on hate crime. According to a report by the Equality and Human Rights commission called ‘Disabled people’s experiences of targeted violence and hostility’, Black disabled people are even more likely to be vulnerable to hate crimes. The report notes that ‘recognition of multiple […]
West Midlands Black Members Self Organised Group (WMBMSOG) would like the National Black Members Committee to raise awareness of United Families and Friends Campaign (UFFC). UFFC is a coalition of families who have experienced the deaths of loved ones by the State. Whether by the police, prison or psychiatric settings. (Clinics, Hospitals). The Lammy Review, […]
Dementia is not a disease in fact; it is a group of signs and symptoms. Some of the symptoms may include memory loss and difficulties with thinking, problem-solving or language and a person with dementia may also experience changes in their mood or behaviour. Dementia is caused when the brain is damaged by diseases, such […]
Conference acknowledges that equal pay is an issue that affect not only Black graduates and workers. However, Black graduates and workers are more disproportionately affected. Conference notes that once upon a time it was said that Black people are not in the top earners because of a lack of opportunity in education. Whilst some progress […]
Conference notes with alarm and concern the steady decrease in numbers of first-time applicants to university which has decreased by 5 percent for United Kingdom (UK) students and 7 percent for the EU students. These figures are particularly concerning when broken down by age group where we will find the number of 19-year-old applicants has […]
This conference is concerned that there is anecdotal evidence that: 1)Black workers do not receive equal secondment/training opportunities. 2)Black workers leave school not proportionally achieving the same as their counterparts. 3)Black workers do not climb the career ladder at the same speed as their white co-workers. 4)Black workers are not proportionality represented in the boardroom. […]
Conference notes that the fantastic general election campaign of Jeremy Corbyn had an electric effect on young people with an estimated two thirds of young people voting for Corbyn and a record turn out of young people of 64 percent. Conference also notes the report from Runneymede Trust analysing the election results that stated that […]
This conference notes the austerity agenda following the economic recession of 2007/8 has resulted in a massive attack on public services. The public sector has shrunk as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This has led to fewer workers delivering services in an often highly stressed situation. However, austerity for the richest 1,000 people […]
Conference, notes the damaging decline in numbers and workplace density as a result of job losses across various sector groups, disproportionately in local government where we have had a high concentration of Black member employment. This has reduced our effectiveness in the workplace, impact in collective bargaining negotiations and most importantly member engagement. However, despite […]
This Conference notes that UNISON’s equality survey 2017 saw 461 Black members who responded, which equals 4 percent of the total who participated. This Conference also notes that of those Black members, 50 percent said that their standard of living was worse than a year ago, compared with the overall survey which showed 43 percent […]