Dental Inspection Charges

This Conference calls upon the National Retried Members’ Committee to strongly pursue and campaign to make available, for older people, free dental inspections; the same service as is currently available for eye examinations and publicise progress in UNISON publications on a regular basis.

Emergency Motion – Government Green Paper -A State pension for the 21st Century – implications for occupational pension schemes in the Water, Environment and Transport Service Group.

“Conference notes that the publication on 5 April 2011 of the Government Consultation Document – “A State pension for the 21st Century” will have significant implications for members of all occupational pension schemes in the Water, Environment and Transport Service Group. The increased National Insurance costs to employers and employees inherent in the Government’s proposals […]

Building Campaign Alliances Against Privatisation, Fragmentation and Cuts in the NHS

This Conference confirms UNISON’s total opposition to the ConDem Coalition’s White Paper – “Liberating the NHS”. If implemented, this would lead to the destruction of the NHS as we know it. The coalition government has no democratic mandate for its attacks on the NHS. It was not in any election manifesto and there has never […]

NHS Pay

Conference believes that the policies of the Coalition government pose the greatest threat to living standards of health workers of any time in the 63 years of the NHS. Whereas the Labour government recognised the value of national NHS pay, terms and conditions based upon equal value and fairness, the Coalition government is pursuing policies […]

Representing and Organising Health Members in the Private and Voluntary Sector

Conference notes with concern the growing number of NHS staff and UNISON members transferring to the private and voluntary sector under the Transforming Community Services programme, other NHS re-organisations, and the government’s agenda to shift to “any willing provider” for patient services. Lines of accountability will become increasingly blurred which will negatively impact on staff, […]

Hutton Report on NHS Pensions – Pay More, Work Longer, Get Less

Conference notes the withdrawal of motion 29 on pensions which means that there is nothing on Conference agenda to allow debate on crucial matters relating to NHS pensions. This motion highlights concerns around a number of the proposals in the Independent Public Service Pensions Commissions final report (the Hutton report) published on 10 March 2011. […]

National Blood Service

This conference is appalled at the news leaked on 17 February that the Department of Health is considering the privatisation of parts of the national blood and transplant service. If implemented, it would surely be the first step in the privatisation of the whole service. The blood and transplant service relies upon the millions of […]

Save Our Buses

Conference welcomes the launch on 1 February 2011of Campaign for Better Transport’s new campaign ‘Save our Buses’. The campaign has been initiated due to the increasing number of local authorities who are looking to save money by reducing the number of socially necessary and school bus services they support because of cuts to government funding. […]

Campaigning with the Community and Voluntary Sector to fight the cuts

Conference recognises that the first and most important job of every UNISON branch is to get out into workplaces and talk to our members about the cuts. Until we get our members on board we cannot expect to be leading any community based campaigning. Conference also recognises that our members are active in their own […]

Supporting members in the private and community sectors

Conference notes with concern the growing number of staff and UNISON members transferring to the private and community sections, and acknowledges the problems faced by branches in working with members and employers in these areas. Conference recognises that UNISON must commit to organise within outsourced sections as they grow in prominence for public service delivery. […]

Organising

UNISON and its members face unprecedented challenges with cuts in public sector spending and up to one million jobs directly under threat; wages frozen and reducing in value as inflation runs at 4% and above; pensions under threat and employers attacking terms and conditions. Branches and activists are under intense pressure responding to these attacks […]

Absence management – HIV and other disabilities

Conference notes employer duties to make reasonable adjustments in their management of disabled employees who are absent from work as a result of their disability. We call on Water Environment and Transport (WET) employers to take their responsibilities seriously, and to pay specific attention to employees living with HIV. Many WET employers are scared or […]

Tackling LGBT discrimination from water, environment and transport customers, colleagues and members of the public

Conference welcomes the 2010 Equality Act – one of the last Labour government’s final pieces of legislation. This provides a wide ranging basis for negotiating in our water, environment and transport (WET) workplaces. It places a duty on every employer, whether in the private or public sector, to protect their employees from discrimination from colleagues, […]

The Big Society – Nothing about us, without us, is for us

Conference calls on the National Executive Committee to build on its current campaign to expose, challenge and defeat Cameron’s twisted concept of the Big Society. The slogan “Nothing about us, without us, is for us” has been used by marginalised groups across the world who are excluded from making decisions which affect their daily lives. […]

Defending Our Right to Industrial Action

Conference recognises and applauds the many successful and momentous campaigns of industrial action that trade unions have staged over the last thirty years. Campaigns that have succeeded despite an increasingly severe legal framework intended to stifle the ability of workers to withdraw their labour in support of a legitimate trade dispute. Conference acknowledges that taking […]