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 […]
Conference motions
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. […]
Conference notes that the current scheme for funding branches was introduced in 2001. Since its introduction the National Executive Council has monitored the scheme and the effects of its operation, particularly in relation to the changing disparities in the reserves held by branches. Conference therefore calls on the National Executive Council to review the current […]
Rule I 8.4 Add new point 8.4 “censure of the member;” and renumber current rules accordingly.
Insert new rule G 1.3: “Each branch shall submit to the Regional Secretary current branch email and postal addresses for communications with the Union.”
Insert new Rule G 4.1.6: “A member shall hold only one of the branch secretary or branch treasurer posts at any one time, unless otherwise determined by the National Executive Council.”
Conference notes the disproportionate effects the cuts on public services will have on women, in particular cuts to Sure Start. Users of the services are almost exclusively women as are the staff employed. Sure Start provides vital services such as Early Years play and development, family bonding, speech and language and family support services to […]
Conference is concerned at the ever-increasing discrepancy between the basic state pension and the poverty threshold. In 2009 the National Pensioners’ Convention’s figures state that the poverty threshold is £165 pw whilst the basic state pension is £97.25 pw, a discrepancy of £65.75 pw. Much of the blame for this can be laid at the […]
The government has formed an independent Public Service Pensions Commission to undertake a fundamental structural review of public service pension provision by Budget 2011. We believe that the fact that private sector pensions are inadequate does not mean that public sector pensions should be. This action if taken will have a detrimental effect on Black […]
Conference recognises the long term decline in numbers of trade union membership in the UK since 1979 from 13 million to 6.6 million members today. We note that this decline is reflected across many European and North American countries including Germany, France, Spain, Italy, USA and Canada. We also note that the average age of […]
Conference welcomes the progress in equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people under the last Labour government. Notable achievements include the introduction of civil partnership for same sex couples and the Gender Recognition Act, which gives trans people the opportunity to gain legal recognition of their acquired gender. Conference notes that in the […]
Mutual and Social Enterprises will figure large in the efforts of the Con Dem government to redesign the delivery of public sector services. In order to address the many challenges that this will present to our union and members this union needs to prepare against them and consult widely in order to have a coherent […]
Conference notes that in 2011 the trade union movement is facing the biggest challenges for a generation in the form of budget cuts and restrictions on our ability to bargain and organise. Trade union membership is about six million workers and collective bargaining covers 35% of the labour force. Conference records with anger that the […]
Conference condemns the high levels of unemployment and that one in five young people are without work. Conference believes that the Con-Dem coalition government’s policies are actively contributing to this situation and are also ruining the employment prospects of our young people, and that the situation facing young people as they seek to find work […]