No one puts themselves or their families at the dangerous risk of crossing waters on a dinghy or pay criminals to seek escape to a safer haven if they are not desperate. The right for refugees to escape war and persecution and seek safety elsewhere is set out in the Refugee Convention of 1951, which […]
Conference motions
Conference, it seems incomprehensible that currently, Black workers would be suffering the indignity of having their names changed in the workplace to make it easier to pronounce and are often westernised in the process. Names represent deep personal, cultural, familial, and historical connections. Our name gives us a sense of who we are, the communities […]
Conference notes that to impose the changes needed to achieve promises of racial justice, equity and inclusion, organisations require all hands-on deck. Black workers continue to demand action against racial injustice and movement toward more equitable workplaces – ones where all employees belong, regardless of their racial or ethnic identities. To build a culture of […]
UNISON is a growing union, and we seek to recruit members from all backgrounds across thousands of workplaces, despite this many branches have found it difficult to recruit and engage with members from Black communities there are barriers both external and within UNISON that also impact on black participation. Some of the barriers include: 1)Black […]
Conference notes that everything is going up fast – 12% now but forecasts of upwards to 22%. However, the pay of many UNISON members has been effectively frozen for almost 12 years. We can’t make ends meet! We have a cost-of-living crisis because of the decisions made by political leaders and their friends running big […]
In section 9. Limit of speeches Delete 9.4 “If there has been no speaker against the motion, no questions asked about the motion and any amendments have been accepted by the mover of the motion then there is no right of reply as there is nothing to reply to.”
The Nationality and Border Act which became law in April 2022, opens the door for the Government to transfer its Refugee Convention responsibilities to another country for money estimated at £1.5 billion, by forcibly expelling asylum seekers to Rwanda, following Australian example, which has been condemned as cruel, inhuman, or degrading. Under the new five-year […]
Conference notes once again the ongoing and concerning lack of access to immigration advice and representation through UNISON legal services. Conference notes that for members faced with criminal proceedings, our legal support kicks in straightaway, but that when a migrant worker’s employment is threatened by an immigration issue, advice is limited to a phone helpline […]
Conference acknowledges that Black Migrants, including Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender plus (LGBT+) Asylum Seekers, face an unprecedented attack on their Human Rights. We saw on 14 June 2022, four asylum seekers were forced onto a plane in tears, some in shackles, waiting to be sent 4,000 miles from the United Kingdom (UK) – […]
Conference notes that for many years Ghana’s government has been extremely hostile to lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and plus (LGBT+) people. Currently same-sex sexual activity is prohibited under the Criminal Code 1960, which criminalises acts of ‘unnatural carnal knowledge’. This provision carries a maximum penalty of three years’ imprisonment. Only men are criminalised under this […]
Conference notes that UNISON members are under sustained and constant attack by the United Kingdom (UK) Government. From spiralling cost of living to services we rely on most disappearing, the UK Tory Government’s attacks on our members are leaving many to feel isolated and weary. There is only one way to combat these attacks – […]
Conference welcomes the comprehensive Amnesty International report, Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime against Humanity, which sets out how massive seizures of Palestinian land and property, unlawful killings, forcible transfer, drastic movement restrictions, and the denial of nationality and citizenship to Palestinians are all components of a system which amounts to […]
Conference is clear that public services in the UK could not exist without migrant workers. At the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, different petitions were raised calling on the government to scrape the payment of NHS surcharge by migrant workers. In October 2020, the government agreed that those migrant workers who were not on a […]
Conference welcomes the United Kingdom’s (UK) Conservative government’s decision not to proceed with replacement of the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) with a Bill of Rights Bill. However, Conference is not fooled and is well aware of the Conservative’s intention either to repeal the HRA or even withdraw from the European Convention of Human Rights […]
Conference believes that one of UNISON’s strengths lies in its recognition of the value and unique experiences lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender plus (LGBT+) people bring to the workplace and to our union and commends the work of UNISON’s LGBT+ committee to raise the profile of our LGBT+ members across the United Kingdom (UK). Conference […]