Conference welcomes progress made by UNISON over many years in campaigning and negotiating for equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender plus (LGBT+) people both in work and in society. Despite these advances, many transgender people still experience serious abuse and discrimination on a daily basis, including in their workplaces. A disproportionate number of trans […]
Conference motions
Conference notes the success of UNISON’s Year of Disabled Workers 2022 and places on record our thanks to all of our disabled members and activists who have driven this success throughout our union. Through this year, we have seen renewed focus on the experience of disabled members in our union, in the workplace and in […]
Conference notes the December 2021 government policy paper ‘Our Vision for the Women’s Health Strategy for England’, published after 100,000 women shared their personal experiences around the way the health and care system listens to women. The document looked at the approach to women’s health by putting women’s voices at the heart of this work. […]
Conferences notes the cost of living crisis which will disproportionately impact on disabled people. Even before the pandemic, disability related expenses or the ‘disability price tag’ was on average £583 extra per month compare to non-disabled people, according to the 2019 Scope Disability Price Tag report. One in five faced extra costs of more than […]
Conference notes that drug and alcohol addiction can happen to anyone. Disabled and Deaf people can also become addicted to drugs and alcohol. However, for many Deaf people who become addicted, there is nowhere to turn for help. The services that exist are already overstretched and underfunded, but added to this they are very unlikely […]
Conference is concerned about the growing impact of mental health problems on Deaf people. This problem has increased because there are simply not enough accessible mental; health services. Deaf people who live in rural areas have almost no chance of finding accessible mental health services that don’t require a long and difficult journey. Conference welcomes […]
Conference is concerned that the findings of a Parliamentary Work and Pension’s Committee which completed in July 2021 are being disregarded by the Tory government. The committee were clear that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) national programme for supporting disabled people is not working and that local level support is needed to break […]
Conference suicide is the biggest cause of death for men under 50 in the UK. In 2020, 75% of those who took their own lives were male. 4,880 men and boys died by suicide, that equates to 12 deaths every day of the year. While people of all genders can experience mental health problems stigma […]
Conference, using public transport is a major issue for Disabled Members. There are countless barriers to accessing trains, buses, taxis and any other kind of public transport you care to mention. Last year the government set out their plans for making transport more accessible in their National Disability Strategy. They claimed they would ‘improve the […]
Conference, many of our disabled members feel anxious and concerned about returning to the workplace following the pandemic. They are worried that they are being left vulnerable to Covid 19 after the government removed legal restrictions and access to free testing earlier this year. Members who were previously considered clinically vulnerable, have not been afforded […]
Conference notes that in November 2021 the UK hosted the COP 26 in Glasgow. At this COP the UK again committed itself to achieving Net Zero by 2050 which itself is a statutory target which the UK Government should be working towards achieving. UNISON energy workers know already that achieving Net Zero will be hard […]
Conference notes that as a result of rapidly increasing wholesale gas prices, the price of energy for consumers and businesses in the UK has also significantly increased. Further it notes that the energy price cap which regulates the default tariffs has been increased by some 54% by the energy regulator OFGEM. This is the tariff […]
Research shows that at GCSE level engagement in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects has a broadly similar gender split. At this level female students are achieving higher or equal average A*-C grades compared to males. At A Level this drops off with a higher number of males taking up STEM subjects, for example […]
Conference picture someone working in the energy sector, and you are likely to mentally summon up an image of a white, middle-aged male. Although a lack of diversity isn’t unique to energy, it is an issue that needs solving. While the situation is improving, it’s not changing fast enough, recent events have rightly woken up […]
Conference is concerned that the recent pandemic, poorly funded local authorities and the government’s proposals to reform planning are combining to make hopes of better access for disabled people a distant dream. As the country started to reopen after the first lockdown local councils were told to do whatever was needed to help kickstart the […]