Campaigning, recruiting and organising around health and safety

Conference recognises the importance of health and safety as a campaigning, organising and recruiting tool, particularly in the light of the government’s continued assault on the health and safety regulatory system, including: 1)cuts to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and local authority budgets resulting in the continued reduction in the number of workplace inspections; […]

Building on our recruitment campaign

Conference welcomes the major recruitment drive whose aim has been to strengthen the union in order to defend better our member’s interests and campaign even more effectively in defence of public services. Conference believes that the next stage of this work must be to step up the union’s work to bring more members into active […]

Kick It Out – Racism has no place in football

With the events of racism being highlighted amongst several high profile football players, it is clear that the game has some way to go to shed itself of this vile and evil mindset. When FIFA president Sepp Blatter under played the significance of racism in the game it raised concerns about his ability to deal […]

Fighting privatisation

Conference welcomes and applauds the actions of branches, branch officers, regions, the Police and Justice Service Group Executive, its committees and staff in opposing privatisation across the Police and Probation Services in 2012. Events have shown that campaigning against privatisation does work and that public opinion is on our side and not on the side […]

Green Deal

The conference notes that the Coalition Government launched the Green Deal in Jan 2013. This supposed deal was introduced to encourage households to make their homes more energy efficient by having works carried out with little upfront cost but instead paying the costs via energy bills over a many years. As well as the potential […]

The Impact of the Regulator on Pay and Conditions of Members in Utility Companies

Conference notes the critical role that both Ofwat and Ofgem play in regulating the privatised utilities. It also notes that despite the role of the regulator, profits within the utility businesses have increased to record levels making the owners and key executives very wealthy. Despite the increased profits members have seen their pay and conditions […]

Energy Affordability

UNISON has a proud and proven track record in campaigning against consumer exploitation by UK energy companies. We have had to make the difficult and often divisive arguments in speaking up for consumers against the vested interest of huge power company giants. This has often placed us in the difficult position of criticizing our employers […]

Call Centre Charter

Conference welcomes the publication last year of the UNISON Call Centre Charter, which seeks to establish a decency agenda, allowing members to work effectively and efficiently in a safe working environment. The Charter was based on research on call centres and call handling operations by Professor Charlotte Rayner of Portsmouth University, who has a distinguished […]

No place for transphobia

Conference welcomes progress made by UNISON over many years in negotiating for equality in our energy workplaces. However, conference is concerned that equality considerations fall down the agenda in the face of cuts, reorganisations and redundancies. Conference is further concerned that transgender workers face particularly extreme discrimination when seeking work and once in work. To […]

Pensions

Conference notes that the Government is proposing to allow companies to override the pension protections which were implemented when the Electricity Industry was privatised. These guarantees were one of the few protections won by trade unions during the Thatcher government’s relentless drive to privatise public services. The 1990 Electricity Regulations prevent private employers from reducing […]

Rule K Qualifications

Amendment to K 2(i): Delete “member knowing that she/he had need of legal assistance and seeks” and insert “incident or occurrence that leads to her/him seeking legal assistance.”

Defend Pensions

This Conference notes that the Government is proposing to allow companies to override the pension protections which were implemented when the Electricity Industry was privatised. These guarantees were one of the few protections won by trade unions during the Thatcher government’s relentless drive to privatise public services. The 1990 Electricity Regulations prevent private employers from […]

Decolonising LGBT equality: aid conditionality and LGBT human rights

Conference notes with concern the statement by UK Prime Minister David Cameron that overseas aid should be cut to countries which criminalise homosexuality. Conference notes that UNISON is opposed to such aid conditionality. Conference believes that it would not advance lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) human rights or equality but rather would create a […]

UNISON calling

Conference welcomes the UNISON call centre charter, launched in 2012, which calls on all employers who have UNISON members working in a call centre or in call handling operations to commit to improving the standards which those staff operate under. This includes ensuring that staff are able to take sufficient breaks away from the workstation […]

UNISON women – active, campaigning, leading

UNISON is proud to be the leading trade union for women. We have a solid history of women being at the heart of the union; through enshrining self organisation into our rule book along with proportionality. As a union which has a majority of women members we do not just talk the talk. Women are […]