Conference motions

Affordable childcare facilities Conference deplores the ongoing failure of Public Sector Services to engage with childcare issues, which are an increasing barrier to recruitment and retention in an overwhelmingly female workforce. The lack of adequate pay increases set against a backdrop of the worst cost of living crisis in a generation means that childcare has […]

Maternal mental health is a crucial aspect of a woman’s well-being and can impact on the early experiences of bonding with their child(ren) and their own experience of motherhood. According to ‘The Motherhood Group’, Black maternal mental health should be a priority focus across government, health and social care policy development and wider society. Black […]

Conference notes that violence against women and girls is defined as any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women and girls, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life. […]

Conference, gender equality is at the very heart of human rights and United Nations values. Equality and non-discrimination are fundamental principles of the United Nations Charter, adopted by world leaders in 1945. Yet millions of women and LGBT+ persons around the world continue to experience discrimination in the enjoyment of civil, cultural, economic, political and […]

This Conference notes that: Statistics show that there is at least one so called honour based killing per month in the UK with 7,000 recorded incidents of abuse. Although many believe the actual numbers are far higher. Honour killings and abuse take place when a woman or girl is murdered or abused due to the […]

Conference notes: Women are disadvantaged compared to men in terms of housing in many ways. On average, women have lower incomes and less capital than men. As a result, they tend to be disadvantaged in a housing system where access to housing is largely determined through the market. Women heads of household, lone-parent households, and […]

Women should not have to worry about their student loan when they are absent from work due to pregnancy or childcare. In the Netherlands, payments and interest are paused during maternity leave. We call upon the National Women’s Committee to launch a campaign to seek legal changes to the student loan scheme. Payments and interest […]

Conference, many of our women members some of whom are disabled are on low pay, working part time and living on a limited budget. A significant number of these women work in social care, for the NHS, local authorities, or private care companies. Conference notes that caring responsibilities also disproportionately fall on women. The massive […]

Flexible working is a way for workers to change their working hours to suit their needs. For example, having the flexibility to change their start and finishing times, compress their weekly hours/ days or even work from home. There are many reasons why women would need or want flexible working. One reason is that caring […]

Conference is extremely concerned that in 2023 Black women are still five times more likely to die in childbirth or shortly afterwards. Women of mixed ethnicity have 3 times the risk, and Asian women almost twice the risk. Black women are also at an increased risk of having a pre-term birth, stillbirth, neonatal death or […]

Conference, it’s a well-known fact that our union is made up of 80% women and that there are 5.5 million unionised workers in the UK. Women make up half the UK workforce. So why are women still so underrepresented in our union structures and in our union visibility? UNISON collectively gives voice to working people […]