Community members within the housing and associated areas, view with concern, the impact on their jobs, pay and terms and conditions, of the ongoing roll out of ‘Welfare Reform’. It has been apparent from the introduction of the ‘bedroom tax’ that the reduction on the amount of housing benefit paid to tenants and service users, […]
Conference motions
Conference is disturbed to hear, that despite the introduction of the minimum wage in 1999 by a Labour Government, some employers in the care sector both in the community and private sectors are still paying their staff a pittance. Working in a care home or looking after the most vulnerable people in our society in […]
Conference notes with concern the insecurity facing workers in the community and voluntary sector, many of whom are low paid women workers. Many voluntary sector organisations provide services via contracts from local government and health authorities, and cuts in public spending are inevitably impacting on the funding of these services and therefore on our members. […]
Black communities must reject the economic policies of the coalition government. Austerity cuts continue to significantly impact on Black people and we cannot sit back and see our basic human rights eroded due to the colour of our skin. Conference, too often the colour of your skin determines your life chances and Black communities continue […]
Conference is appalled at the cases of grooming and sexual abuse in Rotherham. While we do not know the true scale the independent enquiry into Child sexual exploitation in Rotherham led by Alexis Jay gives a conservative estimate involving approximately 1400 children, adding: “It is hard to describe the appalling nature of the abuse that […]
Conferences is concerned to hear that homosexuality is criminalised in 76 countries in the world, including 40 African countries, and society persecutes and discriminates against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans (LGBT) people in even more countries. In July 2011 it was reported that the Commonwealth Secretary General, Kamalesh Sharma had spoken out against discrimination towards […]
Conference, despite the work done by the National Black Members’ Committee in producing a definition of ‘Black’ in UNISON in 2013 there continues to be questions about using ‘Black’ when addressing Black members. We have also found that branches and Regions in the union continue to use other definitions when describing ‘Black’ members, such as […]
In UNISON more than 70% of our total membership are women. UNISON is committed to fair representation and proportionality (Rule D4.1). However, we know in the public sector where many of our members are Black Women we see very few represented at Branch, Regional and Committee level; despite statistics nationally telling us that Black people […]
Conference notes with concern the issues faced by our Black members living with long term conditions and hidden disabilities such as Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) more common in Black women, Sarcoidosis and Sickle cell. The fact that these conditions are not obvious can cause members to have their complaints for sick leave and requests for […]
Nelson Mandela once said: “Education is the most powerful weapon which we can use to change the world”. However, Conference is disappointed to hear that many Black women members and activists are not taking up the opportunity to attend UNISON training courses. Anecdotal evidence would suggest that there are two reasons for this. Firstly, it […]
Conference notes with concern the rise in support for UKIP, especially in the lead up to the 2014 Local and European Elections, the Newark by-election and now in the lead up to the 2015 General Election. Conference we have all heard UKIP’s hostile immigration, xenophobic, racist, sexist, homophobic and Islamophobic views. We further note that […]
Conference notes the research commissioned by the Rowntree Foundation (Black Youth on the Margins, Ravinder Barn) published in 2001. This report noted that about 50,000 children and young people were looked after by local authorities in England in 2000. However there was no ethnic monitoring of those young people at this point. However in a […]
Conference, fibroids are small benign tumours that grow on the walls of the womb, inside and out, and can range from a single growth to multiple. For most women they give no cause for concern and grow unnoticed. But for others, the genetic disorder can mean heavy and painful periods and lead to fatigue and […]
Physical and mental well-being cannot be taken for granted, especially in today’s climate of an ever increasing workload, job cuts, austerity measures in services and service providers, the threat of redundancy and the pressure for some securing and sustaining employment, workplace stress, are some of the factors many people are now trying to deal with. […]
UNISON’s long-standing campaigns on equality, human rights and anti-racism make us an attractive and welcoming union for Black members and for migrant workers. As a result we have a large and growing Black and migrant workers membership and strong self organised groups for Black members. However, racism remains ever present in society. In Northern Ireland, […]