Conference recognises the long term decline in numbers of trade union membership in the UK since 1979 from 13 million to 6.6 million members today. We note that this decline is reflected across many European and North American countries including Germany, France, Spain, Italy, USA and Canada. We also note that the average age of […]
Conference motions
Conference welcomes the progress in equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people under the last Labour government. Notable achievements include the introduction of civil partnership for same sex couples and the Gender Recognition Act, which gives trans people the opportunity to gain legal recognition of their acquired gender. Conference notes that in the […]
Conference condemns the Coalition government’s concerted attacks on public services and the welfare state. These attacks are driven by political ideology, not economics – a continuation of the Thatcher/Major government commitment to free market economics which cynically exploits and exaggerates the effects of the economic downturn to roll back the welfare state and open up […]
Conference condemns the Tory led Government’s savage and ideological attack on working people and the institutions and services upon which they rely. In addition to the deepest and most sustained cuts to public spending in living memory, we are also witnessing wholesale attempts to dismantle the welfare state and to undermine the concept of collective […]
Mutual and Social Enterprises will figure large in the efforts of the Con Dem government to redesign the delivery of public sector services. In order to address the many challenges that this will present to our union and members this union needs to prepare against them and consult widely in order to have a coherent […]
Conference notes that in 2011 the trade union movement is facing the biggest challenges for a generation in the form of budget cuts and restrictions on our ability to bargain and organise. Trade union membership is about six million workers and collective bargaining covers 35% of the labour force. Conference records with anger that the […]
Conference condemns the high levels of unemployment and that one in five young people are without work. Conference believes that the Con-Dem coalition government’s policies are actively contributing to this situation and are also ruining the employment prospects of our young people, and that the situation facing young people as they seek to find work […]
A devastating earthquake, the worst in 200 years, struck Port-au-Prince on the 12th January 2010, laying waste to the city with almost 300,000 people dead in the devastation. More than a million of our brothers and sisters are living homeless in the densely populated areas of Port-au-Prince and surrounding parts of the country, since the […]
The announcement of further cuts to public spending and benefits on 20 October 2010 in the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review heralded yet more difficult times for disabled people. Disabled people were already set to be disproportionately affected by the Con-Dems emergency budget that claimed to be designed to redress the deficit in the economic downturn. […]
Conference recognises and welcomes the Single Equality Bill which will change discrimination law in a number of important ways. We are concerned however, that a new wave of restructuring across the Public Sectors (inc. Local Government, NHS, Higher Education & Voluntary Organisations) are to have a negative impact on Black, Low Paid, Women, Disabled, Lesbian, […]
Conference notes that: The number of Black members attending National Delegates Conference (NDC) is significantly low. Often Black members in our branches are not aware or provided the opportunity to attend NDC, despite UNISON having rules on proportionality and fair representation. Conference recognizes Unison’s use of Proportionality and Fair Representation in its ‘Scheme of Branch […]
This Conference is concerned that while many Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) have a positive experience of working for the NHS, some feel that they no longer have good career prospects and that there is a lack of training opportunities for AHPs. This means that therapists have limited chances to develop a wide range of skills […]
Conference notes with concern the twin developments of the commitment of the Tory-Liberal Government to an ‘any willing provider’ approach to NHS services and the erosion of the value of TUPE as a protection for NHS staff transferred to other providers. Previously TUPE, the Cabinet Office Code of Practice on Transfers in the Public Sector […]
Conference believes that the policies of the current government pose the greatest threat to living standards of health workers of any time in the 63 years of the NHS. Conference thinks that the government is using the deficit as an opportunity to cut the public sector paybill rather than increase taxation to those responsible for […]
Conference re-affirms its commitment to the development of apprenticeships within the NHS and notes the success of the last Labour Government in significantly increasing the number of apprenticeships in the NHS in England. Apprenticeships in the NHS can be used as a significant career development tool for new and existing staff providing the means of […]