This Retired Members’ Conference recognises that ageism exists, and that ageism is a bias from one age group towards another. It includes the use of stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination against people based on their age. Evidence shows ageism is widespread in society and can be found everywhere from our workplaces and health systems to the […]
Conference motions
The past year, particularly for pensioners, has been incredibly difficult. In its report entitled ‘As if expendable’, Amnesty International claims that during the first three months of the pandemic, thousands of pensioners died due to government incompetence. Free TV licences were withdrawn for most of those of 75 plus years, the triple lock protection on […]
Conference notes that many pensioners live in poverty and have a precarious existence. Many pensioners did not have access to an occupational pension and many remain unaware that they can claim pension credit to increase their income. The UK state pension is one of the lowest in the developed world. Women are particularly affected by […]
Conference will recall that prior to the covid crisis there had been a series of attacks on older people’s entitlements and standards of living including: 1)The Taxpayers’ Alliance’s report, Pensions Inequality, issued in August 2018 calling for an end to defined benefit pensions for public service workers; the Taxpayers’ Alliance has since called for the […]
THE IMPACT OF SERVICES MOVING ONLINE ON OLDER/ELDERLY PEOPLE Conference notes the inexorable drift towards services and activities being online which has been markedly accelerated during the covid pandemic and its impact on the older demographic. New analysis from Age UK shows that the pandemic has not in fact produced a sea change in older […]
UNISON believes in integrated free comprehensive education, which provides lifelong learning for all across the UK. Everyone should have access to an education system that best fits their own unique talents and abilities. Diversity is a strength and should be celebrated. UNISON will continue to fight for equity and equality of opportunity for people to […]
Local councils across the UK have suffered huge funding cuts over the last decade. We have seen significant changes to the funding mechanism for local government, the functions councils carry out and thanks to devolution the actual make-up of local government. Throughout this time UNISON has sought to stop these cuts and highlighted the resulting […]
Conference recognises that: 1)The impacts of the climate emergency are already evident and have profoundly altered human and natural systems; 2)In the UK, we are witnessing more frequent and extreme weather events. In 2019, our communities experienced flooding and also summer heatwaves that resulted in nearly 900 excess deaths. There were more UK wildfires in […]
Conference is aware that UNISON and the National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Plus (LGBT+) Committee and Self Organised Group have consistently expressed concerns about the Government’s policies on Brexit. For disabled LGBT+ members, the prospect of a no deal exit from the European Union (EU), and the impacts as outlined in the “Yellowhammer” report, […]
Conference notes that UNISON’s policy on sex work, adopted in 2010 on the basis of a motion from women’s conference, is to support proposals which decriminalise the selling of sexual services while introducing a ‘sex buyers law’ criminalising those who purchase those services. Conference recognises that the great majority of sex workers are women. Conference […]
Conference applauds the National Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender plus (LGBT+) Committee for the work undertaken to date to highlight the effects of austerity measures on LGBT+ workers, the services we provide and the knock-on effects of the reduction in those services. Conference further notes that a range of governmental bodies, statutory services and civil […]
Conference notes its outrage that the rights of the trans community remain under sustained attack around the world. It is still the case that in many countries there are laws in place which force transgender people to be sterilised before changing their gender. In January 2019 the Supreme Court of Japan upheld ‘Law 111’ which […]
This conference would like to acknowledge and give thanks to the essential work carried out by UNISON on respecting and promoting reproductive rights, tackling period poverty and raising menopausal awareness. However, in many of the motions produced around these issues, we continue to see a use of exclusionary language. Motions often make reference to “women […]
This conference welcomes the commitment of the Apprenticeship Diversity Champions Network (ADCN) to take action to widen participation in apprenticeships, champion diversity, and support greater social mobility. The ADCN champions apprenticeships and diversity amongst employers and encourages more people from underrepresented groups, including Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Plus (LGBT+) people, people with disabilities, women, […]
Conference notes that there is a postcode lottery of services that support victims and perpetrators of domestic abuse in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans + (LGBT+) relationships. For example, in Blackpool, the local Probation Service only has access to programmes that are aimed at heterosexual male offenders, whereas in Manchester, the local Probation Service has […]