Young Workers Month

Conference welcomes the work of UNISON’s National and Regional Young Members Forums to raise the profile of young workers and young members through activity during young workers month, which is now held in November each year under the auspices of the TUC. Conference believes that recruiting young workers and organising young members is an all-year-round […]

The 2014 – 16 NJC Pay Proposals

This Special Conference notes the 2014/15 NJC Pay Claim submitted on 5 November 2013 was for: · A minimum increase of £1 an hour on scale point 5 to achieve the Living Wage and the same flat rate increase on all pay scale points. This Special Conference also notes: · The claim was based on […]

Devolution: seizing the opportunities, avoiding the threats

Conference notes that issues around the scale of governance have come to the fore in political debate in recent months. Questions that have become more prominent in the political discussion include: 1)The relationship between the UK and Europe; 2)The relationship between the nations of the UK; 3)The relationship between central and local government. Conference notes […]

The decision to cancel strike action for 14 October 2014

This Special Conference believes the decision of the NJC Committee on 9th October to suspend the action planned for 14th October was a grave error which completely undermined the national campaign to secure a decent pay rise for Local Government members and an end to five years of real terms cuts in our member’s living […]

The 2014-2016 NJC (National Joint Council) Pay Proposals

This Conference endorses the 2014/15 NJC pay claim for a flat rate increase sufficient to raise scale point 5 to the Living Wage outside London. Conference deplores the fact that the 2014-2016 NJC pay proposals fall so very far short of achieving the 2014/15 claim. The 2.2% increase on most spine points perpetuates declining living […]

Decision To Cancel Strike Action On 14th October

This Special Conference believes the decision of the NJC Committee on 9th October to suspend the action planned for 14th October was a grave error which completely undermined the national campaign to secure a decent pay rise for Local Government members and an end to five years of real terms cuts in our member’s living […]

Electronic Methods of Consultation

This conference notes that: 1)encouraging members to vote in union consultations is vital, both so that we can reflect the wishes of our membership and so that we can demonstrate strength of feeling amongst the membership to the employers; 2)low turnout in union consultations is a problem which we should try to combat as much […]

EQUAL PENSIONS: END DISCRIMINATION IN SURVIVOR PEN

Conference condemns the continuing discrimination against civil partners and same sex married couples with regard to pensions and deplores the failure of the government to address the inequality of survivor pensions within occupational schemes. Conference asserts that the Treasury’s claims that equalisation in line with other survivors is unaffordable were misleading and inaccurate and that […]

Following through on reasonable adjustments

Composite A Following through on reasonable adjustments (Motions 2 and 3, Amendments 2.1, 2.2 and 3.1) This Conference welcomes the continued support at Young Members’ Weekend for a meeting of disabled young members, a process by which those members can feed their issues into the National Young Members’ Forum work plan. This Conference notes that […]

UNISON’s Political Campaign After the 2015 General

Conference notes that the Conservative Party’s success at the General and local elections on May 7th carries with it significant threats to public services, our members’ jobs and standard of living and growing levels of inequality. As such Conference calls upon the National Executive Council to develop and put in place a comprehensive political campaign […]

Pensions

The Westminster government announced in its last Budget that it planned to allow all those who have been contributing to Defined Contribution (DC) pension arrangements, the option of being able to take their whole pot of money as a cash sum from 6 April 2015. Up to then contributors could take a maximum of 25% […]

Decision To Cancel Strike Action On 14th October

This Special Conference believes the decision of the NJC Committee on 9th October to suspend the action planned for 14th October was a mistake which completely undermined the national campaign to secure a decent pay rise for Local Government members and an end to five years of real terms cuts in our member’s living standards. […]

An Organising Response to the Result of the 2015 G

Conference notes the unanticipated outcome of the 2015 General Election which produced a majority Conservative Government. The new Government is set to intensify austerity in the public sector and increase privatisation and outsourcing of public services. The Conservatives also explicitly targeted the right of workers to organise by including the following commitments in their manifesto: […]

Funding Public Services

Conference is angered that between 2010 and 2015 a five year austerity programme, driven by Conservative ideology rather than national necessity, saw massive cuts in public spending, huge public sector redundancies and pay restraint across the public services on an unprecedented scale. In his 2014 Autumn Statement last year, George Osborne let it slip that […]

Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

Conference notes that the European Union (EU) is currently negotiating three free trade agreements including the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The others are the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with Canada (CETA) and the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA). These agreements threaten public services by harmonising regulatory standards, forcing through market liberalisation and […]