Campaign Against Polymer

This Water, Environment and Transport Conference is aware of the ever increasing number of incidents in United Utilities and presumably other Water Industry employers involving polymer. Polymer is a very sticky substance and once it gets onto the soles of boots is not easily removed. This makes walking on certain surfaces very hazardous and increases […]

Privatisation of the Probation Service

Conference notes that the tory government’s success in the general election means that they will now, undoubtedly, continue with their plans for the privatisation of the probation service. Clearly this has major implications for all UNISON members in the service, but there are particular issues facing women workers: 1) The majority of the redundancies in […]

CAMPAIGN FOR LIVING PENSIONS FOR THE ELDERLY AND R

Conference, elderly and retired people deserve to have a decent state pension. Conference asserts that the state pension is not a benefit but is ours by right. Conference believes that older people are being hit particularly hard by current austerity measures. The basic State Retirement Pension which for many on the 6th April, 2015 will […]

Campaigning for a Living Wage

Conference condemns the continued attacks on the funding of public services and the impact of the poor pay awards for staff in the public sector. Our members’ wages have decreased in real terms and public sector pay no longer leads the way. Many employers within the public sector are now employed on rates less than […]

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 […]

Health and Wellbeing

Conference welcomes all initiatives to improve the health and wellbeing of our members, however there are concerns that need addressing as part of these initiatives namely: 1) Staff are unable to take the refreshment breaks they are entitled to during working hours. 2) Staff are not being paid for overtime worked and pressure is being […]

A SINGLE COMBINED FREE TRAVEL PASS FOR BUS AND RAI

The bus pass providing pensioners for free off peak bus travel in England and Wales has helped their mobility largely on a local basis. However, many pensioners find the cost of rail fares, even after using the 30% discount of a Senior Rail Card, an expensive hindrance to frequent visiting of friends and family across […]

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% […]

Pensions in the Community and Voluntary Sector

This Community Conference notes the ongoing crisis in pension provision affecting our members in Community and also that community and voluntary sector employees are among the lowest paid in society. The minimum level of auto-enrolment pensions is grossly inadequate; and employers continue to dumb down pension schemes to limit any possible financial risk to themselves. […]

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 […]

Stress in the Workforce

Conference over recent years Police Staff numbers have declined drastically with the impact of the Austerity measures imposed by the Government. Since 2010 nearly 19% of the workforce has been cut- that equates to over 15,000 Police Staff and yet the work load has not reduced. It means less staff doing more work for the […]

Organising

Conference recognises that activism is at the very heart of UNISON. Activists ensure that the union is accessible to members in the workplace giving day to day support and representation to members, encouraging other workers to join the union and building our organisation. Without activists we could not function as a democratic lay member led […]

Regional Collaboration

Many forces across the country will have an experience of shared service arrangements between forces sometimes know as collaboration. The North West is no exception to this but is concerned at the growth of collaboration arrangements that have, in our experience, proved to be an excuse for empire building and an opportunity to try and […]