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NATIONAL LOCAL GOVERNMENT
CONFERENCE 2008
NATIONAL DELEGATE CONFERENCE
2008
1. Branch motions and involvement
in debates
Local Government
Care of Unaccompanied Asylum
Seeking Children: Our amendment was carried:
John Stevenson moved it.
Timing of Conference:
Attempt to split Local Government and National
Conference was defeated against the odds with
many English branches changing their vote
at the last minute in light of the debate.
Scotland’s speakers were led by John Stevenson
as agreed by the branch. Duncan Smith and
Marylin Tweedie spoke in the Housing and
Home Care debates promoting branch policy
and the motions were carried.
National Conference
Recruiting and Organising:
Our amendment to focus on representation
of members was carried. John Stevenson moved
Rule Change on waiting 2
minutes for a card vote: We opposed as
mandated with John Stevenson the main speaker
against, raising a chuckle from Conference.
The rule change was defeated.
Unfortunately, the rest of our
motions were not heard.
2. Report on main issues
Local Government Conference
Pay ballots: The pay
ballots across the UK dominated Conference
but issues like privatisation, shared services,
Housing and Social Care all took centre stage
too.
Mileage Rates: An Emergency
Motion from Aberdeenshire (among others) demanded
action on mileage rates to reflect the
huge increase in costs for essential staff.
Edinburgh liaised with Aberdeenshire on this
following representations from members.
School
meals: Scotland's Carol Ball spoke
on the effects of staff due to school meals
changes.
Housing:
Conference has pledged to continue to defend
council housing, and to carry on fighting
for decent housing for all. Delegates welcomed
the government's commitment to building new
houses, but determined to make sure they were
council-owned, a point supported by Duncan
Smith.
Social Care: Conference
tackled the issue of Home Care privatisation
and the possible hiving off of Looked After
Children services in England.
Asylum
children: Building on a motion from
Scotland last year, Conference agreed to and
Edinburgh amendment to keep up the campaign
children to be seen as "children first with
their immigration status second.
Conference: Scotland
led opposition to a plan to split Local Government
Conference from National Conference and won
a surprise victory. Contributions here from
John Stevenson, Denise McLaffery, Kate Ramsden
and Sandra Kennie.
National Delegate Conference
"Raise our people up or
our people will bring you down", was
General Secretary Dave Prentis’ stark warning
to the government as UNISON’s National Conference
set out a new ‘working together’ agenda to
defend public services and the public service
team that delivers them.
Joint working, especially
between the big Health and Local Government
services, took centre stage as the Conference
laid out strategies to face up to the challenges
of shared services, pay limits, cuts and privatisation,
while celebrating 10 years of the minimum
wage by looking for improvements.
United pay campaign:
The motion committed us to "a united front,
to work with the PCS, the GMB, NUT, UCU, CWU,
Unite and other trade unions." This has already
happened in Scotland.
A campaign against violence
to staff was agreed, demanding better
reporting and gathering of figures to assess
and address the problem. This reflects UNISON
Scotland’s research which shows huge shortfalls
in how, or whether, public authorities monitor
the problem.
Enforce trade union rights:
Alan Bradley, Dumfries and Galloway
Branch called on the NEC to continue to challenge
inequality and enforce employment and trade
union rights.
NHS 60: How often do
we need reminded that public services were
made public all those years ago precisely
because private, profit based service delivery
dismally failed?
And how better could that have
been demonstrated than by the celebration
of the NHS’s 60th birthday? Scotland
– where the first ever NHS hospital came into
operation – was to the fore again in the debate.
Slamming PFI and privatisation,
Lothian Health’s Mick McGahey reminded us
that, "The NHS is not bricks and mortar. It
is not about who manages it. It's about the
staff who work in it, who provide the services
to patients and who are dedicated to it."
It is hard to imagine now that
some of our grandparents were born at a time
when money – and class – dictated how or whether
you got basic medical treatment.
South Lanarkshire’s John
McLaughlin, a home carer, couldn’t have underlined
that – and the real effect of privatisation
- better when he asked, "Would we rather big
business looked after our mums and dads, or
dedicated carers?"
James Clancy,
President of Canadian public services
union NUPGE told Conference that public services
define a country and its communities.
Organisation
But we can’t challenge any of
this if we are not organised ourselves. That’s
why decisions on updating our organisation
and recruitment strategy, UNISON’s democratic
structures and our political fund were also
key debates.
Equal Pay: The biggest
challenge in the union’s history has been
the fight for equal pay and the Conference
threw its weight behind a funding formula
to meet that challenge.
Review of structures:
Scottish Convenor Mike Kirby hammered home
the need to review our 10 year old structures
and update them to meet the challenges of
the 21st century, not least in
terms of how we relate to devolved government
across the nations.
Recruitment: Backing
a six-point recruitment and organisation plan,
Edinburgh’s John Stevenson underlined the
need for support for the ‘nuts and bolts’
work of the union. "There is no better way
to recruit a new member than by word of mouth
from a fellow worker who has something to
thank the union for", he told Conference.
Qualifying time for legal
support: And
Davena Rankin from Glasgow Caledonian University
persuaded Conference to reduce new members’
qualifying time for legal support to four
weeks. Giving early support to members had
led to UNISON being "the biggest union on
campus". Edinburgh had supported this last
year but opposed it this year.
Review of political fund:
Conference backed a review of the union’s
political fund, rejecting a misleading motion
that suggested every member’s money went to
the Labour Party. In fact, only those members
who pay into the ‘affiliated fund’ pay anything
to Labour, while the ‘general’ campaigning
political fund has no party affiliation. Both
are essential to the union’s campaigning agenda.
Social responsibility – challenging
racism, gun and knife crime, pensions
As a union we have a responsibility
to members but we also have a wider social
responsibility. Without that over the last
100 years, we wouldn’t have won many of the
rights and equalities we now enjoy – and we
wouldn’t have our NHS.
Gun and knife crime: Conference
heard harrowing accounts from people directly
affected by the rise in gun and knife crime,
as relatives of victims and as public service
workers dealing with the human pain. A measured
motion sought to address the causes in communities
rather than overreacting to the results which
can make the problem worse.
Show racism the red card:
There is no greater threat to equality than
the lies and myths peddled by the far right
and Conference was united in challenging that
head-on, pledging to continue campaigning
in communities and backing ‘Show Racism the
Red Card".
Migrant workers: Equal
rights for migrant workers do not just protect
them, they protect all workers and, as Conference
met, UNISON Scotland’s Sofi Taylor was launching
a charter for these workers at the Scottish
Parliament.
Pensions: Marking 100
years of the state pension delegates overwhelmingly
backed a retired members’ motion for the union
to push for an immediate and substantial increase
in the basic state pension to £138 a week.
They also backed a call for a Responsible
Contractor Investment Policy in Public Sector
Pension Funds.
International
In a global economy, unions
have to think globally. UNISON has a proud
tradition of international solidarity and
its long support for justice in South Africa
was updated as we celebrated honorary UNISON
member Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday.
Zimbabwe, Palestine, Burma
and Colombia were all on the agenda. We
heard of the life and death struggles of trade
unionists in Colombia as UNISON pledged support
for the Colombian Solidarity Campaign. While
some of us face victimisation or even the
loss of our job, Colombian trade unionists
face death for their activity. Scotland’s
Angela Lynes told Conference, "In February,
some 70 NGOs, trade unions and other social
organisations reportedly received e-mail death
threats from paramilitaries."
The tragic situation in the
Gaza siege was reflected in a call to continue
working with Palestinian and Israeli trade
unions to promote dialogue and the peace process
and to campaign to bring a concrete change
in the policies of the British government
and European Union, starting with an end to
the arms trade between Israel, Britain and
the EU
John Stevenson
Branch President
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