The UNISON National Delegate Conference is essentially our union’s parliament, where branches come from all sectors to decide on policy. This year it took place on the 13th to 16th June 2023 in Liverpool. As a branch we sent one delegate, Branch Secretary Nick McMaster. This is his report.
Day 1
(Tue 13th) started off with the usual welcome to conference explaining the rules and regulations of how the bureaucracy of the conference would work. The annual report and annual financial statements were accepted. With finances there continued to be a drive to increase our industrial action fighting fund as UNISON carries on the journey from being a service led union to one that organises, campaigns and defends working people and our hard fought rights.
After the President’s speech the following motions were discussed and carried: increasing participation of lower paid women in the union; tackling the national staff stress crisis in the public sector; improving on and encouraging equality work and representation in the union and defending the right to strike.
The most interesting debate centred around tackling health inequalities and closing the life expectancy gap. In the 5th largest economy in the world we have a life expectancy going backwards and an increasing gap between rich and poor.
In all the debates we had fantastic insights, especially from Black members describing their experiences and how they are disproportionately affected by the worst actions of the government’s austerity measures.
Day 2
(Wed 14th) started off with conference observing a heartfelt minutes silence for the 6th year anniversary of Grenfell with 72 months having passed since 72 people died.
In between motions Christina McAnea gave her General Secretary speech which heartily focused on the success of industrial action. What wasn’t mentioned was the fact that aside from ambulance branches NHS members did not go out on strike as their branches did not meet the legal threshold.
Morning motions that were carried focused on the plans for a National Care Service. What struck most was that whilst England in particular might come up with a service which could slip into the private sector and the race to the bottom, in Wales there was hope with their Sevice being planned around bringing services back into public ownership and care workers already gaining higher wages.
UNISON conferences generally discuss motions rather than debate them as they are usually always carried unanimously. Each year there is however one contentious motion. Though this time it was a little weird. A composite motion (i.e. a motion formed of several motions) on learning from successful industrial actions and then implementing changes based on the the research was defeated despite everyone saying they thought the ideas were good.
This was because if it was passed the motion taking a more immediate approach to train up branches now, would have fallen as the committee that is tasked with the order of business had felt the two were not compatible.
After quite a heated debate the composite motion was defeated and the motion calling for rolling out training courses on organising for industrial action now was carried.
Every year the National Young Members’ Forum always seem to come up with a prescient motion. This time it was on harassment at work. It was an emotional debate with many brave members across the age spectrum sharing their stories of bullying, harassment and abuse, and it will come as no surprise that the vast majority were women. The motion presented a number of actions to tackle this issue and was unanimously carried.
Finally, the last motion carried was to make 2024 the year of the LGBT+ workers. This follows on from previous years focused on young members, disabled workers and this year, black workers.
Day 3
(Thu 15th) started off with a minutes silence for the victims of the Nottingham attacks.
We were then privileged to have a video speech from Gonul Erden, the Turkish a trade union leader who has recently spent 18 months in prison and is still under house arrest after being charged with terrorism for her trade union work. We then had a speech from Rosa Pavanelli, General Secretary of the worldwide Public Services International who was vociferous in her thanks for UNISON’s international work.
The rest of the morning was taken up on two carried motions relating to defending and improving women’s rights internationally and Palestine.
Thursday afternoon at conference is always devoted to rule changes. This seemingly dry topic is actually an area that cause most debate, as the consequences can be far reaching on how out great democratic union runs itself.
The most contentious debate centred on the setting up of an immediate fighting fund to support the drive to increase the opportunity for successful industrial action, to ensure UNISON does not fall behind other unions. This focused chiefly on the richest branches releasing the funds that were not spent in Covid over to national to match and use for the cause including the ability to pay people on strike.
Some opponents did not like the way the motion had been proposed and promoted and also felt they were best placed to spend their own reserves. Meanwhile advocates pointed out that the motion still left the riches branched with hundreds of thousands of pounds in their reserves.
The vote was too hard to call in the conference so has now gone to a card vote. Following instructions from our branch management group and recognising the high vote for industrial action from our members who voted, I voted for the motion.
Day 4
(Friday 16th) started off with a speech from Rosemary Allin-Khan, Shadow Minister for Mental Health which powerfully advocated for the role of unions in promoting a better society and public services.
Conference then had an emotional moment as Dr Neville Lawrence was presented with a honorary lifetime membership. He described how UNISON black members came to him in the wake of his son Stephen’s murder and brought him into the support of the union movement.
The result of the card vote in a motion that chiefly focused on releasing some reserves from the richer branches to go into a national industrial action fighting fund was disappointingly, in the view of this delegate, defeated. Once again we sit disadvantaged behind other unions in being able to take the fight to this torrid government.
The rest of the conference saw motions prioritised by conference discussed and carried. This included those on defending the Northern Ireland peace process, rights for private renters and making it a statutory duty for public employers to report on their ethnicity pay gap.
So all in all a great conference as usual and I would encourage activists to look to attend one in the future.