National Delegate Conference

Here is Brian Smith's report from UNISON's recent National Delegate conference.  The photo isn't of Brian but of Ricky Tomlinson (readers are left to decide if there is more than a passing resemblance), who was at the conference to highlight the Shrewsbury24 campaign he is involved in.  Further details below.

Dear friends

It is impossible to do justice to an event as rich as UNISON’s four-day National Delegate Conference in a short report. This is an account of the week as it struck one delegate.

It began with a bang. Ricky Tomlinson spoke passionately about his plight and his colleagues’ plight in the 1970s when they were blacklisted as building workers. The evidence of what happened has been concealed by successive governments: join the campaign to reveal it at http://www.shrewsbury24campaign.org.uk/

As at the Local Government conference, delegates – especially those in England and Wales – were unimpressed by the union leadership’s performance on pay. Many speakers savaged Dave Prentis, who last year promised a major campaign on the subject and then forgot to have one. When Prentis spoke on Tuesday he didn’t get the usual standing ovation.

There is a great deal of stage-management at conference these days. In most cases there were no speakers against this or that motion, and during the week there were only two card votes. (I remember days when there might be a dozen.) Thursday afternoon, when changes to rule are discuss, was livelier. I voted for a motion to introduce UNISON’s new financial systems on 1 January 2014, having been assured by Cherelynn that they will be very useful.

There was much concern about the National Health Service, and what is regarded as the privatisation of it, the toll PFI is taking on it, and debilitating cuts in funding. Conference agreed that there would be a mass demonstration at the Tory Party conference in Manchester at the end of September about the issue.

As usual, there were many debates on equalities issue: one of UNISON’s most impressive areas of campaigning. There was a good discussion about racism in football and the impressive Kick it Out campaign, and a particularly impressive one about disability hate crime, something I had hardly been aware about.

On Thursday morning conference was invaded by an impressive flash mob campaigning about page three images in the Sun.  See them here: http://www.uniondiary.com/video/unison/?videoId=33SmkobZp38 (You might catch a glimpse of the present writer in this film.)

A less satisfactory equalities debate was one about an amendment about male violence towards women. It was defeated because some speakers argued that some men receive violence from women, which was really beside the point.

As usual, the debates about international issues – notably Colombia, Palestine and Nicaragua – were very good.

Throughout conference there was a constant theme that the government’s attacks on public services, and their economic policies, have very little to do with economics, and much more to do with ideology. Friday’s debate on welfare cuts was a good example, where ATOS’s habit of certifying dying people as fit for work was dealt with in detail.

Conference isn’t just about describing how awful things are. Also on Friday support was forthcoming for 115 UNISON members who work for the Future Directions Company in Rochdale, who are cutting their members’ pay and attacking their terms and conditions. Conference made an immediate donation of £5000 to the strike fund.

Best wishes

Brian