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UNISON Community Conference 2022 – Glasgow – Day 2 Seminar Session

Day 2 started with a workshop about Participation and key points were brought up around this, and heard personal accounts of situations faced by all members across the country. Which mirror the feelings of other members.

Now on tho the Community Seminar Session and first we hear a speech from Jon Richards, UNISON Assistant General Secretary , Bargaining, Negotiating and Equalities. He passed on solidarity to the Racism marches happening across the country and to solidarity to Ukrainians also, Cristina McAnea is unable to attend todays conference however pledges full support.

Jon went on to say how far the union has gone since the Covid19 Pandemic caused so many issues and how much workers have done, frontline staff, housing staff, community workers,

How we can work on and build on lessons learned from the past few years to improve conditions for workers. also how we can reclaim technology and digital technology and to keep a hold on and up-to date with the digital debate.

Jon Highlighted the UNISON College that is in the process of being set up to be Launched at this years National Delegate Conference, you can have your say on the college here..

Jon then thanked everyone for attending and welcomed questions from the floor. he too questions around accessing the There for you Fund this will be taken back to National office to respond. for those that would like to read more advice on accessing “There For You” please click below…

Questions also covered increasing awareness around being in a UNISON, access to the funding that has not been used for conferences due to the pandemic, data cleanses which improves representations of member locations. Vouchers for attending conference at home digitally. this closed Jons session and the next session begins at 2pm.

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Archive Blogs Campaigns Community Conference Conferences Demonstration Derby City Council Derby Homes Events News Newsletter UNISON

UNISON Community Conference 2022 – Glasgow – Day 1

The first session started with a Seminar on Housing Associations, Lynn Gillespie chaired the session, first introductions from representatives around the country, we had and discussions around pay rises, negotiated rises, and issues faced that are very similar to all. Also the differences between Arms Length Management Organisations and Housing Associations. there was then a comfort break before the next session began.

The next session was the Community Seminar Session one, everyone was welcomed to the seminar. and the agenda for the afternoon was detailed as follows.

The first speaker was Gavin McCann he discussed social care work and the things that have been happening over the past years including enhanced data on Social Care Membership, Regional Social Care leads, Links to the DHSC, and increased the Media profile and pushed the message that the union is ‘The Union of Social Care’. There has been stronger links to employers made, regular member communication, knowledge of member experience, more political impact. Social care and the pandemic Gavin drew attention the following article explaining how exposed the care sector was left during the pandemic regarding Sick pay, pep testing, fragmentation and vaccination. 922 Care workers lost their lives due to covid and there has been a failure to protect the care sector from Covid-19

Campaigns that are being looked into from this year include, looking at the damage caused, a National Care Service Campaign, more National Partnership Working, and the setting up of a Future Social Care Coalition.

UNISON Structural changes is being looked into and will ensure social care will fit within the structure to ensure its strongly supported. Gavin then took questions from conference attendees.

Following these questions we now receive a presentation from Claire Williams who is discussing the Member Engagement Programme, and reiterates how important members are to UNISON and the improvements that need too be made and how soon these can be made to ensure community members are active in the union. Claire then took Questions from the floor.

Following this there was a presentation by Donna Rowe-Merrieman UNISON National Secretary regarding Home working and Hybrid Working: how covid19 is changing the workplace. this looked at personal accounts, impact on personal circumstances, benefits and disadvantages of working from home. issues of increased domestic violence. The right to disconnect was discussed where in other countries such as France and Germany laws have been brought in to allow workers to disconnect and not answer work calls out of working hours.

Working from home allowance was discussed, that may come to an end very soon. and how important that working from home payments are for members and employees.

There was then a look into the important areas for negotiations coming up these are as follows…

Donna wrapped up her session with a final Slide linking to the Bargaining Guides and a comic strip about home working

you can read the bargaining guides here..

Following this presentation there was a comfort break before the final speech of the day by Kevin Stuart – Minister for Mental Well-being and social care and he discussed about Creating a National Care Service in Scotland. Kevin then took questions from the floor.

This wraps up todays session for the conference ends this blog for today, and order of business continues tomorrow.

You can read the Final Agenda here…

The Annual Report can be read here

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UNISON Community Conference 2020

Unison Community Conference started with focussed meetings on service areas. I attended the housing association session which looked at issues facing housing staff across the country, discussed best practice and challenges still very prevalent in the sectors. Issues discussed ranged from universal credit challenges, leaseholder issues, staffing issues, support networks, mental health issues, working with tenants, staff bonuses. Outcomes from this were for a specific newsletter for housing related information and support to be put together to share best practice and inform of useful information.

Following this useful session the Community Seminar began and conference welcomed Christine McNea spoke to conference about the challenges affecting those working in the community sector. Questions were raised to the group around, rough sleeping, sleep ins, community sector increasing inside, housing associations related pay scale increase for work to be done, and other community related issues.

Saturday began we attended the Workshop on Deepening engagement in your unison, this turned out to be very useful and gave us some ideas for future planning for the branch to ensure that we can reach out to members across all sectors of our branch and make sure we include them all in future branch activities where possible.

There was then a speech from RT HON Mark Drakeford AM (First Minister of Wales) who covered issues which related to the Housing Crisis, Right to Buy, community issues, success stories from Wales and also fielded questions from delegates,

 

 

You can see more about Mark here…

and you can read his profile here…
https://www.assembly.wales/en/memhome/Pages/MemberProfile.aspx?mid=253

Following this a lunch break the main business began, the annual report and other information was now brought to conference, you can read this here…

https://www.unison.org.uk/events/2020-community-conference/

Motions now to be discussed were the following…

  • Engaging Branches in the community sector in LGBT+ Recruitment and Organising – Motion Carried
  • Recruitment and Organising – Motion Carried
  • Health and Safety Representation – Motion Carried
  • Racism in Community Workplaces – Motion Carried
  • Community Services for Women – a lifeline removed – Motion Carried
  • Community Employers, Accessibility Passports and Access to Work – Motion Carried
  • Sleeping in, losing out – Motion Carried
  • Making it fair for social care – Motion Carried
  • Right to buy and shared ownership in Housing Associations in England – Motion Carried
  • Supporting People – Motion Carried
  • National standards for social care – protecting disabled workers – Motion Carried
  • Branch Structures – Motion Carried
  • Inclusive Workplace Policies for Non-Binary members in the community Sector – Motion Carried
  • Recruitment and organising Black members in the fragmented workforce – Motion Carried
  • promoting the EU settlement scheme to community members – Motion Carried
  • Stop ‘First Homes’ proposals – Motion Carried

This brought to a close the Community Conference 2020 until next year.