President stresses UNISON ’s myth-busting role

“I didn’t actually join the union when I started with the council: I was only a temp and I was told that I couldn’t join.” UNISON president Josie Bird was explaining to the union’s women’s conference the sort of myths that we still have to break – because what she had been told all those years ago was wrong. It “took me probably a lot longer to become a permanent member of staff – and I was paid on a lower grade – because I wasn’t in a union,” she continued. When she did join, she became active in the young members’ group. And though she’s a little beyond that stage now, she “still talks to young members – they want to be active. “but they don’t know [in the union] what they’ll do after 27” because too often, young members are only considered as suitable for being a young members’ rep. Ms Bird called on delegates to “mentor, support and encourage young members to be more than a young members’ rep” – to be “a part of the whole union.” Talking of the appalling disparity in life expectancy between the rich and the poor – now 19 years – that has developed in recent years, she raised the issues of the 3,000% rise in foodbank need in the past decade, spiralling homelessness spiralling and child poverty approaching 40% – that’s “nine children in every classroom. “We are in very real danger of having a lost generation,” she said, adding that the people affected were “real people, with real life, real homes and real...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - Category: Food Science Authors: Tags: Article News 2020 Women's Conference Josie Bird women members Source Type: news