Terfs, ‘ toxic opinions ’ and an obsession over who ’ s in what toilet
Moving a motion on combatting anti-trans narratives in the media at UNISON’s LGBT+ conference this afternoon, Jenny said that, until 2016, it was largely either a case of having to “put up with Germaine Greer and her toxic opinions” or a sort of British Carry On humour.
Then came Brexit , which emboldened bigotry. Across all the British media, she said, there has been a constant stream of anti-trans opinion, portraying trans people – and trans women in particular – as a danger to others, and displaying an obsessive interest in what “bits” other people in public toilets have what they do with the...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - November 19, 2022 Category: Food Science Authors: Amanda Kendal Tags: Article 2022 LGBT 2022 LGBT conference Source Type: news
‘ Living legend ’ Jackie Lewis given LGBT+ lifetime achievement award
In a busy afternoon at UNISON’s LGBT+ conference in Edinburgh today, delegates took time to celebrate one of the union’s own LGBT+ stars – the redoubtable Jackie Lewis from Lambeth.
Introducing a lifetime achievement award, Eileen Best from the national LGBT+ committee said that Jackie was a stickler for detail, telling of an occasion at one conference where she had spent three hours discussing the importance of a single punctuation mark in a motion.
Initially with Nalgo, before it joined with Cohse and Nupe to become UNISON, Jackie was closely involved in the formation of a lesbian and gay group in the union, and si...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - November 19, 2022 Category: Food Science Authors: Amanda Kendal Tags: Article News 2022 LGBT 2022 LGBT conference Source Type: news
Delegates discuss tackling hate and persecution around the world
The first plenary session of UNISON’s LGBT+ annual conference in Edinburgh this morning saw a strong emphasis on continuing persecution of LGBT+ people, in the UK and around the world.
Delegates debated a number of motions on trans equality – including the need to combat anti-trans narratives in the media, negotiating trans equality with employers and supporting gender neutral toilets and changing facilities.
Gail from the North West pointed out that trans people – particularly trans women – have been harassed, verbally and physically abused for being perceived to be in the ‘wrong’ toilet. “The right to acces...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - November 19, 2022 Category: Food Science Authors: Amanda Kendal Tags: Article 2022 LGBT 2022 LGBT conference Source Type: news
UNISON attends trade unionist trial in Turkey
Last month, UNISON representatives attended the trial of former union leader and friend of the union, Gonul Erden.
Ms Erden, alongside several colleagues, is facing charges of ‘terrorism’ for her trade union work when she was co-president of SES, the public health and services union in Turkey.
Eight current and former leading members of SES, including Ms Erden, were arrested in May 2021, when police raided their homes. Five members are accused of leading a terrorist organisation, while the three others are accused of being members of a terrorist group.
Ms Erden is accused of leading an armed terrorist organ...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - November 15, 2022 Category: Food Science Authors: Janey Starling Tags: Article News gonul erden international Source Type: news
Winter warning as Environment Agency staff vote for strike, says UNISON
Environment Agency staff have voted overwhelmingly to strike over pay for the first time in the organisation’s 26-year history, says UNISON today (Tuesday).
In the strike vote, 72% of the 2,800 Agency staff balloted by the union across England, including river inspectors, flood forecasting officers, coastal risk management officers and sewage plant attendants, voted to take action.
Earlier in the year staff, who also work on the Thames Barrier, maintain coastal defences, and manage the risk of flooding from rivers, reservoirs and the sea, rejected what they see as an insulting 2% pay offer (plus a £345 one-off payment)...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - November 15, 2022 Category: Food Science Authors: Anthony Barnes Tags: News Press release environment agency Source Type: news
Act on pay and help the NHS, staff and patients, say health unions
Unions representing more than a million staff working across the NHS have today (Tuesday) met with health secretary Steve Barclay to discuss the growing workforce crisis.
At the Westminster meeting this morning, the unions made clear that without urgent government action on wages, experienced health workers would continue to quit their jobs, and the NHS struggle to attract new staff in sufficient numbers.
Unions told the secretary of state that patient waits for treatment would carry on worsening, unless something was done about the dangerously low staffing levels affecting every part of the NHS.
Decent wages are ke...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - November 15, 2022 Category: Food Science Authors: Anthony Barnes Tags: News Press release nhs pay Source Type: news
Retained EU Law Bill: UNISON gives expert evidence in Parliament
In its rush to finalise Brexit, the government plans to axe over 2,400 laws by the end of next year – all because they originated in the EU. Today UNISON, which represents over 1.3 million workers in the UK, gave expert evidence to Parliament on the devastating impact this will have on basic workers’ protections.
The controversial Retained EU Law Bill, introduced by Jacob Rees-Mogg, has set a fast-moving conveyor belt in motion, which will see all protections for workers and UK citizens that come from EU law fall off a cliff in December 2023, unless the government decides to produce new and equivalent UK laws. This dea...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - November 8, 2022 Category: Food Science Authors: Janey Starling Tags: News Retained EU Law bill Source Type: news
UNISON ambulance workers share heartbreaking stories of wait times
Two UNISON members have appeared on a powerful ITV report into ambulance waiting times.
Senior paramedic and UNISON branch chair Glenn Carrington (pictured above), who has worked for the East of England Ambulance Service (EEAS) for almost 30 years, described how dire the situation has become.
“We’re spending so much time sat outside the hospital. The record so far is 10 and a half hours.
“Literally 10 and a half hours with our patient in the back of our vehicle, unable to move into the hospital.”
When ITV health editor Emily Morgan asked: “Did that patient deteriorate?” Mr Carrington responded: “They always d...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - November 7, 2022 Category: Food Science Authors: Janey Starling Tags: Article News ambulance workers NHS Source Type: news
Mileage rate rise needed urgently for public sector staff
The government must act to raise mileage rates for all frontline public service staff who can’t do their jobs without vehicles, but are struggling with fuel costs, says UNISON today (Tuesday).
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has not increased the allowance in a decade. Workers affected include midwives attending home births, district nurses, social workers and pest control officers.
UNISON says this means staff are effectively subsidising their employers, because they are paying much more for petrol than they can claim back, especially as fuel prices remain so high.
The approved mileage rate set by the Treasu...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - November 1, 2022 Category: Food Science Authors: Anthony Barnes Tags: News Press release cost of living fuel crisis Source Type: news
Blog: The government paves the way for Austerity 2.0
“It’s going to be rough” is what we’re hearing in news reports from government sources today. That’s the reality of toxic public spending cuts that are being threatened in Westminster’s latest narrative.
Sound familiar? Well, it is, because we’re heading to Austerity 2.0. We’ve been here before – the first round was painful, damaging and lasted over a decade. In a speech about the economy in 2010, on his plans to deal with the fallout of the global economic crisis, David Cameron said: “The measures that we need to deal with it will be unavoidably tough … I make no bones about that, but we ...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - November 1, 2022 Category: Food Science Authors: Christina McAnea Tags: General secretary's blog News Christina McAnea cost of living end the pay crisis Source Type: news
Vote yes for the NHS: UNISON urges backing for strike action
Some 350,000 NHS employees working across England, Wales and Northern Ireland are being asked to vote on strike action over pay this winter.
UNISON represents a wide range of staff working in the NHS, including porters, nurses, paramedics and cleaners. The union recommends members vote ‘yes’ for strike action in order to pressure government decision-makers to increase pay.
In England and Wales, NHS staff have had a pay award of just 72p per hour. This is nowhere near what workers need to survive the current cost of living – and it will do nothing to address the staffing crisis which has led to 132,000 unfilled vacan...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - November 1, 2022 Category: Food Science Authors: Janey Starling Tags: Article News health workers nhs pay NHS pay rise Source Type: news
Mobilise to save the planet
The United Nation’s COP27 climate conference opens at the end of this week in Egypt, in the shadow of the UN’s own prediction that only the “rapid transformation of societies” will avert climate disaster.
A new UN report shows that countries are far short of meeting their Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to below 2°, and preferably 1.5° by 2030.
Since COP26, hosted in Glasgow last year, very limited progress has been made in reducing emissions. In fact, policies currently in place, with no additional action, are projected to result in global warming of 2.8° over the twenty-first century.
Inger And...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - November 1, 2022 Category: Food Science Authors: Demetrios Matheou Tags: Article News green unison Green UNISON Week Source Type: news
Delegates call for help to combat the epidemic of male suicide
A busy afternoon at UNISON’s disabled members’ conference today (Sunday) was dominated by a harrowing debate on men and mental health, which heard testimony from delegates about their personal experiences of male friends or relatives who had taken their own lives.
In 2020, 75% of those who took their own lives in the UK were male, with 4,880 men and boys ending their lives – equating to 12 deaths every day of the year.
While people of all genders experience mental health problems, gender stereotypes mean that men’s mental health problems often go unnoticed.
An incredibly moving speech from one delegate, whose o...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - October 30, 2022 Category: Food Science Authors: Amanda Kendal Tags: Article News 2022 National Disabled Members Conference Human Rights Act LGBT mental health Source Type: news
‘ We want workplaces to thrive – the Tories want to curtail unions ’
“We want our workplaces to thrive. A Tory government wants to curtail trade union action even more, claiming that they’re run by trade union ‘barons’ rather than the democratic processes we go through – and this from a government that is on its second unelected prime minister in two months.”
Vicky Foxcroft, Labour’s shadow minister for disabled people, was addressing UNISON’s national disabled members’ conference in Brighton this afternoon, and noted that, disabled people are so important to this latest version of a Tory government that “we don’t know who the new minister [for disabled people] is”.
...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - October 30, 2022 Category: Food Science Authors: Amanda Kendal Tags: Article News 2022 National Disabled Members Conference Vicky Foxcroft Source Type: news
Disabled members look to the legacy of 2022
The first plenary sessions of UNISON’s annual disabled members conference took place this morning, with the cost of living and securing a legacy for the unions’ Year of the Disabled Worker dominating proceedings.
But it also saw member Paddy Toner presented with his award as this year’s winner of the union’s Local Service Champions Awards by general secretary Christina McAnea (pictured above).
Mr Toner is a rehabilitation worker for the visually impaired at Halton Borough Council. He himself is registered blind. He was nominated by Helen Illidge, his support worker, who accompanied him to the conference.
Watch a v...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - October 30, 2022 Category: Food Science Authors: Amanda Kendal Tags: Article News 2022 National Disabled Members Conference Local Service Champions Awards Source Type: news
