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Feargal Sharkey brings star quality – and rage – to conference

21-06-2024 16:49

Feargal Sharkey with UNISON delegates. Photo: Steve Forrest/Workers’ Photos
UNISON’s national delegate conference (NDC) enjoyed a spot of real star quality earlier this week, when a fringe meeting on the climate crisis saw a special guest in singer and clean water campaigner Feargal Sharkey.
“My father would be cock-a-hoop that I was standing on a union platform,” he told those attending.
His dad was a trade union official who took him to his first union meeting at age ei

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UNISON passes motion to recognise Palestine as a state

21-06-2024 16:22

The third day of UNISON’s national delegate conference, chaired by UNISON president Libby Nolan, saw delegates pass a composite motion in solidarity with Palestine – but not before several impassioned speeches were heard.
The debate came shortly after Palestinian ambassador to the UK Dr Hussam Zomlot’s speech to the union.
Introducing the motion on behalf of UNISON Scotland, Tony Slaven said: “After the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, a ceasefire is needed urgently.
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‘Justice for the Palestinian people is justice for all’

21-06-2024 15:27

The highlight of this year’s national delegate conference was a speech from Palestinian ambassador to the United Kingdom Dr Husam Zomlot (pictured), who was welcomed with a standing ovation.
Thanking the union for its warmth, he began with an acknowledgement of UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea’s recent trip to the West Bank. “I know Christina got a taste of what it means to live under Israel’s military occupation.
“You may think it’s the deadly milita

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‘System change, not climate change’

21-06-2024 12:51

“This is a crisis that all trade unionists and every person should be angry about.” That was how Tony Wright introduced a motion on climate change for the NEC and UNISON’s national delegate conference in Brighton this week.
“Climate change is already affecting every aspect of what our members do. Public services are huge carbon emitters,” he continued.
“We use the full might of public funding to ensure that our public-sector contracts are used to commit to a

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NHS employers need to pay staff fairly or face strike action

21-06-2024 07:00

NHS managers must ensure health workers are on the correct salary bands for the jobs they do and avoid the need for further strike action this year, says UNISON today (Friday).
Since 2021, the union has taken an employer-by-employer approach to help healthcare assistants across the UK win wage rises, including around £80m in back pay, to make up for years of being paid significantly less than they should have been.
UNISON’s Fair Pay for Patient Care campaign has prompted salary

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