Disabled Member's Conference 2011

UNISON's 18th Disabled Members Conference was held

4th-7th November in Brighton.

Conference was opened by Karen Jennings – UNISON Assistant General Secretary.

Karen highlighted the "momentous decision" of our members to take strike action on 30th November to protect their pensions.  She explained the crisis we find ourselves in can be ultimately traced back to the banking crisis, where the greed of a few creates a situation where jobs, livelihoods and pensions are under threat, having a disproportionate impact on disabled people.  

She spoke about the 290,000 job losses since 2009, 163,000 job losses being in the public sector - far outweighing the number of jobs created in the private sector.  There are currently around 2.57m unemployed people in the UK.  Around 867,300 people have been out of work for more than 1 year;  1 million young people are without work. 

She explained that this is unnecessary; that the government should be using the Robin Hood tax and increasing the benefits of people so they have money in their pockets to boost the economy.

She stated that UNISON need to be even more vigorous in challenging discrimination in the work place to protect members .

She spoke of the disgraceful "Zero hour contracts mentality" – highlighting that this has a disproportionate effect on disabled members, having a detrimental  impact on benefits, job security and wellbeing.

Speaking again on the pensions issues, she said "It cannot be right that a 46 year old nursing sister who has given their whole career to the NHS, should be made to pay £90 a month more, have to work 6 years longer and get less when they retire".  She called for unity on the 30th November to challenge the attacks on pensions.

The Annual Report

The annual Report was moved and accepted by Conference.  The Annual Report can be read by clicking here.

Conference Motions

Conference debated and voted on the tabled motions throughout the weekend.  All the debated motions can be read here.