Nathan was on the floor for Thursday, and it was a day full of Motions and Rule Amendments.
The day started with a video recording from Shaher Saed, General Secretary of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions. He was scheduled to speak in person, but due to Israels border control he was not allowed to leave the country. As can be seen by the recording, the speech drew out the barbaric nature of life in Gaza and was an extremely harrowing listen:
An appropriate follow-up was Composite H Palestine (pages 30-36), which was almost unanimously voted for. This builds upon last years motions, with important emphasis on the boycott divestment and sanctions campaigns, ending arms sales and respecting international law. It also involves ensuring Unison itself is in order. There was a lively debate around an amendment that I and the overwhelming number of delegates rejected, as explained here by Tony Wilson of NEC (National Executive Council):
More motions discussed:
Motion 5 Industrial Action Better and Stronger in Unison (page 7-8) was a helpful motion: it gives building-block development of Unison’s industrial action preparedness and could be timely for our branch.
Motion 7 Engagement, Education, and Retention of Apprentices (page 10-11) was useful in catering to members of Unison who are apprentices. Many of us at UoB will be aware of colleagues that are apprentices, and this motion did leave me pondering if we’re doing what we can to ensure they are aware of the benefits of being a Unison member.
After lunch we then moved on to rule amendments:
- Rule J: The Political Fund (pages 130-131) was about removing gendered language and passed unanimously.
- Rule F Regions (page 130) was about changing references to Wales, replacing it with ‘Cymru’, and passed unanimously.
- Rule C Ceasing to be a member (pages 129-101) was a robust debate about whether or not to get rid of a timeline to investigate complaints of certain types about Unison members. Whilst it’s important that a process shouldn’t be rushed, there were powerful testimonies about the importance of retaining an appropriate timeline – as we’d expect of our employers – so as not to leave complainants and respondents in the lurch too long. The rule change fell well short of the 2/3 supermajority needed to pass however.
- Rule Q Definitions (page 131) was an amendment to allow some flexibility around the pay rate requirements of low-paid female members electoral seats to ensure there are enough candidates to run for these important seats and to cater for the variability in shift work and how it can impact their pay slips in the short run. From my reading however, the amendment seemed misunderstood by a number of speakers against it, and those who spoke in favour gave a poor account in explaining the merits, and it was therefore heavily rejected. It was an important lesson that debate on the conference floor can win the day and influence delegates.
Even more motions discussed:
Motion 13 Kinship Care and Fostering(pages 15-16). Raised awareness of kinship carers and made me proud that Unison can be there to support members who need to take care of those in desperate need. There was some extremely poignant testimony’s from members about how important this
Motion 14 Sexual Harassment 4. Unite for More Rights (page 16-18)
Composite C The Biggest Wave of Insourcing in a Generation (pages 26-30) was an important motion to bring back previously privatized services in-house. It made me think about outsourced services at UoB and if there is any scope for campaigning and bringing this back to our university.
The day is a reminder that whilst we are establishing evidence based policies, so many of these motions are so emotive and the empathy of internalising some delegates terrible lived experienced can be difficult on the conference floor.
Despite the Liverpool heat, Nathan had more evening energy than prior in the week and enjoyed having dinner and some drinks with HE delegates from across the country including Birmingham, Nottingham, Plymouth, Brighton and Manchester. It was especially beneficial for some delegates who went alone and didn’t know anyone.
