How long have you been a member of UNISON? I became a UNISON member 14 years ago when I started working in my daughters’ school as both teaching assistant and midday supervisor, when I moved to EDF Energy I transferred my membership and I was able to be more involved with helping our members within […]
News
One of our brilliant SE Union Learning Reps recently ran a “Mindfull to Mindful Colouring Lunch & Learn” – read their account here: “My first lunch and learn session as a URL was for a colouring session linked to Mindfulness and mental wellbeing. I arranged for 2 sessions on consecutive weeks to give those attending […]
For some time, Hampshire UNISON has been raising the subject of challenging and often violent behaviour towards school support staff across the county. A branch-wide survey was undertaken in 2017 which discovered that violent behaviour and challenging behaviour in schools was on the rise. School support staff work in incredibly challenging conditions, many of them […]
UNISON has successfully campaigned to prevent the outsourcing of NHS catering staff working in Southampton and Portsmouth to private contractor, Interserve. In 2017, the Solent Trust Board decided to outsource the patient and retail catering services for the Trust as a whole. This affected both ward based catering services at hospital sites and staff in […]
Workers at the Environment Agency are to take industrial action after a below-inflation pay rise was forced on staff earlier this year, UNISON said today (Thursday). Staff overwhelmingly backed industrial action in their demand for a fairer offer than the 1.3% rise they were given back in January. More than 85% of votes cast supported taking action, which includes stopping […]
The Bernie Grant initiative has been established to address the under-representation of BAME members as elected Labour politicians, both locally and nationally. It is named in memory of the late pioneering MP and Council Leader, Bernie Grant, who worked hard to encourage a new generation of BAME Labour politicians. The task of addressing the current […]
UNISON pay negotiations at South East Water have yielded an above inflation pay rise. Staff will get a 3% pay rise which will keep wages in line with the forecasted cost of living. Caroline Fife Regional Organiser said ” UNISON put a lot of work into the pay claim focusing on the high cost of […]
18 March 2019 Dear Interserve member, Interserve Plc Collapse and establishment of Interserve Group Ltd I am writing to you following the collapse of Interserve Plc into administration on Friday 15 March and the sale of Interserve business and assets to a newly incorporated company (“Interserve Group Ltd”) owned by its former major investors. […]
UNISON will ballot on pay from 14 March after the Environment Agency imposed an average 1.3% pay increase despite 90% of members rejecting that offer. Here’s one workers’ story: “I love my job as I really enjoy working outdoors and spend much of my week out and about driving between sites and walking stretches […]
UNISON is a union of women, over 1 million of them working across the public and private sectors delivering quality public services. Our women members are in all professions, catering assistants, nurses, midday supervisors, librarians, cleaners, social workers and cooks amongst a wide variety of jobs. A large proportion of our women members are low […]
On 22nd January Surrey UNISON, alongside parents, supporters, workers and campaigners will be lobbying Surrey County Council on their proposals to close 37 children’s centres across Surrey. There are currently 58 centres helping families with children aged 0-5 years. The council’s recent proposals state that children’s centres should give more help to the children that […]
How long have you been a member of UNISON? I joined as soon as I started work, aged 17, so about 15 years ago. I first started my working career in the NHS as a nursery nurse at the Southampton General Hospital, and then four years ago I transferred my membership over when I […]
A number of branches in the South East used UNISON’s member learning opportunities as a way to recruit new members and engage with existing members. Activists from Hampshire Local Government Branch offered members and potential members the opportunity to develop their professional skills and build their confidence, with a ‘Power to be you’ taster session. […]