Every member, visitor, guest or delegate was urged to attend the march and to bring their families along too!
http://www.unison.org.uk/news/news_view.asp?did=6503
Dave Prentis received a tremendous reception by conference. His speech was inspiring, passionate, and to the point. He held no prisoners attacking the Tories, Lib Dems, BNP, bankers and putting the blame for the suffering that is taking place and will follow, firmly where it belongs. Dave also urged delegates to support the March and Demo on 26th March, outlining its importance and significance.
Saturday morning saw the newly appointed black AGS, Roger McKenzie address conference. You could sense the anticipation in the hall and from the minute he started to the minute he stepped away from the rostrum he held conferences attention through humour, personal references to the inspiration of his parents, to the challenges he faced as a black person in his life and to the trade union movement and what it means to him. He told conference about the successes we have had through self organisation and highlighted our responsibility to the organising agenda in branches, communities and regions. Did Roger refer to the March 26th? Of course and rightly so!
Diane Abbot, MP spoke to conference on Saturday afternoon and she stated that there is a lack of solidarity between black people. We will not make progress in terms of representation in work and trade unions if we do not show some solidarity between, the underlying message was, we must stop putting black against black. We must come together – how true is that?
A motion supporting the Miami 5 Cuban political prisoners was carried unanimously and of the other motions debated the most contentious was motion 1 “election of a delegate to the NDC and the National SG conferences representing Black UNISON Members from 2012 and thereafter” – now apart from it possibly being the longest motion title in the history of UNISON, what is there remotely threatening about the motion?
Well there must be something as national committee members and delegates, were ready to speak against it. However the movers stuck to their guns as did other speakers in favour and at last overcame 3 years of opposition to win the day, the success was greeted with an almighty cheer.
Overall conference was in one new delegates opinion “inspiring” with highs and lows, but is that not the way of union conferences?
Mark Clifford