If we shy away no one can help us but if we decide to fight, no one can stop us

#uNDC15 A thumping speech from Dave Prentis, UNISON general secretary, hit all the right buttons with Conference with support for the Glasgow strikers and a pledge that 'an injury to one is an injury to all' as he backed sacked SECC worker Robert O'Donnell.

It celebrated victories, listed the challenges ahead and underlined that trade union rights are human rights and must be protected.

His full speech is below:

Thousands march against racism & fascism in Cardiff, Glasgow & London

Marches and rallies were held in Cardiff, Glasgow and London yesterday to mark United Nations Anti-Racism Day. In London a large and noisy march snaked through Whitehall from Westminster to a rally in Trafalgar Square where Diane Abbot MP stated "the objective is to say to politicians in all parties that we're tired of this anti-immigrant political narrative"
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/03/22/diane-abbott-ukip-appealing-to-racism_n_5013549.html?utm_hp_ref=uk-politics&ir=UK+Politics

Glasgow rally

'Glasgow Girls' Emma Clifford and Amal Mally Azzudin address the Glasgow rally

The price of humanity and public service

When the helicopter came down on the pub in Glasgow I was about 500 yards away. I heard nothing. I saw nothing. But a few minutes later on the train the tweets started coming through. A sad end to a wonderful meal with treasured long-term comrades.

Glasgow school staff in fourth round of action

Glasgow school support staff are lobbying the city council today in a fourth round of strike action over the imposition of healthcare duties to their roles. The strike in the north west of the city is part of a programme of area based action by 1,000 workers running since 31 October.
    The action by pupil support assistants, instructors and care workers is against the council’s decision to force all pupil support assistants to undertake specialist healthcare tasks in addition to their core duties.

Putting the (welly) boot in

A little local difficulty has arisen in Glasgow over the quaint tradition of putting a traffic cone on Wellington's statue. First the council wanted to raise the plinth to stop it happening, then they 'paused' after a social media backlash. The ironic news prompted this comment from a local contact: "Glasgow Labour Party has been totally united in passing £200m in cuts, closing day centres, increasing charges for care and threatening 1,000 strikers with the sack. Now they publicly split over a traffic cone on the head of a 19th century Duke who 'invented' a boot to keep working class soldiers' feet dry whilst being slaughtered in the mud during imperialist wars. Unbelievable!"

Glasgow support assistants strike

A strike by UNISON pupil support assistants closed 10 Glasgow schools yesterday in a dispute about extra duties like healthcare and the administration of medicine being forced on them without agreement.
   Glasgow City Council is expecting PSAs to undertake specialist health care tasks and administration of medicines in addition to their core duties of supporting the delivery of education.

A sea of purple across the land

Hundreds of thousands hit the streets of London, Glasgow and Belfast yesterday to fight back against austerity. Marching for 'A Future That Works' and a 'Better Fairer Way'. In London the front of the rally was at Hyde Park before the end had left the Victora Embankment. The same in Glasgow where people were still in George Square when the GMB pipe band at the front was entering Glasgow Green.
..The Mirror follows the London March in words and pictures at http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/a-future-that-works-live-blog-from-tuc-1388672   The UNISON story is at http://www.unison.org.uk/20102012/  and http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/oct20/

Hope Not Hate Glasgow Founding Meeting 20 Sept

Get along to the STUC on 20 September at 7pm to join with UNISON, the GMB, STUC, Show Racism the Red Card and a range of other organisations and activists to launch a Greater Glasgow Hope Not Hate Group.

20 October - Glasgow, Are you ready?

#Oct20 The Scottish Trade Union Congress (STUC) is mobilising for a mass anti-austerity demonstration in Glasgow on 20 October coinciding with the London demonstration.  The STUC will be applying for George Square to be part of the October 20th event but is awaiting approval from Glasgow City Council which is reviewing use of the Square for public demonstrations.

Glasgow protest against fascist attacks on left activists

UNISON Scottish Council delegates meeting in Glasgow joined a Unite Against Fascism protest against the Scottish Defence League who have recently attacked Saturday solidarity stalls in the city's Buchanan Street. UNISON, the STUC and many others have also written to the city council to object to an SDL application to march in the city on 25 March.