Aberdeenshire UNISON
       
 
 

National Local Government Service Group Conference 2012

17th - 18th June in Bournemouth

Branch delegates were to the fore at Local Government Conference. Branch Secretary, Inez Teece was busy in the role of Regional Delegate, not just speaking, but also supporting Scottish delegates to get into the debates. She moved Scotland's motion on support for Further Education.

Susan Kennedy spoke twice, once to support a composite on justice for school support staff, which included the Branch's amendment, and again to speak up for women's pensions. Kate Ramsden, Branch Chair told conference of Scotland's Fair Pay campaign and the focus on getting a living wage for all workers in the public sector and voluntary and private employers commissioned by councils.

Details of these debates are below.

Susan Kennedy
Inez Teece
Kate Ramsden
Fair pay vote

Justice for School Support Staff
Susan Kennedy gave a Scottish perspective to the debate as Local Government Conference supported a range of measures to defend school support staff, who have faced a range of attacks on their jobs, pay, terms and conditions and job security across the four nations >>>more

Stop cuts to Further Education
Local Government Conference supported a Scottish motion moved by Regional Delegate Inez Teece, and condemned cuts to the Further Education sector throughout the UK. It strongly supported campaigns in Scotland and Cymru Wales, and in the rest of the country for improved funding, no job loss and to stop and reverse privatisation >>>more

Campaign for Fair Pay and a Living Wage
Scotland speakers, including Branch Chair, Kate Ramsden, were to the fore as Local Government Conference threw its wage behind a wide ranging strategy to challenge pay restraint, reject regional pay and campaign for fair pay and a living wage of £7.20 an hour more >>>more

Enough is enough - the battle for decent pensions for women
Susan Kennedy, Branch Equalities Officer spoke out as Conference set out a range of measures to encourage women to join or to stay in the Local Government Pensions Scheme and to become actively involved in campaigning for improved pensions for women >>> more

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Who's who and what's what?

Service group conferences bring together members across the country doing similar kinds of jobs or working for the same kinds of employers. Our branch's service group is local government. It has its conference just before the National Conference and in the same venue.

The delegation
The branch is entitled to send four delegates to this conference and must have regard to proportionality in line with the gender balance etc in the branch. We tend to have the same delegation as the Delegate Conference because of the distance to travel and the fact that one conference follows on from the other. This year we have an all female delegation to both Local Government and Delegate Conference, with Ian McDonald as observer to both.

The Branch delegation to this year's Local Government Conference in Bournemouth is:

Kate Ramsden Susan Kennedy Tricia Morrison
Kate Ramsden,
Branch Chair
Susan Kennedy, Assistant Secretary and Equalities Officer

Scott Sutherland, Education Officer and steward

Inez TeeceRegional Delegates: Two regional delegates are elected each year from the Scottish Local Government Committee. They speak to Scotland's motions and amendments and they keep Scottish delegates right about conference matters. We are very pleased that for the second year in a row, our branch secretary, Inez Teece has been elected as regional delegate, along with Scott Donohoe, from Glasgow Branch.

Motions
Motions are passed by a straight majority of the conference delegates on a hand vote. If it is close, conference delegates or the chair of conference can call for a card vote. The number of card votes per delegation is based on the number of members in the branch.

The Branch has not submiited any motions to this year's Local Government Conference but we have submitted an amendment to add a Scottish dimension to a motion from Newcastle City on defending school support staff.

As delegates we will vote on the motions and the rule changes in line with branch policy, where we have that in place and we can speak for or against any of the motions, amendments and rule changes.

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Local Government Service Group Conference 2012

Kate Ramsden
Local Government Conference Bournemouth 2012
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