Having pushed for industrial action for so long it felt good on Monday morning to be listening to debates on pay with a ballot taking place.
There were a lot of rousing speeches as you might expect but also some good discussion on how we consult members. While we make every effort to hold meetings across Manchester and sometimes consult by post we agree with conference that we need to investigate new methods.
The afternoon session focused on our members working in schools.
This included a motion on administering medication in schools. This is something that we have had to deal with in our branch. Some of our members have had to be protected from being forced to give medication or perform medical procedures. Just as importantly though, by acting on this issue our members have protected children too.
We also passed a motion that asking for a report to be done on Local Government Conference itself. We discussed the conference at our branch executive committee and agreed that we wanted this report so that we can consider whether things can be done differently.
Conferences can be expensive and while there have been some interesting debates no one spoke against any of the motions. We were clearly already united as a union on many of the issues so did we need two full days of debate?
When we have reports back next year we will take a new view on this after discussion as a branch.
Many more motions were debated of course and we were pleased to see so many young members attending conference and speaking in the debates. You can find out more on our national site www.unison.org.uk.
Conference closed at 5 o’clock and delegates raced across to a meeting for delegates for the National Delegate Conference.
We will be reporting on that conference over the rest of the week. You can also follow what is happening on Twitter @UnisonMcr.
