Monday, June 23, 2008

Friday: UNISON Conference – last day

I have already reported on the main bun fight of the week, the debate on motion 63, so I’ll just quickly fill in the rest of Friday. Firstly, we had Trevor Phillips, chair of the Equality & Human Rights commission as guest speaker. I have never seen Trevor make a speech before and I thought he was very good. He is determined to take the government on over 42 days detention.

Next was composite G on “Gun and Knife Crime”. Deputy London convenor, Conroy Lawrence, spoke very movingly about the death of his stepson, Justin, who was shot in South London during 2004. The death devastated the whole family. Yet it also turned them into local campaigners against gun crime and first hand practical supporters of families who have suffered in a similar way since.

Public sector Pension funds and a “Responsible Contractor Investment Policy (see previous post) was passed. Then big debate on organising, basic state pension, lunch, European Union Treaty (very anti) then motion 63.

The closing session is a “thank you and goodbye” to the President for her year of office, with plenty of embarrassing photos of the President when she was younger, displayed on the very large screens.

So – until next year in Brighton.

(Picture is of a bottle of Unison red wine that I won in a competition in the UNIZONE at the Migrant Workers stall. I failed the sample exam paper from the British government “Citizen test” quite spectacularly).

1 comment:

Robert said...

You failed that test as well shocking , we will all need to go back to school to become citizens.