“I am delighted to be here yet again to talk to you. What a time to be meeting in the middle of a general election campaign that gives us the opportunity to put an end to 14 years of disastrous and divisive Tory rule and I’m really pleased that this year we are celebrating the Year of LGBT+ Workers. We meet at a time where our union is stronger than ever, getting stronger by the day and improving working people’s lives and attracting more and more members and I thank everyone of you for that.”
“In the 3 years since I became your General Secretary UNISON has continued to grow in membership and activists. I promised that branches and regions would get the resources they need to run the campaigns on issues that matter most to you and your members through the Branch Support and Organising Fund. I promised to deliver a recruitment and organising strategy which will be evidence based, not just big ideas, but actually tracking what works and what doesn’t work in line with our priorities.”
“So far this year UNISON has recruited 100,000 members and on top of that we have net growth of 20,000 members only halfway through the year. From this we have 4,000 new activists.”
“Last year at Conference I promised that as it was the 75th anniversary of Windrush that UNISON would be taking a high court challenge on this and we won. This is an amazing victory for UNISON against the Tories but it is a bigger victory for those affected by the Windrush scandal. It shows that no government is above the law.”
“I travelled a lot this year, I visited our most Northern branches in Shetland and Orkney, visiting a school where we had the most northerly picket line in the country.”
“In Scotland we had the biggest local government strike in years. The Scottish government and employers, as always, saying there is no more money and then our members take action and that forces them to dig that little bit deeper and find that money. Successful strikes like that take leadership and I want to pay tribute to all our lay leaders in these disputes. Everyone in this room is a leader in your workplaces and within UNISON. We make things happen. That’s the power of UNISON.”
“On July 4th, our 1.3 million members can vote to make something else happen, something really important – a change of government in Westminster. UNISON members and the services they deliver need a Labour government.”