Report from UNISON National Retired Members Conference,
Brighton Centre, Brighton, 6 - 7 October 2015.

This report is by Ron Kerr from Dundee City Branch

I was fortunate to represent our Branch at this conference. I travelled to Brighton on 5 October and enjoyed a stimulating few days listening to, and joining in, debates on areas of interest to older UNISON members.

The first day, 6 October, started with registration. I then attended a debate on the proposed Transatlantic Treaty and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Speakers from UNISON, Friends of the Earth and Global Watch outlined the threat it poses to aspects of our society, including, the NHS, trade union rights, standards, human rights. It allows multinationals to take action against governments in secret tribunals if their profits are under threat. I then went on to a meeting of Scottish delegates where we discussed motions on the main agenda which had particular relevance for Scotland. The day finished at around 6.30 pm.

Conference opened at 9.30 am on 7 October with welcome addresses from Wendy Nicholls, Chair of Conference and President of UNISON, followed by Linda Hyde, Mayor of Brighton and Hove.

Before the agenda proper commenced an emergency motion was discussed condemning the callous remarks about pensioners and their travel/heating allowances, made to the Conservative conference by a Mr Wild of the Tory supporting Taxpayers Alliance.

He suggested abolishing the pensioner heating and travel allowances and went on to say that the Tories didn't have to worry about losing older peoples' votes because many of the people affected by these cuts would either be dead or have forgotten who did it. This motion was passed unanimously.

Conference then debated pensions including protection of existing benefits, opposition to two tier pensions, campaign for a living pension and equal pensions for women.

A wide discussion on health and social care then followed. I spoke in support of a motion from the South East Region concerning age discrimination in the treatment of prostate cancer in some parts of NHS England.

I outlined the excellent care I got at Ninewells which helped to illustrate the “lottery” which can occur between geographical and/or treatment areas. Other issues discussed were dementia services, NHS out of hours services, older people and the NHS, carer’s allowances, after care, and dignity in later life and end of life/death. The quality of the debate and some of the expertise on display, regarding the NHS and care sector, was impressive.

The afternoon session opened with an address from Dave Prentis, General Secretary of UNISON.

He provided some interesting statistics about retired members in UNISON. There are now 170,946 of us in the union, equalling 12,000 years of TU experience. He outlined his appreciation of the involvement of, and work done by retired members.

Dave then attacked the ongoing, ideologically driven campaign by the Tory Party to destroy the union movement. The current government is the most extreme in his lifetime. As such our union has to fight this all the way.

After Dave's speech Conference supported motions calling for universal benefits, including travel and heating allowances, to be protected. A discussion on communication and organisation within UNISON followed. There was particular concern about action not being taken quickly enough on motions passed. Changes to rules were then proposed which would give retired members a greater role at branch level. Conference ended with a discussion on recruitment, and how our section could help with this.

It wasn't all work. There was also a social element involved. The Brighton Hotel was excellent with friendly staff. Also managed to join other delegates for evening meals, then we returned to the Hotel bar and put the world to rights!

Many thank to the branch for agreeing to fund a Retired Members delegate to this Conference.

Ron Kerr
Retired Members Section

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