Unison Follow

NHS bosses in Manchester are set to waste thousands of pounds – money that ought to be spent on helping vulnerable people with mental health problems – on a consultant whose "mission" will be to investigate a leading trade unionist currently being disciplined by management.

Tony Staunton, former City of Plymouth local government Unison branch secretary and one of the best known activists in the union, faces a union disciplinary hearing on Monday.

The attempt by Unison union leaders to discipline leading activist Yunus Bakhsh is causing them to perform some dangerous somersaults.

Three unions – Unison, the GMB and the T&G section of Unite – have called a national lobby of parliament for Tuesday of next week to demand full funding for local government to pay single status deals.

Supporters of Karen Reissmann – the psychiatric nurse and Unison activist who was suspended by her employer two weeks ago – were heartened to hear that both the national executive of her union and its health executive have pledged her their full backing.

Redundancies at Blood Centres across Britain Trade unionists were angry this week as Blood Centres across the country served notices of compulsory redundancies. One of those affected is Sandra Crowley, a longstanding Unison steward from the Blood Centre in Liverpool.

Some 340 members of the Unison union at Yorkshire Purchasing in Wakefield are set to take strike action after bosses imposed how they are paid.

The Unison public sector workers’ union national conference, held in Brighton last week, was framed by the mood for a fight over pay, and the coming to office of Gordon Brown.

Demand for increased state pensions Delegates voted overwhelmingly for the union to push for an immediate and substantial increase in the basic state pension to £138 a week.

Over 300 delegates heard Unison activists Yunus Bakhsh and Tony Staunton put their case at a lively and angry fringe meeting at the conference. It was the biggest fringe meeting of all.

"This year the government and the employers have miscalculated," Dave Prentis, general secretary of the Unison union, told delegates to the public sector union’s conference in Brighton last week.

Some 340 members of the Unison union at Yorkshire Purchasing in Wakefield are set to take strike action over the imposition by management of how they are paid.