Press releases
Porters, hospital chefs and laboratory staff will today (14th December 2016) launch UNISON Cymru Wales’ winter Choose Well awareness campaign. The Choose Well campaign aims to help people in Wales who are unwell to get the best level of support and assistance. Many people, especially in winter, think that when they are unwell they need […]
UNISON will today (30 November), present its petition, to a Welsh Assembly Petitions Committee, calling for fair funding of local government. The union has collected signatures from council workers across the length and breadth Wales to pressurise the Welsh Government, as it finalises its budget today, to give the country the public services it […]
Public sector union UNISON, is today (18 November), celebrating a landmark decision by the City and County of Swansea Council to improve holiday pay for hundreds of frontline local government employees. Following concerted pressure from the union, the council has conceded that holiday pay should be calculated on the basis of all earnings and […]
A major conference organised by campaigning public services union UNISON, will today (18 November) be told that mass closures of youth centres across Wales means we are failing a generation of young people. The trade union has revealed spending by Welsh local authorities on youth services in the last four years has been cut by […]
UNISON has issued a rallying cry to protect the future of libraries across Neath Port Talbot (NPT) as well as the Cefn Coed museum. Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council is consulting on its 2017/18 budget and the cabinet is thought to be considering where spending can be cut. This Saturday (12 November) at 10am, […]
UNISON Cymru/Wales, the largest public sector trade union in Wales, is today launching a report which investigates the impact of austerity on local government in Wales. The report is being launched at the WLGA conference taking place in Cardiff. The report has been drafted in response to the ongoing financial pressure on local government services, […]
The BBC is this morning reporting that nine out of 10 councils in the UK are not paying ‘realistic prices’ to support older and disabled people in their own homes. The UK Home Care Association calculated the minimum price councils should be paying was £16.70 per hour, but the average was over £2 less. UNISON […]
The fiftieth anniversary of the Aberfan tragedy has been marked by UNISON staff and members working in public services across Wales. Margaret Thomas, UNISON Regional Secretary said, “Wales stands united in remembering those who lost their lives and their families. Any death is a tragedy, but a child’s death holds a particular poignancy and our […]
Last night viewers of BBC2 documentary ‘Who’s spending our billions?’ heard Welsh councils were spending millions of pounds on management consultants to advise on cutting jobs and local public services. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) was reported as receiving additional bonus payments tied to the number of people councils would eventually sack. To date the company was […]
Public service workers from across the country gather at the Senedd today at 12.30pm to tell politicians that local services are under such severe strain their future is threatened. Members of UNISON will make the case for fair funding for Wales and investment in the quality public services our communities deserve. The union’s mass lobby […]
Commenting on today’s (13 October), report from the Health Foundation, Donna Hutton, UNISON’s head of health, said, “The notice that the NHS in Wales could be saved from financial ruin by penalising the earnings of nurses, medical secretaries, porters and others, is not welcome. They work as hard as they can to provide the best […]
Campaigning public services union, UNISON has called a mass demonstration at the Senedd on Tuesday 18 October 2016 at 12.30pm to coincide with the Welsh Government’s announcement of its draft budget proposals later that afternoon. UNISON activists from branches across Wales will descend on Cardiff Bay to lobby Assembly Members for fairer funding for Wales. […]
Occupational therapists employed by Swansea council are to receive a bumper settlement of thousands of pounds after the authority acknowledged UNISON was correct to insist the therapists were significantly underpaid when compared to NHS peers. Each therapist will now receive a sum worth nearly £5,000 per year for the next five years. Concerted campaigning by […]
UNISON reaction to today’s Local Government statement Commenting on today’s statement by Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government Mark Drakeford AM, UNISON’s Dominic MacAskill said, “After ten years of speculation, council workers and our communities need to know what the future of local government will look like in Wales. They want the assurance that […]
Members of public sector union, UNISON Cymru/Wales, have promised a loud and colourful demonstration for affordable pensions for Bangor University support staff today (Thursday 15 September). University support staff from cleaners, to security workers and administrators will gather at 12.30pm at the Memorial Arch by the campus Portio building to protest that low paid workers […]