In July Alex (Co comms officer) and Eleni (International officer) attended UNISON’s branch officer training weekend at Croyde Bay in North Devon.
Alex writes:
I really enjoyed the communications officer training, and it was great to meet other comms officers from across the region and across different sectors.
I spent a lot of the weekend feeling very proud of our branch – we were often cited as an example of an active branch, and we even got a round of applause when the result of our pay consultation was announced! I was excited to show off our website and some of Mia’s excellent Instagram posts.
We had sessions on the importance of notice boards (expect more posters soon?), peer to peer texting (expect more annoying texts soon?), and training on how to use Canva.
There was also an interesting discussion about which social media platforms a branch should be using. Recently I was one of the people encouraging the branch to move away from Twitter/X in response to Elon Musk’s corruption of the platform, but some in the session were making the point that journalists still rely heavily on Twitter/X to discover news which they will then report on.
As a branch that is working to produce press release-style updates for the media (for example, our recent post on the pay consultation result) I think this leaves us with a dilemma about whether to take advantage of the platform to try and reach as many journalists as possible. It’s something we’ll have to keep discussing.
I strongly encourage any branch activists to take advantage of any opportunities to attend courses at Croyde Bay. The beautiful surroundings are a huge bonus – it’s a surreal experience to be able to take a swim in the sea between training sessions!
We hope you’re having a lush summer and keeping well 🌞
We’ve been busy supporting restructures, meeting with our chief financial and people’s officers, and mobilizing for the recent pay ballot – now we’re back with a bumper newsletter.
Read on for key updates, info about possible upcoming strike action, and most importantly, a callout for a craftivism group 👀🧵
🎥 July Branch Meeting recording
> Branch meeting recording link is in the newsletter email (Subject: “UoB UNISON August updates”)
Due to time constraints and to make our work more efficient, Vicky is no longer holding drop-ins on Wednesday afternoons. Instead, you can use her booking page to schedule online or in-person chats with her Book time with Vicky Redwood. If you think you need more time for your conversation or case, please fill out our case form, so we can arrange a meeting with you with the best person to help.
An incredible 63% of our members turned out to vote on our employer’s abysmal offer of a 1.4% pay increase. 95% of those who voted, voted to REJECT. 🎉
This is a strong, defiant response clearly showing widespread dissatisfaction with the ‘offer’. We’d like to say a massive well done to our members who voted and helped to spread the word – it’s a HUGE achievement to be one of the most active branches in the country, and it takes our collective action to be so successful. ✊
Despite the result of the consultation, the 1.4% pay increase will still be imposed from August’s pay cheque.
The overwhelming response from UNISON HE colleagues across the country was also to vote to reject. Your Higher Education Service Group Executive wants to work with the five other HE trade unions on a joint campaign to improve the pay offer. Those unions are currently concluding consultations with their members.
Likely next steps could involve balloting for national strike action. The previous ballot was a consultation; this would be the real deal!
As any full ballot will be by post, please ensure that your home address is up to date on my.unison.org.uk.
We need to keep up this amazing energy for the next vote, and ensure this time we hit the 50% turnout threshold to go on strike. Back in May, our ballot for local strike action was just 5% short of this (45%), despite 85% voting yes for strike action – which meant we couldn’t strike. The higher the turnout, the stronger our hand is for getting a better offer!
We can’t let senior management win again – in line with inflation, this year a 1.4% pay rise equals a real-terms pay cut of ~1.8 per cent. Higher Education is central to the economic success of our cities, regions and nations, yet it is falling drastically behind in terms of pay and conditions – we can’t continue to be insulted! Senior management keep us busy with the daily struggles of restructures, recruitment freezes and other BS so we don’t have time to mobilise – but we need to before it’s too late!
📢 National Delegate Conference
In June, co-branch secretaries Vicky and Nathan attended Unison’s National Delegate Conference (NDC) in Liverpool. NDC is where the union debates what to prioritise – delegates passed motions ranging from challenging the rise of far-right activity to supporting Palestine (especially the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement). It was a powerful reminder of our strength and solidarity as a union, and our branch is excited to campaign further on the motions discussed.
Vicky and Nathan both took to the stage to speak on some motions (👏). Vicky spoke on the struggle and crisis that HE is in, and urged conference to hold Labour to account and to not let the Employment Rights Bill be diluted any more than it already has been; she also called for more support for branch activists, highlighting the struggles we face as volunteers in branches. Nathan was the only delegate to ask a question about Unisons 2024 Annual Financial statements asking “On page 21 of the 2024 Financial Statements, it shows a total General Secretary salary and oncosts package of £197,937 for 2024.Given this will mean very large pay differentials between the General Secretary and our lowest paid UNISON members, should UNISON publish its pay differentials in the Financial Statements, like local authorities have to?”
You can find clips of these speeches and more updates from NDC in our ‘Dispatches from NDC’ series:
🌿 Update from our Environmental officer – Lucie R.
Rob Massie, Branch Secretary/Treasurer of our sister union Unite, attended the UCAP (University Climate Action Plan) Task and Finish Group on the 16th of July. This is now being headed by Naomi Gornall, Head of Net Zero Carbon & Sustainability in Campus Development as it has become apparent that finalising the University’s Climate Action Plan has gone somewhat adrift. The group are focused on getting the Action Plan agreed by the end of this calendar year, with final sign off from the University Executive Board and Board of Trustees scheduled for March 2026. The Action Plan will likely retain our ambitious target of a net-zero campus by 2030, with the expectation that this will not be met but must continue to be the goal. It does look promising that considerable carbon savings can be made with the Action Plan in place. I will continue to meet with Rob for updates on the group’s progress.
🗣️ Unison SU Staff Network
Central Unison is building a network of members working in Student’s Unions to discuss and network over issues particularly affecting SU staff. The network has met twice this year, and they are looking to arrange a further meeting in Autumn.
🏫 Upcoming training – from our Education officer Catherine R.
Unison college is open to all members – their training is free, and time off can be arranged for you to attend. Their sessions are brilliant for personal development as well as handy for work.
🎨 Craftivism Meet Ups – from our Disabilities officer Nat I.
After the success of the Unison supported Bake Sales in May, I was trying to think of other ways to engage members with the variety of issues currently going on.
This is where Craftivism comes in: a positive and mindful way to engage in activism. So, would you like to get involved in setting up and running a monthly Craftivism Meet up? Or are you interested in attending once it’s set up? Please fill in the Unison Craftivism Expresssion of Interest form so I contact you. If you would like to know more about what Craftivism is:
⚖️ New Legal & General pensions app – from our Treasurer Sophie H.
I am part of the Pensions Communications group for UBGPP (University of Bristol Group Personal Pension Plan), and would like to share our new poster promoting the new Legal & General App: UBGPP Poster – 2025 June
The app is a great way to manage your pension in your pocket – with information and help always on hand. For pension support, contact pensions-uob@bristol.ac.uk
🌏 South Asian Heritage event – From our Black members officer David E. R.
The South Asian Heritage event will be taking place on 6th August . This will be a hybrid event and will take place at the UNISON Centre.
🧑🔬 Consultation with Bristol’s REF 2029 Code of Practice
The Research Information and Evaluation Team have been in touch with Unison about consulting on their upcoming Code of Practice at UoB for REF 2029. We’re looking for any interested members – possibly someone in a school or faculty in a role relating to research – to help represent our union on this.
> Please get in touch if you think you might be interested.
UNISON members at the University of Bristol have voted overwhelmingly to reject the 1.4% salary increase offered by the university’s senior management.
95% of branch members who participated in the consultation ballot voted to reject the offer.
In May the Universities & Colleges Employers Association (UCEA), which negotiates nationally on behalf of the University of Bristol, offered university workers a 1.4% salary increase for 2025/6, far lower than all other public sector workers.
The University of Bristol branch of UNISON, as well as each of the five unions which take part in negotiations with UCEA, recommended that its members vote to reject the offer.
UNISON represents a wide range of professional services workers at the university. The branch argues that with inflation currently above 4%, a 1.4% increase amounts to a real terms pay cut of around 2.6% for all the university’s staff.
Co-branch secretaries Vicky Redwood and Nathan Street said:
“We commend our members for standing up for their pay with this clear indication of their dissatisfaction with the offer. It’s a real demonstration of our branch’s commitment to fighting for fair pay for all university staff. We’ve had 15 straight years of below inflation pay increases, and our members just can’t afford it anymore.”
The result makes it likely that the branch will move on to a formal postal ballot which, if successful, will provide it with a mandate for industrial action.
University of Bristol UNISON branch members on a picket line in summer 2023
In 2023, University of Bristol UNISON and Bristol UCU held joint strike action over that year’s pay offer, causing significant disruption to the university’s open days (Bristol UCU and UNISON hold joint strike action on university open day) and forcing the university’s senior management to enter local negotiations with the branch.
In early May 2025, two of our branch members attended the National Black Members Conference in Brighton. Here are their reports!
Jabu writes:
It was my first time attending the UNISON Black Members AGM, and was an inspiring and empowering experience. The event brought together Black members from across the UK to share experiences, build solidarity, and shape the union’s priorities for racial equality and social justice. I participated in thought-provoking workshops, heard powerful speeches from activists and leaders, and engaged in meaningful discussions around the key issues affecting Black workers today.
This year’s conference made it clearer than ever that collective action is not just important—it’s essential. Now more than ever, we must be organising to ensure that our union is truly representing and fighting for all workers, especially those from marginalised communities. It is vital that the union remains accountable to its members and not the government. I left the conference feeling more motivated to stay active, hold our structures to account, and help drive forward a truly inclusive and member-led movement.
Charlene writes:
I was interested in going before, but this was my first time attending a Unison conference and I’m glad I did. I wasn’t sure what to expect and I definitely felt like a newbie, but there were several friendly people on-hand to help with everything from orientation of the conference centre, understanding the paperwork and voting system, to receiving last-minute reasonable adjustments. I found the whole event to be well organised which helped to enhance my experience as a newcomer.
The event itself was very interesting, to hear the issues experienced by Black workers that you may not hear about through mainstream channels, it was quite sobering. This new awareness gave me insights that I previously didn’t have, and consequently brought up negative feelings. However, I also had feelings of gratitude that I personally haven’t faced some of the injustices discussed, but also reflections on the work that is yet to be done so that all people are treated equally. I felt better connected to people like me through 1-2-1 conversations and through hearing about the experiences of the speakers. Although my eyes were opened to the many challenges faced by Black workers, I left the conference feeling empowered that individually and collectively, I could be a part of positive change, and glad that I was part of an organisation that wanted to do something about it.
Phlebotomists are those who take and handle blood in hospitals. They are among the lowest paid staff in the NHS, and UNISON members from Gloucester and Cheltenham are taking action over fair pay.
Friday 4th July will mark their 100th day of strike action, and there will be a solidarity rally outside Gloucestershire Hospital from 10am-2pm to mark the occasion.
We are specialist health workers who take and handle blood samples from patients, including children and adults with complex needs. Our role is skilled, essential, and often urgent. But we’re among the lowest paid staff in the NHS, on just £12.36 an hour. Over a year ago, we found out we’re being underpaid. According to NHS rules, our knowledge and responsibilities mean we should be on Band 3, not Band 2. That’s 77p more an hour, a small amount for the Trust, but a huge difference for us. We’ve been on strike since 17 March 2025. That’s 100 days of lost pay, but we’re not backing down. We want to keep working in the NHS. We just want to be paid properly. This dispute is about more than pay. It’s about dignity. It’s about fairness. It’s about not letting NHS workers be walked over.
The word “motion” has lost all meaning now (ha!), but here are those debated on the final day:
Motion 60 (pg 90) – Ending Violence Against Women and Girls. This was carried.
Motion 8 (pg 11) – Support for Young Single Mothers. This motion was put forward by the Young Members forum. There was a lot of debate regarding this motion as those in the Against seats wanted the motion to expand to include any parents or guardians (not just young mothers). Unfortunately none of these points were brought up in amendments to the motion and really highlighted how important amendments are at conference. The young members are not allowed to put forward motions that encompass anything other than young members, so they are reliant on branches to add those amendments to the motion in order to be included. This motion was carried.
Motion 17 (pg 21) – Universal Credit, but no member of the moving body was in conference, therefore we could not pursue it and moved on to the next motion.
Motion 39 (pg 58) – Respecting our Police Staff Members – this was very similar to the previous motion that we heard. This was carried.
Motion 6 (pg 8) – Lasting Legacy for Self Organised Groups – this motion was carried.
During lunch Vicky attended a fringe event which was a discussion surrounding the removal of Julia Mwaluke from her position on NEC (see poster below for more info). It was made clear that this removal didn’t follow a process and we’re extremely concerned this was able to happen. All debates and discussions around this issue where shut down during the main conference.
After lunch we moved on to the reprioritised motions. On Wednesday all branches submit a list of 6 motions that they wish to be re prioritised. These are all collated and put into a new order based on this reprioritisation to be debated on Friday afternoon. Vicky and Nathan along with other higher education branches did a lot of campaigning to try and get motion #42 on the top of everyone’s lists throughout the week! (Higher Education in Crisis – Save Our Universities! (pg 62))
Motion 42 – Higher Education in Crisis. Save our Universities! (pg 62) This motion was put forward by Brighton University, and we had a long list of supporters for the motion, and no one spoke against it. As time was short we only got to hear a few speakers, however it really did highlight the plight of the Higher Education sector to conference. It was disappointing to see that our General Secretary left the platform during this motion, and we don’t think heard the delegates who were speaking on this. However the speeches made clear the branches in higher education sector feel let down by UNISON and have had a real lack of support. Vicky did line up to speak but as time was short and she was at the back of the queue, she didn’t get to.
We then reached the end of our time, so we sadly couldn’t get to debate all of the other motions on the reprioritisation list. Conference was called to a close and all delegates were thanked for their time.
Nathan was on the floor for Thursday, and it was a day full of Motions and Rule Amendments.
The day started with a video recording from Shaher Saed, General Secretary of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions. He was scheduled to speak in person, but due to Israels border control he was not allowed to leave the country. As can be seen by the recording, the speech drew out the barbaric nature of life in Gaza and was an extremely harrowing listen:
An appropriate follow-up was Composite H Palestine (pages 30-36), which was almost unanimously voted for. This builds upon last years motions, with important emphasis on the boycott divestment and sanctions campaigns, ending arms sales and respecting international law. It also involves ensuring Unison itself is in order. There was a lively debate around an amendment that I and the overwhelming number of delegates rejected, as explained here by Tony Wilson of NEC (National Executive Council):
Motion 7 Engagement, Education, and Retention of Apprentices (page 10-11) was useful in catering to members of Unison who are apprentices. Many of us at UoB will be aware of colleagues that are apprentices, and this motion did leave me pondering if we’re doing what we can to ensure they are aware of the benefits of being a Unison member.
Rule F Regions (page 130) was about changing references to Wales, replacing it with ‘Cymru’, and passed unanimously.
Rule C Ceasing to be a member (pages 129-101) was a robust debate about whether or not to get rid of a timeline to investigate complaints of certain types about Unison members. Whilst it’s important that a process shouldn’t be rushed, there were powerful testimonies about the importance of retaining an appropriate timeline – as we’d expect of our employers – so as not to leave complainants and respondents in the lurch too long. The rule change fell well short of the 2/3 supermajority needed to pass however.
Rule Q Definitions (page 131) was an amendment to allow some flexibility around the pay rate requirements of low-paid female members electoral seats to ensure there are enough candidates to run for these important seats and to cater for the variability in shift work and how it can impact their pay slips in the short run. From my reading however, the amendment seemed misunderstood by a number of speakers against it, and those who spoke in favour gave a poor account in explaining the merits, and it was therefore heavily rejected. It was an important lesson that debate on the conference floor can win the day and influence delegates.
Even more motions discussed:
Motion 13 Kinship Care and Fostering(pages 15-16). Raised awareness of kinship carers and made me proud that Unison can be there to support members who need to take care of those in desperate need. There was some extremely poignant testimony’s from members about how important this
Composite C The Biggest Wave of Insourcing in a Generation (pages 26-30) was an important motion to bring back previously privatized services in-house. It made me think about outsourced services at UoB and if there is any scope for campaigning and bringing this back to our university.
The day is a reminder that whilst we are establishing evidence based policies, so many of these motions are so emotive and the empathy of internalising some delegates terrible lived experienced can be difficult on the conference floor.
Despite the Liverpool heat, Nathan had more evening energy than prior in the week and enjoyed having dinner and some drinks with HE delegates from across the country including Birmingham, Nottingham, Plymouth, Brighton and Manchester. It was especially beneficial for some delegates who went alone and didn’t know anyone.
It was moving to hear the stories of those who got up and shared their experiences of fear and abuse in their workplaces and the precarity many face due to these exploitative contracts and environments.
After the lunch break, we debated Composite F – Backing the Employment Rights Bill (pages 22-26), on which Vicky spoke. She tried to bring to light the struggle and crisis that the Higher Education sector is in, and urged conference to hold Labour to account and to not let the Employment Rights Bill be diluted any more than it already has been. This composite was carried.
We then returned to the remaining order of business, starting with Motion 9 – Support for Branch Activists (page 12-13). Vicky also managed to speak on this motion, asking for more support for branch activists, highlighting the struggles we face as volunteers in branches. This motion was carried, and we look forward to taking part as a review into our practices and work towards supporting our members more effectively.
Motion 11 – Neurodiversity Training for UNISON Activists (pages 14-15). This raised issues regarding an increase in casework involving members with a wide range of neurodiverse conditions. We heard from activists’ lived experience in the difficulties navigating workplaces and UNISON processes. The speakers highlighted experiences from members, and elected officers. The call for training in branches was carried, and we look forward to brining this to our branch once it is created.
Motion 12 – All We ask is to be treated with Dignity and Respect (page 15). This was a very tense debate regarding the treatment of Police Probation and CAFCASS staff at conference. This debate did not finish, so was paused for the day, and will continue on day 4 first thing in the morning.
After conference ended for the day, Vicky and Nathan attended a fringe event by Stop the War Coalition, Welfare not Warfare. We discussed the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and what we can do as a Trade Union to help the Palestinian people and halt the atrocities that Israel is committing.
Our branch secretaries, Vicky Redwood and Nathan Street, are currently in Liverpool for UNISON’s National Delegates Conference (NDC).
Conference started today with Nathan on the delegate floor.
It began with a tense atmosphere with a number of delegates unhappy at having their emergency motions omitted from the agenda. We then received and voted through Unison’s Annual Report and Financial Statements.
Nathan was the only delegate to ask a question relating to the financial statements, asking:
“On page 21 of the 2024 Financial Statements, it shows a total General Secretary salary and oncosts package of £197,937 for 2024. Given this will mean very large pay differentials between the General Secretary and our lowest paid UNISON members, should UNISON publish its pay differentials in the Financial Statements, like local authorities have to?”
We then started to discuss and vote through the substantive motions:
Nathan was the very next person in the queue to speak in favour of motion 34, with the intent of highlighting the needed for a bailout of Universities when conference voted to move the motion.
We recorded a video of what Nathan would have said if he’d addressed the whole conference:
Our branch secretaries, Vicky Redwood and Nathan Street, are currently in Liverpool for UNISON’s National Delegates Conference (NDC).
Here’s an update from Vicky on the first day.
“We travelled to Liverpool today and had a South West delegates meeting. It was a briefing of what to expect at conference, and to let us know who our representatives are on standing orders committee and who we can go to for help. It was good to know where to go and have a good idea where the conference centre is, before the start tomorrow.
Nathan and I on the train up decided which sessions we wanted to attend, as we are a shared delegation – this means only one of us can be on the floor at a time to vote.”
