Regional secretary’s blog

Clare Williams is UNISON Northern’s Regional Secretary.

Read Clare’s blog for views on issues that are important to members in the Northern Region and nationally.

Blog: Interview with UNISON President Josie Bird

For this blog Paul Riley our Digital Lead caught up with the newly elected UNISON President, Josie Bird. PR: Thanks for joining us Josie, congratulations on being elected UNISON’s President for the next 12 months, have you had a busy first week? JB: Well it actually hasn’t been that busy yet, I got home from […]

Blog: Stonewall 50 years on – Guest post by Craig and Sophie

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. A milestone in LGBT+ history when people began the fight back against societal and legislative oppression and bigotry. A lot has happened in the 50 years that have passed.  Homosexuality has been decriminalised in many countries around the world, 139 countries/states since 1969 alone. Protection from […]

Blog: Crisis in social care

Clare Williams talks about the crisis in social care following the results of a UNISON survey published last week.

Blog: UNISON – Biggest, Boldest, Best

UNISON has shown the true value of union membership through the campaigning and representation of our members. Last year we celebrated 25 years of UNISON and we announced that not only are we the biggest public sector trade union – but the biggest overall union in the UK.

Blog: The future of school funding

UNISON Northern is supporting a petition calling for a debate in parliament on the future of school funding. You will find the link at the end of this post. UNISON represents thousands of school support staff across the Region and those members do fantastic work to help children learn, keep them safe and healthy and […]

Blog: Working as ‘One Team’ to halt outsourcing of our NHS

By working together we have succeeded in getting the Trust Board to see sense and put a stop to the plans to transfer staff out of the NHS

Blog: Pay up now

Our Pay Up Now campaign has hit a crucial milestone. After months of campaigning in workplaces across the region and nationally our UNISON petition to get parliament to debate the issue of public sector pay was a huge success.

Clare William sspeaking at Miners' Gala 2017

Blog: Durham Miners Gala

It was a huge honour to be invited by the  Durham Miners Association to address the Big Meeting on Saturday, especially when that meant sharing the platform with so many great speakers and representatives of our movement. In particular, it was a pleasure to be alongside Angela Rayner and Jeremy Corbyn – two great UNISON […]

Blog: Mobilising for the General Election

This election may have been called at short notice but we in UNISON are ready to do everything we can to prevent further years of a Conservative Government.

Blog: The Kenny Bell Award

Kenny Bell was a great UNISON activist, Branch Secretary of Newcastle City Branch and Deputy Convenor of UNISON Northern, he was also a very good friend of mine.