Cambridgeshire County Council workers rallied today against their “Scrooge” bosses’ plans to make them take three days off unpaid leave over Christmas. Staff and supporters protested outside Shire Hall at lunchtime wearing a Scrooge outfit and Santa hats to condemn the plan, which amounts to a 1.2% pay cut taken out of staff’s salaries every […]
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Suffolk County Council has announced over £11m worth of new cuts to services for the 2019/20 budget. The news comes in the same week the council told staff it wants to force them to take two days of mandatory unpaid leave for each of the next two years – taking the money out of their […]
Essex County Council has announced plans to close a third of its libraries and draft in volunteers to keep others running. The council is launching a consultation, running for 12 weeks from 29 November on closing 25 libraries, handing 18 over to be fully run by volunteers, giving volunteers a greater role at 16 more, […]
Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn’s plans to send people with cancer 40 miles away for treatment would be a body blow to patients and staff, UNISON warns today. Theatre staff at QEH have been informed that elective cancer surgery may be moved to the Norfolk & Norwich Hospital an hour’s drive away. In September, the […]
Suffolk County Council wants to pick the pockets of its staff and tell them they’re getting a pay rise, UNISON warns today. Suffolk County Council announced today potential changes to terms and conditions to staff contracts, including forcing staff to take two days of unpaid leave for the next two years. The council is currently […]
Frontline ambulance staff are currently expected to work until they’re 67. UNISON doesn’t believe that’s right. We spoke to UNISON reps John Hammond and Graham Hillman about why. Sign the petition here.
UNISON Eastern region’s education and training committee is asking that branches without branch education co-ordinators currently in post look to actively elect into this position at their 2019 AGM. Laura Wilkes, one of our branch education co-ordinators from Suffolk Area Health Branch, enjoys contributing to the vital role. “As a branch education co-ordinator I play […]
UNISON is marking becoming the UK’s biggest union by launching a month of recruitment activity today to reach out to every worker in the country providing public services. The union has now more than 1.3 million people in its membership who work in education, local government, the NHS, the police service and the energy […]
Welcome to There For You, the newsletter of the Eastern region’s welfare committee. It’s chock full of news on events and training opportunities this year, as well as information on loneliness, home takeovers and migrant networks. Welfare Newsletter autumn 2018
Responding to today’s Budget, UNISON Eastern regional secretary Chris Jenkinson said: “For too long mental health has been a poor relation in the NHS, so this extra funding and new crisis services are welcome. “But the fact remains that the extra £20bn for the NHS that Theresa May announced in June – and today’s pledge […]
UNISON has welcomed support from Jeremy Corbyn in the fight to keep Norfolk’s children’s centres open. The Labour Party leader visited a centre in Norwich to warn of the “national emergency” facing children’s services. Norfolk’s children and families are at the sharp end of the emergency following the Tory-run council’s decision to shut 46 of […]
John Kasensa is an assistant practitioner at Hellesdon Hospital in Norwich. In February he started his journey on the Nursing Degree Apprenticeship. John came to the UK as a 22-year-old refugee from the Congo, settling in Norfolk. We talk to him about his background, his journey into working in mental health and his plans for […]
UNISON activists were delighted to sign up 20 new members from across the East of England Ambulance Service at a two-day clinical briefing in Newmarket this week. Four branch reps went along to staff a UNISON stall, leaping on the opportunity to speak to the 400 attendees from all geographical and operational areas of the […]
Plans to force many council workers employed by Cambridgeshire County Council to take three days of unpaid leave between Christmas and New Year are unfair and should be reversed, says UNISON today. The Conservative-controlled local authority told staff last week that they’ll have to take 27, 28 and 31 December off work. As a result, […]
UNISON reps signed a landmark agreement to support terminally ill workers with Colchester Borough Council last night. The TUC’s Dying to Work charter commits the council to giving staff adequate employment protection and support at work following a terminal diagnosis. “This is brilliant news for council workers,” said UNISON branch secretary Georgia Norton after the […]