UNISONScotland Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Group Reports
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Scottish LGBT Committee report to National LGBT Committee
The first meeting of the year for the Scottish LGBT Committee did
not take place until 3rd March 2007.
Our policy weekend had to be cancelled because the FDO Committee
had refused our application for finance. We have appealed against
this decision and we are still hoping for a favourable outcome.
Our policy weekend last year was very successful and we had created
a detailed action plan that we expected to complete within two years.
We have already successfully completed a lot of our work. In addition,
our committee membership is the highest it has ever been, and the
membership is more diverse than ever with more women and Trans members
now and more participants from further afield than just Glasgow
and Edinburgh. It is disappointing therefore, to have this application
rejected. However, we will fight on.
The meeting was arranged at short notice, and 12 people attended
– three women and nine men. This is less than we have had at previous
meetings; however, the late notice and the fact that it falls so
close to election time, meant that some of our members who are involved
in campaigning were unable to attend. Most service groups were represented
and there were members from Dundee, Aberdeen, Edinburgh as well
as Glasgow.
Website
Our website has been updated with more up to date reports and information.
Ongoing work is underway to revamp this with more relevant information
for members and more links to the UK site as well as other more
local information. Responsibility for UNISON Scotland website is
transferring from lay members to full time UNISON staff although
there will continue to be involvement from lay members. One of the
LGBT committee is currently redesigning our pages.
Discussion group
The Committee previously had two online discussion groups – one
for the Committee and one for UNISON LGBT members. We stopped using
these some time ago amid ethical concerns over our host, Google.
We have now managed to set up alternative boards, which are hosted
by the Equality Network in Scotland. These should be live by the
time you read this report. The boards will allow members who are
unable to attend meetings, to still have their voice heard and raise
any concerns.
Celtic Connections
The Celtic Connections event with our Irish colleagues will take
place in Belfast from 30th March to 1st April
2007 and the theme will be LGBT Youth and Transgender: Barriers
to Participating in UNISON.
ILGA Europe/ILGA World
The Committee has now had funding approved to attend both these
events.
Scottish LGBT Committee AGM
Our AGM has been arranged for Saturday 20th October
2007.
Ongoing work
Work is ongoing on our action plan that was identified at last
year’s policy weekend. Main work includes Inclusion, Partnership
working, Finance and Funding and UK and European development.
Hate Crime
Work is ongoing with the Labour Link Committee to have this included
Bin the Bomb rally
Members from the Committee attended the Bin the Bomb rally in Glasgow
on 24th February 2007. Matt Smith, UNISON Scottish Secretary
addressed the rally. There was a healthy turnout of various UNISON
branches as well as all the major political parties.
Women’s social event
A further social event is being organised for women in the next
few weeks and details are being sent to all women members on the
mailing list.
LGBT Conference, Glasgow 2007
The Committee are already hard at work organising events for the
LGBT Conference later this year.
Elaine Duffy
Scotland Regional Rep to National LGBT Committee
mailto:elaine.duffy@saic.com
Tel:0797 663 2242
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National LGBT Committee Report to Scottish LGBT Regional Committee.
January 2007
The first meeting of the new National LGBT Committee was held on
12th and 13th January 2007 in London.
Friday 12th was a training day, with a session for new
members of the committee in the morning, and training and induction
for the full committee in the afternoon.
Saturday 13th saw the first committee meeting proper.
The first item of business was to carry out elections. The committee
elected their co-chairs and the disabled members' and black members’
caucuses elected their respective co-convenors. All posts for the
three sub-committees (Campaigns and Policy Development, Organising
and Development and International) were filled. Service Group Liaison
representatives for each service group we have National LGBT members,
were elected, as were representatives to other self-organised group
committees.
We also elected a representative to the Labour Campaign for Lesbian
and Gay Rights and agreed three delegates to the Faith and Homophobia
Conference that is being held in London on February 17th.
The Committee discussed and evaluated feedback from the 2006 conference
in Manchester and learned how we could improve this for the future.
This year’s conference is due to be held in Glasgow and there is
much we can do to prepare for this in advance to make it as successful
as possible and sustain our respected position.
We agreed a record of the conference decisions and this work was
split between the three sub-committees. Their first meetings are
due to be held in February 2007. This document will now be circulated
to all regional co-convenors and we, as a regional group, should
use this to help us draw up our work schedule for 2007.
A response on the review of branch and service group structures
was submitted from the National LGBT Committee and copies of this
can be made available on request.
Representatives from the Committee liaised regarding the UNISON
input into the House of Commons ‘launch’ of the LCLGR book, Sodom
& Gomorrah and the New Jerusalem. UNISON printed the invitations
and Jackie Lewis was able to speak on behalf of UNISON.
The National Officer has appealed the decision of the Women’s Conference
Standing Orders Committee to rule the LGBT motion on LBT women asylum
seekers out of order.
We made a request to the International department that UNISON sign
the NGO statement welcoming the Norwegian statement on human rights
violations on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity
to the UN. We are pleased that UNISON signed up to the NGO statement
and that the Norwegian statement was supported by 54 states.
We are pleased to report that ILGA-Europe has received ECOSOC observer
status. UNISON signed a petition in October and last year’s committee
wrote to the UK Mission in Geneva seeking support.
It was disappointing that only two regional reports were received
– from Scotland and Northern Ireland. We were pleased to note that
our Irish colleagues attended the N.I assembly debate at Stormont
on the introduction of the new Goods Facilities & Services legislation
that was introduced in Northern Ireland in January 2007.
Elaine Duffy
Scotland Region rep to National LGBT Committee
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National LGBT Committee Update Dec 06
World AIDS Day
It is now one year since workers with HIV gained protection from
discrimination from the point of diagnosis, under the Disability
Discrimination Act. UNISON marks World AIDS Day with a special feature
on the web emphasising that AIDS is a trade union issue http://www.unison.org.uk/activists/pages_view.asp?did=4306.
Goods, Facilities and Services Regulations
As I am sure you have heard, the goods, facilities and services
regulations for Northern Ireland have been laid before Parliament
and are due to come into force on 1 January 07. This was something
of a surprise development. The regulations are strong, much
to our pleasure and certain others’ displeasure. Our general
secretary, Dave Prentis, has written to Tony Blair, Peter Hain and
Ruth Kelly, copied to all UNISON MPs, welcoming the text and calling
for similar for England, Scotland and Wales.
The Regulations include all schools and colleges and specifically
ban harassment, two of UNISON’s demands. There are exemptions for
religious bodies but these seem to be restricted to doctrinal matters,
in line with the employment regulations. UNISON has welcomed the
Regulations and called for similar for the rest of the UK. Some
religious groups are howling in outrage. There is more on this at
www.unison.org.uk/out.
You can read the Regulations themselves at http://www.opsi.gov.uk/sr/sr2006/20060439.htm
UNISON nominated for ‘gay friendly award’
UNISON has been nominated as the 'most gay-friendly organisation'
in the annual Pink Paper awards, alongside Age Concern, the
London Metropolitan Police, Amnesty International and the Quakers.
People can vote for who they want to win through forms in the next
three issues of the paper or online at www.pinkpaper.com/awards.
Amnesty International greetings cards campaign
Every year, Amnesty International asks us to send cards with a
friendly greeting or message of solidarity to someone in danger
or unjustly imprisoned. These are prisoners of conscience, people
under sentence of death, human rights defenders under threat because
of their work, and others at risk. This offers hope and encouragement
to the people receiving the cards and the impression their international
mail makes on police, prison staff or political authorities can
help keep them safe. http://www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=10673.
LGBT is one of the options on the ‘theme’ drop down menu for cases.
Kick homophobia out of football once and for all
The Football Association are supporting a campaign by gay.com to
acknowledge the problem of homophobia in football and implement
zero tolerance towards all homophobic comments, whether on the pitch
or the terraces, ensuring football clubs enforce bans on homophobic
actions in their ground regulations and provide proper policing
and stewarding to remove offenders from the ground. Sign the online
petition at www.uk.gay.com/kick
- it takes less than 1 minute – and forward the link to others,
asking them to do the same.
Elaine Duffy
UNISON Scotland rep to National LGBT Committee
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B & E Service Group Meeting at National LGBT Conference,
Manchester 17-19 Nov 2006
There was a good turnout at this year’s B&E Service Group Meeting
with more than a dozen attendees from Electricity, Gas, Water and
the Environment Agency. There were no attendees from Transport.
Delegates to the Energy and the Water and Environment Service Group
Conferences were agreed. There were no representatives from Transport.
In addition, two motions were selected to be submitted to service
group conferences:
Time off for LGBT duties in the Energy industry.
To include continuing issues around email/internet access ie emails
being blocked because of references to profanity and concerns around
time off/facilities time to carry out LGBT work – this is not seen
as being relevant to the Energy industry and so time off is often
restricted. It is felt that this is discriminatory under the new
Goods, Facilities and Services legislation.
Trans Awareness Training
More training around trans issues is needed in the workplace for
both mangers and staff, particularly those dealing with calls from
the public. Examples were heard where utilities companies refuse
to acknowledge customer’s gender identities, change their records
or are unnecessarily disrespectful on the phone. Managers and staff
alike also have to appreciate that they may also deal with trans
members in the workplace. Ties in with Goods, Facilities and Services
legislation.
In addition, two further motions were discussed and it was agreed
that these would be submitted by individual branches.
Support for B&E Equalities Seminar.
Much discussion ensued around the B&E Equalities Seminar and
whether or not it was viable to continue this, and if so, in what
format? Costs are the main barrier to preventing people’s attendance
and we want to highlight this and refer to the B&E Working Group
to explore alternative venues, dates and National subsidising costs.
Employer-Organised Social Activities
A member advised the group of a social event that was recently
organised by his employers where only opposite sex partners were
invited. We need to highlight this and challenge where this type
of discrimination continues to happen.
Elaine Duffy
Scottish Rep to National LGBT Committee
Scottish Rep to National Energy Service Group Executive
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