In a landmark speech opening Unison's 2009 National Delegate Conference, General Secretary Dave Prentis has advised the Labour Party that the union will no longer fund them unless they follow a more progressive agenda that promotes and defends public services.

In a dramatic policy turn, Labour MPs and candidates at the next election who backed further privatisation of public services would have funding withdrawn by the union. Prentis said union members were "tired of feeding the hand that bites them".

Unison is currently the biggest trade union donor to the party, which has carried out numerous attacks on public services and public sector jobs since it took office.

NWAS Unison has a motion tabled for debate later this week at conference on the way in which HPC fitness to practice hearings are conducted. If passed, it will create a more level playing field for those accused of malpractice.

The three joint trade unions recognised within North West Ambulance Service (Unison, Unite and the GMB) have withdrawn from the Strategic Health Authority's job evaluation process, after 97% of members in a recent ballot stated they had no confidence in the process.

A joint statement said: "If you compare the scores for KTE factor 2 for the clinical roles with the same factor for management roles you will see that very few clinical staff score higher than 4 for this level, while almost all management and support roles score level 6 and above with some scoring as high as level 8."

The three unions have called for an independent inquiry to take place in order to seek reform and re-establish confidence in the system.

Click here to read the joint union letter to the SHA.

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