UNISON passes policy Trans Equality - Louder and Prouder

What rights do they want to take away?

The right to determine your own sexuality?

Perfect explanation!

What rights do they want to take away?

I know all about the reality of sex and biology because I grew up in the country and did work experience on a stud farm (a gelding is different from a stallion, but it's definitely not a mare). Never realised I was being radicalised, it didn't feel that exciting at the time.

By which I'm referring to Unison supporting abolishing the Spousal Exit Clause

It is for me too, as a trans widow to know that they want to take trans widows rights away without having ever consulted us.

As I said before, @SunbowRainshine31 just calling people "radicalised" and "far right" doesn't make it so.

You have to show your working I'm afraid.

Agreed.

This is a textbook far-right response.

Being opposed to paedophilia is a textbook far-right response?

Think you're in danger of giving the game away there, Sunbow.

The capture of the unions is one of the hardest pills to swallow for me in all of this.

Thanks Bosky I will look that up.
Your post is an excellent explanation of how a few people can influence a decision which then appears to have a much larger level of support.
I do find the accusations of radicalisation and right wing influence perplexing - I can see why it's being repeated though, as repetition becomes embedded as a kind of truth if you say it often enough.
Most of the people I have talked to on this issue are just ordinary people, who are often Labour voters and the nub of any concern boils down to wanting children to receive appropriate support for any issues that stops short of dangerous or irreversible harm until they are old enough to make informed decisions and for women's spaces to be respected where appropriate. It's not transphobia, it's the fact that some men will use any opportunity to lever an advantage over women. This is our lived experience. Abusive and unpleasant men will not respect trans rights either.
Being told that you are bigoted and radicalised for expressing concerns is tiresome. It's also a lazy dog whistle designed to shut down debate. It's also not true.

My husband likes to call me right wing, because I once got sent a flyer from the Brexit party. Of course, the only reason he tries to use this to wind me up is because he knows that I’m left wing. If I wasn’t left wing, calling me right wing wouldn’t work as a tease.

As I said before, @SunbowRainshine31 just calling people "radicalised" and "far right" doesn't make it so.

You have to show your working I'm afraid.

Unison seems to allow Branches a lot of flexibility to determine what a quorum is for a Branch meeting and for a Branch Committee Meeting (I am in Unite and am familiar with unions but not the specifics of different unions):

duckduckgo.com/?q=unison+branch+quorum

First up in the Search Results:
www.unison-essex.org.uk/branch-rules/

4. Branch structure

1. The quorum for any general meeting, including the annual meeting is 1.5% of the branch at a single meeting or through aggregate meetings

1. The branch management group will be responsible for the day to day management of the branch in accordance with the decisions and authority delegated by the branch committee. Its membership and role is as described in rule 7 below.

6. Branch Committee

Representation on the branch committee will be agreed by the AGM and will include:
Branch officers
Representatives of self-organised groups
The convenors for each section (or all stewards where there is no sectional structure).

The branch committee shall administer branch business in accordance with UNISON rules and guidance.

The quorum for the branch committee shall be 33% (one third) of the members of the committee.

The branch committee shall ensure that sections within the branch are appropriately and equitably resourced to ensure the effective participation of members, recruitment and organisation, representation, and collective bargaining and campaigning on behalf of members in each section.

The branch committee will establish arrangements for the individual representation of members.

The branch committee shall meet monthly.

7. Branch Management Group

The Branch Management Group shall comprise the branch secretary, branch chair, branch treasurer, section convenors, the branch equalities officer (and others as appropriate)

The Branch Management Group will meet to ensure the effective day to day management of the branch within the parameters of the decisions and guidance issued by the branch committee. The Branch Management Group may commit to no expenditure, policy decision or affiliation that has not been previously agreed by the branch committee.

==============

I have no idea how many members there are in that Branch but anyone can see from the above that it is perfectly possible for a handful of people to determine Branch Policy, submit resolutions to annual conference, decide who to send to annual conference and sometimes mandate them how to vote on specific motions.

My Unite Branch had over 1,000 members and we were lucky if we got 6 people (the quorum) to a Branch meeting. We tried everything we could think of to attract members to attend - rotating venues, days, times of day, running raffles, education events, paying for child-care, etc. etc. It was soul-destroying. Most of the time, three Branch Officers made all the decisions by convening a Branch Committee Meeting when not even three other people bothered to turn up.

See how easy it can be to take over a Trade Union when members are not motivated to get involved?

Most members of most unions do not want to get involved with the running of their unions, they have other priorities.

However, if your priority is having a trade union that respects women's sex-based rights then you have to get involved, get organised with others, men and women, who share your values, and take control.

The Women's Trade Union Federation (WTUF) is made up of GC Women in different unions. There is an active Unison GC Women's Group.

WTUF has already run one online workshop for women who are new to getting involved with their trade unions and more are planned.

You can contact WTUF on Twitter:
twitter.com/WomensTUF

Or you can DM Fiona MacDonald, who started this initiative:
twitter.com/Fiona44444

There is a website in the making and there will be an email address to contact WTUF soon (things stalled for a while due to Fiona being very poorly with Covid).

Watch this thread if you are interested because I will post any updates here:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4481455-Womens-Trade-Union-Federation-Unions-are-being-reclaimed-by-Women

I'm à Unison member and I'm sickened by this. Unfortunately I'm in the middle of negotiations for ill health retirement and have been supported in this by my rep, so much as I would like to, I can't give up my membership at such a crucial stage in a nearly year long process.
As soon as this is all over, I will resign. This actually feels Orwellian - I don't trust them to do right by women any more.

“Textbook far right” from someone unable to explain their position in any way that doesn’t sound, like a PP said, like word salad.

i don’t think you know what far right means. Love, a leftie.

Its like, as soon as someone says something that makes people uncomfortable, things like pedophilia are chucked out to control the emotional narrative and break any joined up thinking.

Purely for visceral effect, and trying to utterly derail the conversation.

This is textbook far-right propagandizing and deflection.

This is a textbook far-right response.

This is actually laughable.

Whenever people try to smear gender-critical feminists as right-wing, I always think of this article (from the BBC, ironically):

www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26352378

It's about how the pro-paedophile group PIE was allowed to exist openly in the 1970s. It shows how parts of the left were more than comfortable with paedophilia, and how those who attacked paedophilia were smeared. PIE's supporters tried to make common cause with gay rights: after all, if homosexuals were ostracised and paedophiles were also ostracised, if you supported rights for homosexuals then you had to support rights for paedophiles.

This bit stands out for me:

'When Peter Hain, then president of the Young Liberals, described paedophilia as "a wholly undesirable abnormality", a fellow activist hit back. "It is sad that Peter has joined the hang 'em and flog 'em brigade. His views are not the views of most Young Liberals."

'And when a columnist supported Hain in the Guardian he was inundated with mail from people - many willing to give their name - who defended sex with children.'

Whenever anyone tries to tell you that you are right wing for being gender-critical, remember Peter Hain.

Well I think we all actually support trans inclusion

We would support the ability to be included in sport either in the correct sex category or in a transgender specific category

We would fully support a society where no one loses out on a job or home because of their transgender nature

We will fight if wanted for transmen to be protected and to ensure they get the access to health services that is specific to their sex and gender

So saying GC feminists are not trans inclusive is a bit off anyway

I think they may be drunk.

@SunbowRainshine31 i will ask again. Are you a union member?

And it's hilarious that you appear to value critical thinking skills despite showing absolutely none yourself.

This is word salad.

Calling people radicalised is meaningless unless you can give specific examples of why you think they are radicalised.

Saying trans women are women is meaningless unless you can explain what you believe a woman is.

Trans women are women, in life and in law we stand together.

You didn't know what gender critical meant - I'm sure you'll be able to say what you mean by 'women', though eh? Otherwise it might start to look like you're just copying words off the internet without knowing what they mean, like when my sister did her Sociology coursework.