Preparations are under way for the 8th UNITE POLICY CONFERENCE 2025
It will be held in the Brighton Centre, Kings Road, Brighton, on Monday 7 July – Friday 11 July 2025.
Conference motions
The deadline for Policy Conference motions was 21 February.
Amendments to Policy Conference motions
Branches and relevant committees are now being invited to submit amendments for the Policy Conference motions
United Left recommended amendments
| Motion | Draft amendment |
| M 23, p17: Fighting Local Authority Cuts to Jobs and Services. | Delete third and fourth bullet points and insert “Unite to work with Labour councillors in lobbying Government to increase funding to local government.” |
| M 88 (p72): Motion calls for links with African, Asian and Caribbean TU federations. | At end, delete full stop and add “while recognising that Unite’s priorities and resources should be on forging and maintaining links with trade unionists working under oppressive regimes.” |
| M 90 (p73): Motion calls for an end to all expenditure on international affiliations that does not relate to pay and conditions. | In final bullet point, after ‘conditions’, insert “or demonstrates solidarity with trade unionists working under oppressive regimes”. |
| M 124 (p107): Employment rights. Update in light of current draft legislation. | Add at end:“Conference welcomes Labour’s repeal of the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act, 2023 and the ballot thresholds, ballot paper wording prescriptions and appointment of picket supervisors introduced by the Trade Union Act, 2016. However, we note with concern that under Labour’s Employment Rights Bill while notice periods for industrial action are reduced from fourteen to ten days, requirements for trade unions to give notice of ballots and to identify numbers of workers, workplaces and categories remain in place. Conference further notes Labour’s Employment Rights Bill does not address the fundamental power imbalance between workers and employers in UK law including the absence of a legal right to strike, the ban on the right to take sympathy action criticised by the ILO in its 2023 report on the P&O Ferries scandal, and the ban on so-called political strikes introduced by Tory governments in the 1980s. Conference deplores Labour’s failure to reinstate workplace ballots. Conference calls on the Executive to call for further legislation within the lifetime of the current Labour government to establish a legal right to strike and remove undemocratic bans on sympathy strikes. Conference condemns those Labour MPs, donors and business interests who lobby Labour ministers and officials for the original proposals set out in New Deal for Working People to be limited and scaled back. We believe the current Employment Rights Bill must be a beginning, not the end of a process of rebuilding workers’ collective rights in Britain. Conference calls for an Employment Rights #2 Bill to legislate for at least those areas of New Deal for Working People not currently included in the Employment Rights Bill.” |
| M 139 (p118): Winter Fuel Allowance. Refers to removal of ‘sponsorship of MPs’ when there is no sponsorship any more. Payments are to CLP election campaign funds. Amend? | Delete final paragraph and insert “In the light of this action, Labour MPs whose Constituency Parties received funding for their election campaigns should have any future funding reviewed and if necessary ended.” |
| M 144 (p120): Supports ‘decriminalisation’ of sex work which we should oppose and support the Nordic model. | Delete all after ‘Unite believes:’ to end of motion and insert: “prostitution is inherently violent and women will never have equality while prostitution is acceptable. Women should not be criminalised for the exploitation and abuse they endure. Unite further notes this approach has been adopted in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Canada and France. Unite resolves: to support the decriminalisation of selling of sex acts;To support the buying of sex acts becoming a criminal offence in the rest of the UK;To support the provision of high quality, non-judgemental services to support those in prostitution and help them build a new life outside it, including: access to safe affordable housing; training and further education; child care; legal, debt and benefit advice; emotional and psychological support;To support a public information campaign; training for police and CPS; tackling the inequality and poverty that drive people into prostitution; effective laws against pimping and sex trafficking, with penalties that reflect the enormous damage they cause.” |
Amendment to Motion 120, 121 or 122 (it could be attached to any of three)
Conference welcomes Labour’s repeal of the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act, 2023 and the ballot thresholds, ballot paper wording prescriptions and appointment of picket supervisors introduced by the Trade Union Act, 2016. However, we note with concern that under Labour’s Employment Rights Bill while notice periods for industrial action are reduced from fourteen to ten days, requirements for trade unions to give notice of ballots and to identify numbers of workers, workplaces and categories remain in place.
Labour’s Employment Rights Bill does not address the fundamental power imbalance between workers and employers in UK law including the absence of a legal right to strike, the ban on the right to take sympathy action criticised by the ILO in its 2023 report on the P&O Ferries scandal, and the ban on so-called political strikes introduced by Tory governments in the 1980s. Conference deplores Labour’s failure to reinstate workplace ballots. Conference calls on the Executive to call for further legislation within the lifetime of the current Labour government to establish a legal right to strike and remove undemocratic bans on sympathy strikes.
Conference condemns those Labour MPs, donors and business interests who lobby Labour ministers and officials for the original proposals set out in New Deal for Working People to be limited and scaled back. We believe the current Employment Rights Bill must be a beginning, not the end of a process of rebuilding workers’ collective rights in Britain. Conference calls for an Employment Rights #2 Bill to legislate for at least those areas of New Deal for Working People not currently included in the Employment Rights Bill.