The branch is holding an online woman’s event on Tuesday 11th May at 6-7pm.
Kate Ramsden, branch co-chair and NEC member will speak about how UNISON campaigns on women’s issues, especially low paid women, and how low paid women can get involved in shaping UNISON policy.
The meeting will also be joined by a Police Constable who will give us some tips on keeping ourselves safe. Although this will be useful to all members, we feel that this will tie in well with the talk on low paid workers as carers are among this group and may be out alone between visits.
This event has been organised by branch Women’s officer, Kim McIntosh and follows on from the recent Women’s Event when we discussed the responses from the branch Working Women’s Survey and how those present at the meeting felt we should move forward.
Kim said, “The survey results were extremely useful and ranged from inviting guest speakers, empowering and helping women work towards achievements to discussions on menopause/periods/well-being and how children of working parents may have been disadvantaged during lockdown whilst learning from home. Along with virtual coffee catch-up’s to see new faces and talk to new people.
“The results also show the majority of people would be interested in attending a virtual event and although informal meetings were the preference, the other results show that women are keen on having something meaningful.
Kim added, “During the Women’s Event Kate Ramsden, Branch Co-Chair, spoke about the fact that three quarters of our members are women and are in the majority of low paid jobs. Kate also informed the meeting that there are seats for UNISON Local Government low paid workers to attend at conference and we are always looking for women to come forward to fill these seats.
“Kate will provide more information on this at our next meeting. We are urging our women members to attend
Please register at Eventbrite – ABERDEENSHIRE UNISON WOMEN’S EVENT Tickets, Tue 11 May 2021 at 18:00 | Eventbrite
There was also a consensus that we should look at starting Self Organised Groups to work on specific issues and we have already had some volunteers to assist with this. If you are interested, please contact us at AUequalities@gmail.com.
Tell us your priorities
Following closure of the Working Women’s Survey and our meeting, we have selected the five most mentioned areas and would like you to Rate the Importance of these Issues to yourself by 7th May at 12 noon.
We will then begin to look at how best to move these forward.
We look forward to seeing your responses and meeting you at our next meeting to hear your views.