The Glasgow Conference |
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Conference number four took place in Glasgow at the Amicus office, John Smith House. This is the first office in the UK shared by both the MSF and AEEU side of the new union. Fittingly most of the delegates to the conference came from the AEEU side. This was a great opportunity to spread the project into the other side of our new organisation.
Amicus Scottish Regional Secretary, John Quigley, opened the conference welcoming delegates to Glasgow and to the centre. He said he was delighted to have been asked to do so and to play a part in this exciting project in 2003, the European Year of Disabled People. Amicus MSF Section President, Jack Warner, spoke of the need for action to give disabled people a fair chance in the labour market. He said how appalled he was to hear what Bert Massie had said about how long it would take to achieve true equality. "MSF mounted a campaign on equal pay for women workers because we cannot wait forty years for it to happen naturally, if Bert is right we are talking over 150 years, we must take action to reduce this now" he said. Rachael Maskell, Equalities and Diversities National Secretary talked about the successes so far and the future of the project with the potential partnership with Scope. It was then over to Dave Parr for his now familiar presentation on the project background and demonstration of the website. The big difference from the previous conferences is that the website now contains information on impairments and adjustments produced by the Disability Champions in their workplaces. "It's getting exciting now" said Dave, "we are moving into the second phase of the project where the vision of the interactive website is becoming a reality". He said that the crucial next step was getting all of the Champions trained, active and networking with one another. Scope were represented at the conference by Andrew Crooks. Andrew was in fine spirits being given the opportunity to return to his home town! He told the conference how pleased Scope were to be involved with the Amicus project and praised our emphasis on the social model of disability. He quoted many of the shocking findings of Scope's 'Ready, Willing & Disabled" report and said that Disability Champions will make a real difference. Before the afternoon workshops we were very pleased to be joined by Bill Miller MEP. Bill gave us an interesting contribution about the European legislative framework and what was being done as the European Directive on Disabilities is finalised. This was a great conference which generated a number of Champions in Scotland. Many thanks to all of the staff at John Smith House who made us very welcome and looked after us. The outcome of the afternoon workshops is shown below. The WorkshopsIn the afternoon the conference split into workshops. Click on the links below to see the items they addressed and their conclusions.Workshop 1 - campaigning at work Workshop 2 - overcoming obstacles |
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