UNISON NEC elections - get the vote out!

We are now approaching the final full week of voting in the UNISON National Executive Council elections.

Most votes which are to be cast will - on past form - already have been cast. Equally (and unfortunately) on past form the large majority of UNISON members will not (yet) have voted.

There is therefore everything left to play for - in the contested elections UNISON members generally face a clear choice between candidates who offer nothing but more of the same and candidates of the left who want to work with UNISON members to create a better Union to defend our interests.

For some years now it has been true that UNISON promotes and pursues progressive policies which reflect our members interests - but that we have failed to tackle the obvious contradiction that the Party to which we are affiliated has not, in Government, generally pursued such policies (even when we have won our Party Conference to them!) This political weakness (which is not unique to UNISON) has echoed through inadequate pay campaigns in recent years and now threatens to hobble our response to an onslaught of job losses.

We cannot afford to continue in this way. If we try to then we will be managing the further decline of our movement in an increasingly hostile environment. UNISON is, can be and must be better than that.

If you are a UNISON member, activist or representative then please encourage fellow members to vote for the left - remembering of course that no UNISON resources can be used to promote any particular candidate or candidates.

Enthusiastic readers of this blog (Sid and Doris already-voted) who have the spare time to read such online comment as these elections have generated will have noticed that supporters of the failing status quo have consistently avoided taking on the policy debates and issues advanced by the left, preferring instead to launch attacks on the candidates. As a veteran of six years on our NEC this lack of enthusiasm for honest debate depresses but does not surprise me.

You would have thought though that these cheerleaders for the doomed and failing Prime Minister would have known better than to use YouTube...