Fringe activities

I am indebted to fellow UNISON delegate Bernie Gallagher who, having been saved the trouble of speaking at the TUC, has compiled a league table of General Secretaries speaking at fringe meetings listed in the Congress guide.



Top of the table is PCS with nine meetings, narrowly beating RMT (who are on 8) to the top spot. UNITE come in third at 6 (but having two General Secretaries they could be considered to be cheating).



The FBU and UCATT are tied on 5, with the CWU, NUJ and NUT tied on 4.



UNISON isn't one of the eighteen unions whose General Secretaries are advertised as speakers at any of the fringe meetings in the Congress guide.



Former General Secretary candidate Paul Holmes was, however, given official sanction to speak at the fringe meeting organised by Manchester Trades Council, sharing the platform with four of the General Secretaries who are in the top half of the fringe meeting table.



Hopeful UNISON delegates, noting that we are certainly not subject to a personality cult, wonder if the permission to Paul to speak indicates a new era of glasnost...

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