Failures in Hospital Hygiene

Writing in today's Guardian Dave Prentis argues forcefully that the rise in hospital based infections is directly linked to the halving of hospital cleaners through privatisation. Employing more cleaners would not only create much needed employment opportunities but would save money on expensive antibiotics used to treat infections and improve outcomes for patients

Glad to be Back

You may have noticed that we have been “off line” for a short time, partly out of respect after Holmes lost his seat on the Yorkshire and Humberside Regional Committee and failed to get the Gen Sec nomination of our Regional Council, and partly because we’ve been busy doing other things.
Failing to get the nomination of Regional Council is one thing but loosing his seat on Regional Committee is another. After all how can someone ask those outside the region to support him for General Secretary when colleagues in his back yard refuse to have him represent them on our Regional Committee?
We celebrate our return to the blog with good news – in the last 48hrs Y&H regional nominations for Dave Prentis have reached 31. This is greater that we had anticipated and certainly beyond the number that we had predicted at the outset of the campaign. Holmes has so far managed to secure a paltry 5 nominations with Bannister performing even worse picking up just a single branch.
Despite failing to attract any significant mainstream support in the region Holmes continues to run a narrow campaign pandering to the extreme views of the ultra left. Once an arch critic of the SWP these days Holmes increasingly looks like a fully paid up member of the newspaper selling fraternity. Delegates attending the Regional Council were met with the grotesque spectacle of SWP members with paper in one hand and Holmes election material in the other.
Meanwhile, our candidate has been doing what he does best – leading million voices, highlighting the double standards of MP’s pay and standing full square with public sector workers at home and overseas.

Hire and Fire Holmes

As the campaign for nominations moves into its second and final month Holmes and his ultra left supporters are hopeful of a better second half after failing to make any major gains so far.

HE Service Group Backs Prentis

Members of the National Higher Education SGE yesterday voted to nominate Dave Prentis. Neither Paul Homes, Roger Bannister or Delroy Creary were able to secure the two people necessary to propose and second them at the meeting. This is further example of a complete failure in organisation and underlines the fact that none of the three opposition candidates have any mainstream support in the union.

Y&H Regional Nominations

Chart

Sheffield University Back Dave

Members at Sheffield University have joined the groundswell of support for Dave Prentis by nominating his for General Secretary. It is now clear that Dave is attracting considerable support from all corners of the union and is now well on course to obtain more branch nomination than he did in previous elections.

Women's Committee Endorse Prentis

Meeting before the start this years Women’s Conference, which is being held over the next few days in Gateshead, UNISON National Women’s Committee has endorsed Dave Prentis as a candidate in the General Secretary election. Dave secured 27 of the 32 votes, Roger Bannister was proposed but noone to second him and no mention of Paul Holmes.