Just because I've not been paying attention (you know, real life and stuff) I hadn't spotted John's union demotivator, inspired by the good, er, mediocre folks at Despair, Inc. and their charming rebuttals to those godawful motivational posters which I've only ever seen in the pages of the Viking Direct catalogue, but which friends who work in the private sector tell me often grace their office walls.

I have a real soft spot for the 'Government' one.

Despite being something of a geek and an active trade unionist, I've tended to steer clear of the union movement's attempts to engage with "Web 2.0" apps like Facebook and Second Life. For one thing, I've got enough to do coping with my first life, and I've never really been persuaded that giving information about my interests and social relationships to a corporate website is a good way for trade unionists to organise.

But there clearly are some real advantages to being able to organise ourselves in online communities, and the tools themselves could be valuable. So I'm excited by the possibilities presented by the UnionBook project - a social networking site for trade unionists, by trade unionists. Built by the same people who run the LabourStart labour news website and online campaigning resource, UnionBook is constructed from the open source social networking software ELGG.

A few years ago a handful of fascists announced that they were launching their own trade union, ostensibly in response the UK labour movement being just too left wing, but in reality a desperate defence measure at a time when increasing numbers of trade unions were adding clauses to their own rule books entitling them to expel proven fascists from membership.

Although the BNP want to present their so-pitifully-misnamed "Solidarity" as being a real trade union, recent revelations concerning their membership figures and the state of their finances exposed by the Lancaster Unity blog suggest that this latest experiment in dividing the working class on lines of race is doomed to imminent collapse. I can't think of anything more to say, other than "good riddance".

The Government have tried to convince the NHS Pay Review Body that everything in the NHS is rosy, in a desperate attempt to avoid having to give us an improved pay rise for next year.

According to the Nuring Times, the Government "hit back" at claims of an NHS recruitment crisis, submitting evidence to the Pay Review Body saying that even though prices were rising faster than our wages, the NHS had increased the number of staff over the last year and that therefore "recruitment is buoyant".

Unoffical meeting of UNISON members to discuss how to win back our union for democracy.

Birmingham and Midland Institute 

Margaret Street

Birmingham

£5 registration on door 

Having lived together for thirteen years, Kate and I plan on doing most things together now. One thing we didn't plan on doing together was getting expelled from the Labour Party. But last month, two days before Kate was due to travel to Blackpool to join UNISON's delegation to the Labour Party conference, we both got identical letters from Roy Kennedy, who styles himself the “Director of Finance and Compliance”:

Some great news a few days ahead of the next UNISON Health SGE meeting this Wednesday - Karen Reissmann has been elected to the health seat on the NEC. This means she will be part of the NEC and also the health SGE, as Kate is. Karen replaces Paul Harper, who has left UNISON.

Karen was in a head-to-head election with Eric Roberts, one of the few people in UNISON I have heard speak against UNISON calling national demonstrations in support of the NHS.

Karen was an asset to the health SGE when she was a member of it representing her region last year, and it was a real shame that officers ruled her ineligible to stand again this year.

Members of Unison from sterile services and medical secretaries took part together in a brief protest tonight before going in to the UHL's public meeting to ask questions about the threats to their jobs.

I'm sitting at the back of the audience for the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust annual public meeting. Martin Hindle has given an introduction and Angus Maitland is presenting a review of the UHL's last twelve months.

I'm waiting to see if he talks about the decision to contract with Capita for our payroll (which has been a complete disaster seeing thousands of staff wrongly paid) or to invite private health company Birkdale to operate on our patients at Glenfield. Birkdale's contract was suspended after orthopaedic consultants raised concerns about the quality of the operations carried out.

OK it is only for a week, but Greg set off on a school trip to Brancaster this morning. That's him, the grey shadow at the back of the bus waving goodbye. I think Sophie and I were more nervous about saying goodbye than he was!