Card vote

After something of a false start, the debate on NHS pay at Unison health conference has ended with a card vote. So we still don't know what our policy is!

The first four speakers taken from the floor were either in favour of the SGE motions or against the motions from Manchester and Scotland. Delegates challenged the balance of the debate, and the vice-president, quite rightly, suspended the debate while the order of speakers was changed to give a balance between the three positions.

When the debate re-started, 18 (I think) further speakers contributed. On the whole it was a positive debate. Everyone agreed that the membership of our union should be able to decide what to do in response to the pay offer, and no-one seemed to think the offer was good enough. The disagreements were ones of tactics. But tactics are important.

The position from the SGE was put to conference, and a card vote has been taken.