Outside Unison conference at the end of the first session, delegates and visitors from Greenwich branch protest in defence of four activists currently facing disciplinary action over a leaflet they produced criticising the union's Standing Orders Committee.

There is always something to make getting in to conference more difficult than it should be. Often it is forgetting my photograph for the conference badge and finding the nearest photobooth is a mile across town.

Today it was the fact that I'm not here officially so haven't sent in a visitor application in advance. I did hand it in at 8.30 this morning but apparently the conference office won't be able to process it until 11 because of having to deal with delegates' problems first. Fair enough. I think I'm first in today's queue though.

This means I won't be inside to see our branch challenge standing orders. That's one of the conference traditions - somebody has to do it, and this year it will be us, I think. The Standing Orders Committee have ruled out of order our branch's amendment affirming that branches should have the right to make recommendations during member ballots and consultations. SOC seem to be saying that the rules delegate the power to decide this question to service groups, and Kate has worked out that if that interpretation stands we have already won, thanks to a vote at health conference two months ago. However our branch view is that national conference should decide, so we will be pushing to get the amendment back on the agenda.

The highest decision making body in the union, delegates from every branch meeting to set policy and priorities for the coming year. Bournemouth.

The official results of the UNISON SGE elections are now published on the UNISON website. Or rather, the make-up of the new SGEs are. The results, if by that we mean, the scores for the various candidates, don't seem to be published anywhere.

I hope they will be soon - it's a basic part of democracy that everyone knows not just who won the elections, but how many people voted, and who they voted for.

There's been some discussion in UNISON blogs about the turnout, and specifically, the high number of spoilt papers. John Gray is concerned there is a problem, but MarshaJane has spotted, as I had, that the number of ballot papers 'spoiled' is much, much higher in regions where there is more than one seat to fill.

I received the election results for the UNISON Health Service Group Executive yesterday. I'm honoured to be able to report that members in the East Midlands region have elected me to represent them for a further two years:

Nick Holden 1739

Ann Ashworth 780

So I'd like to say a big thank you to all those members in the region who supported me, and also to Ann, who conducted a friendly and honest campaign - elections where the competing candidates can discuss the issues in a positive manner, as Ann and I did at health conference back in April, can only make the union stronger. I hope Ann's talents can be put to use by our region in some other role, now that she's not to be representing us on the SGE.

As Leo Colston said, the past is a foreign country. But in these days of cheap international air travel, that shouldn't stop us visiting.  There's been a blogroll link for some time on 4glengate.net to the blog of Michael Walker, a former COHSE activist, which contains an archive of documents and reflections on the history and achievements of COHSE - the Confederation Of Health Service Employees. It's an impressive archive, and every health worker, every UNISON member, should spend some time reading up on it.

This morning, I've been thinking about the UNISON consultative ballot on the below-inflation-for-three-years NHS pay offer which is due to start this week. When we discussed the pay offer at UNISON health conference last month, and subsequently, according to reports from colleagues around the country, officers of UNISON and those lay members who want us to accept the offer have been at pains to stress that rejecting the offer would necessarily imply taking industrial action. Not just industrial action but sustained industrial action. I think that word is included just to pour scorn on those public sector workers who have already held a one day strike in support of their campaign for better pay, but scorn in such a situation is the chocolate pot calling the kettle black. At least, as many of my colleagues in Leicester keep telling me, the teachers are doing something. 

As I couldn't get down to London today for the lobby of Parliament, I've taken the unusual step of writing to my Tory MP, Edward Garnier. I don't often write to him, what with him being a Tory, and a lawyer and what with our last meaningful contact being me standing for Labour against him in 1997, but since I couldn't go in person to support Karen Reissmann, I figured that I shouldn't let him off the hook.

Thanks to the excellent 'write to them' website, I've just sent him this message... 

Latest information from UNISON is that unions representing a quarter of a million workers in Further Education have rejected a pay offer worth 2.5%:

According to the UNISON statement:

They are seeking a pay rise of 6% or £1,500 – whichever is the greater – to guarantee the lowest-paid workers a minimum wage of £7.38.

“We need a fairer deal for the low paid who can earn as little as £12,738 a year.”

Under the proposals for the three year NHS pay deal which is being put to UNISON members very soon in a consultation ballot, the starting salary for NHS staff in band 1 for the coming year will be £12,517.

Up this morning to the usual routine of school and work. And a broken central heating boiler and no food in the fridge. Real life is great, innit?

Today's agenda, apart from work and trying to arrange a branch committee to discuss the pay offer also includes several meetings with members about sick reviews and disciplinaries. Talking to colleagues at conference it was clear that many NHS employers are adopting an increasingly tough approach to such issues, piling even more pressure on overworked and stressed workers.

I've received an email highlighting the inconsistency of the health conference voting to criticise last year's SGE decision not to make a recommendation on the pay offer and then endorsing the SGE motion this year resulting in a ballot being held with no recommendation.