UNISON's Service Group Executive elections start this week, with voting up until May 16th. In the East Midlands I am standing (again) for the General Seat, and giving my support to Sharon Vasselin from Nottingham University Hospitals UNISON Branch for the Female Seat.

We've done a joint election leaflet and this is it. If you are a UNISON member working in the health service in the East Midlands, please vote for us.

The assorted leaderships of the NHS unions have demonstrated today why we're in the mess we are over NHS pay. As late as Friday afternoon there was little hard information available about this year's pay proposals, yet by Monday morning, UNISON and the RCN had apparently negotiated a proposal not just for this year but for next year and the year after as well.

If the proposals even came close to reaching UNISON's stated policy of an above-inflation pay rise for all NHS staff then this might have been worth the conflict with the other unions, the Welsh Assembly and the Scottish Parliament, but it doesn't. It falls so far short as to be shockingly bad - a below inflation, real terms pay cut for this year, followed by two more below inflation, real terms pay cuts to come.

Shamelessly stolen from Barnet UNISON's excellent blog is this image, perfect for illustrating the price of accepting a below inflation pay rise. Every healthworker should print this off for workplace notice boards, I think.

Colleagues in local government have been made a final offer for this year's pay rise and apparently it's not very good. At least one UNISON branch has already decided to ask the national body responsible for leading their strategy to reject it and organise a campaign of industrial action.

Meanwhile, confusion reigns over our pay rise in the NHS. We're supposed to already have it, but while some in the media are saying an announcement is due imminently (although no-one who is waiting for the pay rise would consider the end of the month to be imminent) others are reporting that the NHS Pay Review Body hasn't even reported to the Government yet.

A temporary repreive appears to have been won in Derby, where nursing staff of all grades were threatened recently with pay cuts.

I attended a meeting in Derby a couple of weeks ago where nurses reported being forced to re-apply for their existing jobs, and having their job descriptions re-written, as the Trust tried to justify plans to 'review' the skill mix and pay grades for many hundreds of staff across the hospitals.

Southern Derbyshire Health UNISON, which had called the meeting, had registered an official dispute with the Trust, together with the RCN, and this does, at least, seem to have dragged the Trust back to the table for further talks. No changes will be made for the next three weeks, while talks continue.

Nick has been invited to speak. But that's not the main reason for going. Support NHS staff in Derby, who are threatened with pay cuts!

A meeting of the UNISON Health SGE. Agenda items to follow.

Held at the Manchester Central Convention Centre. Kate and I will both be on the platform, her in her NEC role and me representing the East Midlands on the Health SGE.

Our UNISON Branch Annual General Meeting will be held at the Glenfield Hospital Clinical Education Centre Lecture Theatre.

The UNISON Service Group Executives - the closest thing UNISON has to an industrial leadership for the various sections of our membership - are being re-elected this spring.

In the Health SGE, I've held the 'General' seat for the East Midlands for the past year or so, since winning in a by-election. So this year I will be defending my seat for the very first time.

I hope health service UNISON members in the East Midlands feel I'm worth another 2 years - I've tried to be an accountable and representative voice for the region on the SGE, making sure that branches and individual members in the region know what the national level of the union is doing, and speaking up for democracy and an active, combative strategy in defence of members' interests and the NHS as a whole.