Gail Cartmail blog

UNITE’S EXECUTIVE ANNOUNCES RESULT OF GENERAL SECRETARY BALLOT

PRESS RELEASE, 24 NOVEMBER 2010

The executive committee of Unite the union formally announced the result of the ballot for the post of General Secretary today (see below for numbers of votes cast). 

Of the four candidates who stood, only one was a woman. Gail Cartmail, 55, currently assistant general secretary for public services said: “I would like to congratulate Len on his success in the ballot and I look forward to working with him”. 

Lib Dems in right wing attack on public sector incomes

As many of you will know, the so-called Office for Budget Responsibility has decided that the cost of public sector pensions will more than double in the next five years. 

The ConDem government is now using these highly politicised figures (that bear no relation to reality, by the way) to launch an attack on public sector pensions. Nick Clegg, in particular, has gone on the offensive saying that the Government cannot "ignore a spending area which will more than double within five years". 

I was quoted in today's Daily Express as saying: "It is deeply ironic and very sad that the Liberal Democrats, who first introduced the state pension with Lloyd George in the 1900s, should now be mounting a right-wing campaign to decimate retirement incomes a century later. We are not talking about gold-plated riches here, but modest pensions needed to help loyal public servants in their old age."

Gail on Radio 4

If you'd like to hear what I had to say today on Radio 4 about public sector cuts, just click on the link below:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8715000/8715414.stm

ONLY ONE WOMAN IN RACE TO BE UNITE'S GENERAL SECRETARY

The following is the press release that I am issuing this week following the executive committee's decision last week to publish the timetable for the election of General Secretary. 

PRESS RELEASE

The only woman to challenge for the top job as General Secretary of Unite, the country's largest union, has welcomed the executive committee’s decision last week to fire the starting gun.