Prentis wins UNISON election
Dave Prentis
(incumbent)
184,769 votes (76%)
Roger Bannister (Socialist Party)
41, 406 votes (17%)
Jon Rogers (Unison united Left)
18,306 votes (7.48%)
Turn out was low at just over 16%.
The previous election held in 2001 saw Dave Prentis (not then the incumbent)
receive
125,584 votes (55.9%)
and Roger Bannister
71,021 votes (31.65%)
Dave Prentis has won re-election as general secretary of the
public sector union Unison. Prentis is very much the man of the union machine
and is alternately described as safe for New Labour, and then part of the
awkward squad. This result is
disappointing for the left where there vote was caught between the left noises
Prentis has been making and the fact their vote was split. Both candidates were
supportable by the left but the failure to come to an agreement was extremely
regrettable. Not only this but left organisations like the SSP were not
consulted before these candidates were decided and was essentially left to
decide between the candidates that the English left had chosen (they chose
Bannister incidentally). There were no significant political differences between
the two candidates which makes the split all the more irritating.
The lessons are clear for the left. Get together, thrash it out,
get behind one single left candidate and fight to win.
Socialist Unity interviewed both
candidates before the election March 2005
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