Response: UNISON for Edwina not Carwyn

In response to Bill King's post on the Welsh Labour Leadership contest: UNISON Labour link will be fully behind Carwyn Jones the Counsel General and UNISON member in the forthcoming leadership election. Brian Griffiths disagrees....

Carwyn addressed the Regional Policy Weekend on Sunday and committed to policies which were UNISON driven and public sector friendly. He stated his total commitment to the public sector and promised no privatisations or outsourcung, a continuation of the Rhodri Morgan line.

Carwyn has the backing of most Welsh Labour MPs and the largest support in the WAG Cabinet.

What Bill doesn’t tell us about Carwyn:
• Carwyn is also a member of UNITE but not able to get their nomination cwtchs up to UNISON
• When has UNISON ever organized barristers?
• Carwyn is in favour of expanding Nuclear power – I can’t remember this UNISON policy.
• Carwyn has held no major ministry portfolios and is only know in Wales for burning sheep during the foot and mouth crisis• Even Carwyn doesn’t know what the Counsel General of the Welsh assembly is supposed to do.
• Paul O’Shea promised Carwyn UNISON’s nomination months before he declared his candidature.
• UNISON has 100,000 members in Wales but only 18 of these members were consulted before UNISON agreed to nominate Carwyn.
• 18 members of the Labour Link committee – the shadowy union within a union where you can only be active if you are also a member of the Labour Party. UNISON’s decisions outsourced to the Labour Party would you credit it.
• UNISON is now giving Carwyn the whole of its organizing machine, including access to all its offices and equipment, to promote his election bid.

If UNISON members were given the whole picture would they really choose Carwyn? Or would they chose Edwina Hart?

The case for Edwina:
• A life long trade unionist and past president of the Wales TUC
• A committed socialist and devolutionist who is able to work constructively within a progressive coalition.
• Been in charge of the main Ministries in the Welsh Assembly Government and is currently the Minister for Health and Social Services.
• Since taking over the Health brief she has done away with the internal market; brought hotel services back under the NHS wing (reversing years of privatization); restructured the health authorities doing away with the unnecessary tiers of management. In other words putting UNISON’s policies into practice.
• An intelligent, principled and assertive politician – nobodies fool UNISON members deserve Edwina not Carwyn and the Labour Link and Paul O’Shea has let them down.

The UNISON machine supported Alun Michael against Rhodri Morgan over ten years ago, has nothing been learned - it was wrong then and it is wrong now!