"Dave was somebody of substance. "I avoid it like the plague. Prentis laughs. It has to stop. It's immoral and it's got to change. When the strike is over, the Unison's semi-visible elder statesman will be hoping he can go back to doing what he does best – negotiating and negotiating until the other side has been worn down. "He always had a very positive relationship with No 10," Nita Clarke, the former Downing Street adviser who was Blair's link with the unions, said. "If Gordon loses people like my members," says Prentis, "Labour has no chance.". "We are saying to Gordon, as critical friends, not enemies, 'You've got to listen to what your core supporters are saying and deal with it now.' Career: He joined the union Nalgo (now dissolved) in 1975, and was appointed Unison's deputy general secretary in 1993, becoming general secretary in 2001. ", He rose through the ranks at Nalgo, during the Thatcher conflict and the wilderness years that followed, before playing a leading part in the creation of Unison in 1993. ... getting a salary rise. But we do go to see Arsenal because it's nice to see a winning team occasionally. The following year, hundreds of thousands of its members working for local authorities went on strike for better pay. There was another, more personal reason for Blair's solicitude towards the occasionally awkward public sector union leader – relief that he was alive. A trade union official told him to "get the hell out of here and go to university". But not under Gordon Brown, it seems. ... my net monthly salary for the 2020/2021 financial year is now £2.98 more than my 2018/2019 salary compliments of this year’s 3.2% pension increase! Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? "No," he says. "Dave's a negotiator. But that's nothing like the man who will be leading next week's public sector strike, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. The government is making the same disastrous mistake again. Education: Leeds Grammar School; BA in history at University of London; MA in industrial relations at University of Warwick. He's never had a proper job, has he? When Ed Miliband beat his brother in last year's Labour leadership contest, Charlie Whelan could not resist spreading the word among journalists that the Unite union's backing had been vital for the younger Miliband. Now we are saying, very strongly, that the privatisation agenda is wrong. ", Read our full mailing list consent terms here, This is serious. ", They say: "Dave was somebody of substance. After chemotherapy, he had his food pipe and part of his stomach cut out – and as if that were not enough, he contracted MRSA while he was in hospital. ", Nicknamed Mr Mainstream when he stepped up to lead Unison eight years ago, Prentis was one of the new breed of union leaders prepared to adapt to life under Tony Blair. One way of avoiding it was "continued restraint on pay". Did the posh boys have a go at him? Paul Holmes wants to be Unison's first general secretary elected from outside the union's employed staff, on a salary of £32,000 - and to give the remaining £100,000 or so to good causes Paul Holmes Union and Labour activists have identified the retirement of controversial right-winger Dave Prentis as general secretary of the giant Unison… Last modified on Sat 18 Jul 2020 15.17 EDT. I run an enormous organisation with an income of £162m. We have to let the Government know that what it is doing is wrong.". I've got staffing policies covering 1,500 employees all over the country. COVID-19 ... General secretary Dave Prentis said: " Reports of pay restraint for all but frontline NHS staff would be a … Friday 20 November 2020 12:48, UK. ... by union boss Dave Prentis. But Tony Blair, who had little regard for union leaders who made trouble for him, retained a sneaking respect and affection for Prentis. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Working people, our people, are taking the hit. The ballot is secret, but the language Prentis is using suggests he is confident they'll say yes. It has been involved in any number of local disputes, such as the strike by hundreds of council staff in Southampton in July, protesting against cuts, or the Leeds refuse collectors' strike in 2009. Prentis is not by any measure badly paid. Is that the sound of the Seventies? In the winter, if there was no work coming in, we would wonder what would happen in the spring. Dave Prentis received the award the Open University (OU) at the ceremony in the Barbican Centre, London. Dave Prentis was a Non-Executive Director for the Bank of England's Court of Directors from 1 June 2012 - 31 May 2019 The delegates went wild. "Our members are not like tanker drivers who can hold the nation to ransom. Representatives from the Public and Commercial Services union, Unison, T&G and other public sector unions […] "I love them. This means his marginal rate of tax was 60%. Dave Prentis General Secretary of UNISON Pregnant Kate Middleton Compared To 'Young Women Who Have Babies To Get State Handouts' 'Underpaid' MPs Call For 32% Payrise Posted on 9 November 2020 9 November 2020 by Dave Prentis Blog: Why we’ll never stop fighting for a real living wage for all You cannot praise public service workers for keeping our communities going… while simultaneously expecting the same people to survive on poverty pay He's on a basic salary of £89,000. News Editorial and Archive Photolibrary, Real photos in the documentary tradition Issues of the Day plus an Archive specialising in UK Labour Movement of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s - Report digital photojournalism - "They are stuck in the past themselves, those people," he says in a clipped, tense voice that gets more Leeds the more his irritation rises. — Trades Union Congress (@The_TUC) November 25, 2020. Mr Cash’s pay far exceeds that of the general secretary of Britain’s biggest trade union Unison. But when food is going up in the way it is, plus electricity, gas, petrol all going up 30 or 40 per cent, these are the basics of life. "Ardent Leeds United fan. "This job is a way of life, from when you wake up in the morning to when you go to bed. Ministers in the Coalition Government may have a similar attitude, but are unlikely to say so days ahead of a national strike. Tomorrow, Prentis will find out whether 600,000 local government workers are willing to strike for a better deal than the 2.4 per cent rise on offer. ", Isn't it risky for a lifelong socialist to confront a Labour government when it is already in serious trouble? He joined NALGO in 1975, and in 1990 he became its deputy general secretary. Internal elections 2015 General Secretary election. She pointed out that the figure was agreed by the union’s national executive committee and that he was “worth every penny”. Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, called on the Government to convene urgent talks to discuss the report, rather than "rushing" to make cuts and face industrial action. And here comes a bolshy trade union leader, warning the Prime Minister that his members are angry and ready to deliver a fatal blow. He'll stay and negotiate for as long as it takes," a Unison official said yesterday. Employment law makes it much harder than it was in the 1970s for a union leader to call its members out on strike, but also, paradoxically, it makes a strike harder to call off. Is it the voice of a prophet calling his party to rediscover its soul? There is a limit to how often they can be persuaded to do it again. Copy link. ", And if he doesn't? "Wealthy people are allowed to do whatever they want, out of fear that they will leave the country, so the brunt of the economic turbulence will be borne by working-class people. But he added: "We must never return to those days." He sounds like an intense boy with unusual passions. Unison has just published a Mori poll showing that nearly half of traditional Labour voters are less likely to back the party next time. He is 52 years old and is a Capricorn. "No," he says happily. They said, 'Look, if you've got these beliefs, for God's sake learn to speak properly.' But that is not how Prentis is seen by those who have actually dealt with him, either in government, or in the Labour Party, or even by others in the trade union movement. I cannot ignore that.". "I do get a kick out of our membership," he says. This small and slim man looks casual enough for the conference floor but smart enough to meet with ministers. "Probably the only problem I had was my broad Leeds accent. He has remembered an outside interest. His two daughters by his long-term partner Liz Snape, Unison's head of policy, are roughly the same age as Blair's children, the elder girl being now out of her teens. "This isn't a proper job. Such fighting talk is new from the general secretary, who represents 1.4 million men and women providing public services – from health managers and nurses through probation officers to dinner ladies. ", Strikes are not his main threat. Dave – not David – Prentis definitely sees himself as a man of his people. Soaring inflation is already rendering it obsolete, says Prentis, and if it continues he will fight for a new deal. Tax-evasion by the rich amounts to £37bn and nobody says anything. He is also involved in disputes at Ofsted, among meat hygiene inspectors and in the probation service. The reason this quiet man has so little visibility is that he does not conform to the idea of what a big union boss should be. According to Unison's most recent annual accounts, his total salary and benefits in 2010 came to just … He's on a basic salary of £89,000. ", That, says his director of policy, Liz Snape, who has been sitting in on our conversation, "is because you've got a million women." Union barons are supposed to be arrogant, opinionated, politically motivated and greedy. "That does help!" But his early memories are of being the clever boy from a Catholic family living in the poor quarter of Leeds who had passed his 11-plus and joined the kids from better-off families at Leeds Grammar School. Dave Prentis (born 1948) is a British trade unionist who is the current General Secretary of UNISON, the United Kingdom's largest trade union. Does he really want to let David Cameron in? In 2000, just before he took over the general secretaryship from his predecessor, Rodney Bickerstaffe, Prentis went to the doctor complaining of indigestion – and was diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus. Dave Prentis: “Class still divides. Want an ad-free experience?Subscribe to Independent Premium. And we've got to pay the price, show restraint? The TUC Public Service Liaison Committee is meeting today to discuss potential industrial action over public sector pensions. It is not that Unison has been quiescent under Prentis's long stewardship. According to Unison's most recent annual accounts, his total salary and benefits in 2010 came to just over £101,000, plus £32,818 paid into his pension pot. He has also suggested the union sell its two office buildings in London and move its HQ to the Midlands. We are talking at the Bournemouth International Centre, in one of the bars that have been closed and deserted all week. [The ward] was filthy." Geography still divides. A few days ago, I was disappointed to hear that Dave Prentis, the general secretary of Unison – my trade union – has been appointed as a non-executive director of the Bank of England.. As the leader of one of the UK’s largest trade unions, Prentis is involved in ongoing negotiations over proposed changes to public sector workers’ pensions. So what on earth is he up to? Then you wake up at three in the morning and you do some more." Prentis is a Yorkshireman, but he is no Arthur Scargill. ", After reading history at the University of London and economic history at the LSE, he took a master's in industrial relations at Warwick. Sat 18 Jul 2020 07.01 EDT. ", Typical pragmatism, some would say, from a trade unionist who adapted to New Labour. The full extent of the cuts will be revealed on November 11 but some staff could lose up to £5,000 annually from their salary. "I'm saying the feeling out there is one of pure anger. "If there is still so much anger and worry among public service workers when an election comes, they will show their discontent at the ballot box. Lps Dave is a Capricorn and was born in The Year of the Monkey Life. Prentis went public a few years ago after fighting off cancer of the oesophagus and stomach, not to mention MRSA contracted in hospital. They exchange knowing smiles, like lovers do. We don't want to run the country. In 2007, Unison balloted its members for a nationwide strike over pay, but the majority in favour was too narrow and the action did not go ahead. That depends on your politics. You won’t be surprised to see that comrade Prentis is one of those unfortunate fat-cats who earn between £100,000 and £112,950. He is doing it on behalf of public service workers who have had their pay kept below inflation. "I got on with them very well. Some say the Conservatives look more competent. Dave Prentis, general secretary of the Unison, which has more than 1.3 members in the public sector, said: “This is austerity plain and simple. 38 union chiefs are paid more than £100,000 a year, seven more than David Cameron. "The cleaning service was contracted out to a private firm. He says: "Class still divides. At least one right-wing commentator fulminating about next week's strike suggested that Prentis has deliberately engineered this dispute because he wants to pull his members out on strike in the hope of bringing down the Government, just as Arthur Scargill once hoped to use the miners as the battering ram to break the Thatcher government. Someone on that money is subject to Gordon’s personal allowance tapering. About sharing. "Times are tough," admitted the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, in his Mansion House speech. They talk about the struggle, mostly. I told them to push off. Once a strike ballot has been called, the union has 28 days to act or the ballot is invalid. Lps Dave was born in United States on Thursday, January 18, 1968 (Generation X). ", That's how it has always been for him, since he was a child in Leeds. We want him to stand up for us. The name that so easily slips the memory is Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, who is still below most people's radars after more than 10 years as one of the most powerful figures in the trade union movement, and even as the country braces for the biggest public sector strike since the strife-torn 1970s. Absolutely not." Prentis is not by any measure badly paid. A decade of spending cuts left public services exposed when Covid came calling. So the 58-year-old party member believes he is firing "a warning shot" across the leader's bows. But apart from that he has been reluctant to talk about his private life. Dave Prentis was re-elected in an election with 49.4% of the vote of 9.8% turnout of members. "We're not banging the table. "Probably worked at Burtons, in a tailoring factory. What pleases ministers but exasperates the left about Prentis is that if he has an ideological worldview, he keeps it hidden behind the self-effacing exterior of a professional negotiator. Yet none of these actions has given the union or its long-serving leader the kind of notoriety than Bob Crow and the RMT have acquired by their sporadic disruptions of the London Underground. Most of his friends are trade unionists, he says. Nita Clarke, former Downing Street adviser. In newspaper parlance, he is described as a member of the "awkward squad", alongside Crow, and Mark Serwotka of the Public and Commercial Services Union, or, more recently, Len McCluskey of Unite – union bosses who were not going to do the bidding of the Labour leadership. We still live in that divided society now. "We did accept change, many times. It's not like the old days – "they used to have trouble getting people to come in for the votes" – but far away in Westminster, opponents are calling Dave Prentis a dinosaur. When he was elected general secretary of Unison in 2000, he was not the candidate of the far left, and when left-wing union activists in the union movement talk approvingly about the "awkward squad", they do not include Dave Prentis in this pantheon. He was UNISON's deputy general secretary (DGS) from its formation in July 1993, when it was formed from NALGO, NUPE and CoHSE. FILE PHOTO: Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak speaks during a news conference on the ongoing situation with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in London, Britain March 17, 2020. The figures show that Unison's endorsement was decisive too, but Prentis's people did not think it wise to brag about it. Share. "Yes." "They have had enough. He's extremely intelligent, and a very good leader of the union, very, very highly thought of throughout government. He has had differences with the Government before, but never set himself on such a collision course. "Our members are worried about how they are going to pay the mortgage or the rent, the gas or electricity, and how they are going to feed their children," he says. "I'm not threatening a summer of discontent," he insists. So how does he think they could bring the Prime Minister down? "You raise them up, Gordon, or they will bring you down!". This strategy was condemned by union leaders, with Unison general secretary Dave Prentis calling it a "slap in the face to all of those we applaud each week". Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile, Suck on a Spangle, we're back in the Seventies. That has not happened, and hundreds of thousands of low-paid, predominantly female members of Unison will sacrifice a day's pay and risk alienating public support next week. Prentis speaks softly, rarely expresses an opinion that is not strictly related to his job, and his slight physical stature is testimony to the fact that he eats sparingly. Dave Prentis Updated: 21:25 EDT, 6 August 2011 Last Sunday we said that Dave Prentis, the Unison general secretary, had secured a 31 per cent increase to his pension contributions from the union. Is it the cry of a moderate dismayed at being forced to fight? We care for the vulnerable in society." The two hit it off partly because they were of the same generation – Prentis, who is now 61, being older by three years. He's extremely intelligent, and a very good leader of the union." ", Not that it sounds much fun, to be honest. I love being with them. I'd spend every minute of the waking day with them. The Conservatives have promised to give the unions a thrashing again, if they start behaving like they did in 1979. Those words were spoken by Dave Prentis of Unison, the second largest union in the country, at its annual conference last week. ", Not him, of course. "I've never had a pay rise that was not applied to the rest of the staff." Dave Prentis receives his honorary degree ©OU Unison's general secretary has been awarded an honorary degree marking his "commitment to lifelong, life-changing learning" in public services. Boss Dave Prentis is paid £138,551 to lead Unison’s 1.4 million members. His main pledge is to take a worker’s salary of £32,000 and donate the extra £100,000 of the general secretary’s pay package to the union’s own welfare fund. "It may be frosty when I get back from here. Did he feel adrift, as so many grammar school boys did, between his working-class roots and his middle-class friends? Prentis was one of the first big union leaders to acknowledge that the spectacle of union bosses stomping around Labour conference wielding their block votes was bad for Labour and bad for the unions. Working people, our people, are taking the hit. More than three dozen union barons earn annual pay and perks packages which run into six figures, campaigners claim. 25 November 2020. "No. Prentis, in Bournemouth for Unison's conference last week, {{#verifyErrors}} {{message}} {{/verifyErrors}} {{^verifyErrors}} {{message}} {{/verifyErrors}}, Dave Prentis: 'Raise them up, or they will bring you down'. Dave – not David – Prentis definitely sees himself as a man of his people. Union barons are meant to be arrogant and politically motivated. Still do. It’s immoral and it’s got to change.”, {{#verifyErrors}} {{message}} {{/verifyErrors}} {{^verifyErrors}} {{message}} {{/verifyErrors}}. That is unfair, says Prentis, if it does not apply to everyone. ... Australia in 2020. "I am," says Dave Prentis, "the voice of 1.4 million people.". Want an ad-free experience?Subscribe to Independent Premium. ... Dave Prentis The cut could have paid for an extra 30,000 nurses, 15,000 police officers, 20,000 teachers and 10,000 police community support officers. Prentis the negotiator may have hoped that 28-day window would concentrate ministers' minds enough to squeeze a firm offer out of them that would allow him to claim a success without a strike. Dave Prentis 00:01, 23 NOV 2020. ", Thanks to a Catholic education he was "probably the only boy within a radius of a mile to get to grammar school." "Throughout the teenage years, probably my only interest was in working-class movements, working-class history." But you've got to have an essence, and mine was in standing up for my background." After his stunning victory over PFI contractors last week, the Unison general secretary has emerged as the PFI’s most effective opponent. But there is no mistaking the hubris. So is the Government. I was hauled in at school. close. Crow leads a union with fewer than 80,000 members, which is not affiliated to Labour, while Unison, which Prentis has led for longer than Crow has been the RMT's general secretary, has nearly 1.4 million members and contributes about £1.5m a year to Labour Party funds.
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