GMB faces a high profile campaign

Members of the GMB general union will be voting for a new general secretary early next year after current leader John Edmonds announced he would be retiring at the end of April - a year earlier than planned.

Nominations are expected to open this month with a ballot in the spring, and the new general secretary will take over from the start of the union's biennial conference in June.

The election will have major political and trade union significance as the 700,000-strong union - the fourth largest in the TUC - has been increasingly in conflict with Labour's policies on public services. Next year will also see a general secretary election in the second-largest union, the T&G general union.

The two widely touted front runners in the GMB contest are Paul Kenny and Kevin Curran - secretaries of the union's London and Northern regions respectively. They do not fall into a clear "left-right" divide, although Curran has been keen to shrug off suggestions that he is favoured by both Edmonds and Tony Blair.

There will be a simultaneous election for deputy general secretary with the departure of current incumbent Steve Pickering. Names in the ring include regional organiser Debbie Coulter and national equal rights officer Karen Constantine.

* Paul Mackney, general secretary of the NATFHE lecturers' union since 1997, has been re-elected.