Ballot papers for this year's National Executive Council election need to be returned by this Friday 13 May (unlucky for some)!So if you haven't voted yet please retrieve your papers from the kitchen drawer or where ever you have left them.
Have a look at the recommendations to my left (double click to bring up detail) and consider voting for sensible left candidates who will unite the union.
We need a leadership that will only represent members and their interests. If we get this then this government's attempts to destroy public services (and the unions) can be stopped. No more glorious defeats please. So vote and post today!
14 comments:
No, we don't need a leadership, we need followers who will enact the will of conference.
The general secretary is not the leader of Unison, the NEC is not the leadership, unison is a members led organisation.
of course bill we need a leadership. Members elect the GS and the NEC to lead. conference is all important but it only meets 3.5 days a year to set policy, rules and finances? But what about running the union on the other 362 odd days in a year?
what the union really needs is elected sensible left leader's who lead (and not just do whatever their central committee tells them to do).
What did you think of the criticism that Gordon Brown received for having his picture taken with Maggie Thatcher outside number 10? Did you think the criticism was unfair?
Anon, administration isn't leadership. the general secretary is a secretary, not a general, strategy, principles, goals and methods are down to us. Frankly, the NEC should be barred from sending motions to conference.
of course they are leaders. it is in the rules made by conference. you can't have it both ways. its on the ballot paper that the role of the nec is to lead.
Bill
blogger crashed last week and lost your latest comment. Please send again.
oooh, stretch my memory, I think I made the distinction between administering./carrying out the will of conference, and leadership. My old saw that the general Secretary is a secretary, not a general.
More specifically, I think I voiced my view that the NEC should not be allowed to send motions to conference. Must remember to try and get my branch to propose that. It would help clarify the situation, and end, to some extent, factional disputes is we remove the levers of power that factions try to capture.
frational disputes would be even worse in this case at conference than now.
NEC members are at least usually elected by the membership in contested elections (with low figures)but most branch delegates are not elected.
problem.
Anon,
yes, there might well be squabbles at conference, but that would happen each year, rather than the present situation where one faction can capture a few offices and lock the other out for several years (it's the same case for annual parliaments, incidentally). I don't know about your branch, but at ours the delegates are elected by the committee (or at least the inquorate AGM).
In any event, it would require factions to be able to capture many branches to have any meaningful affect, rather than get a handful of hyper-activists into strategic posts.
nec elections happen every 2 years?
without being too negative about things but are your branch committee members elected in contested elections? I think not. Usually anyone who wants to can be a member of the EC. Like the AGM they are also probably inquorate.
Are NDC delegates ever actually "elected" or is the case that the branch has to run around trying to bully someone into actually putting themselves forward???
do you know just how many members of the NEC there are?
Anon,
couldn't you get a more descriptive handle?
There are about 70 NEC seats, so 36 is the number of hacktivists required to dominate the union. the general Secretary is elected for an indefinate term (I've no idea what the maximum prescribed in law is), the deputy general secretary has no seeming limit at all.
To be frank a body of 70 is too unwieldy, and in practice will probably devolve most of its work to sub-committees and officers. We'd probably have more control/accountability from a council of about 20.
Bill, you don't answer my points?
The GS term is time limited. Tory TU laws make it complicated.
The nec needs to reflect all parts of the union and not be seen as a local government club.
Seth,
yes, Anarcho_Stalinism reigns my branch too (all power to Muggins who turns up to the right meeting). But my main response to your points was the same as above, so I don't have anything to add, I'll reiterate, it's much more difficult to seize control of the conference delegate process.
The laws for the GS are the same as for the exec., yet the rules say 'the maximum period prescribed by law' for the GS, but NEC remains annual, Frankly the GS should be annualised as well.
nec are biannual elections not annual?
conferences are great fun but essentially talking shops and hardly democratic.
need to update, move on and give power direct to members.
Make voting in branch, regional and national elections compulsory for people to retain membership (secret ballots or online)?
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