Friday, October 08, 2021

Statement from UNISON NEC Members 6.10.21 (see the attempt to divide & destroy our union)


(See what happened on the day that the Ultra left tried to divide & destroy our union just when we are mobilising to call pay strike ballots in Health & Local Government. I will add my name)

 Statement from NEC Members following the NEC Meeting on Wednesday 6th October 2021. Anyone wishing to add their support or their name are more than welcome to do so. Thank you.

As NEC members who chose to follow the legal advice given to us at the NEC meeting on 6th October 2021, here is our report of what happened:
The Vice Presidents of the NEC, who are Leaders of the ‘Time For Real Change’ organisation, sent out a list of six resolutions to the NEC, outside of the established protocol, one at 5.30pm on Friday 1st and an amended version on Sunday 3rd October, and just days before our meeting. These items were not listed on the Agenda for the meeting.
Prior to the meeting all NEC members were sent written legal advice, sought through UNISON’s usual processes, which stated that four of the six resolutions were a breach of our Rules and unlawful. We were also given this advice verbally throughout the meeting.
The Vice Presidents’ resolutions sought to amend the rules of our union, outside of our usual rule book democratic process of our National Delegate Conference.
The Vice Presidents’ unlawful rule breaches aim to:
1). Remove powers delegated to the General Secretary – a fundamental breach of her contract and an undermining of her huge democratic mandate as our elected General Secretary
2). Bypass UNISON’s legal department and choose whatever legal counsel they wish, subverting the terms and conditions of our UNISON staff and ethical standards
3). Give the D & O and NEC more powers over disciplinary’s and suspensions
4). Allow members who are dismissed from their employment to remain a member of our union AND hold any office they were in, no matter if they have committed a serious offence or gross misconduct. For example, sexual harassment, or any discriminatory harassment or a violent crime.
We would, as would our members, expect our General Secretary to abide by the legal advice she has been given through the union and given the seriousness of the consequences of the advice we also followed that advice.
All six resolutions passed by a simple majority – we did not support any of them.
The Vice Presidents did not, at any point in the meeting, say that they had sought their own legal advice, even though they were asked on a number of occasions and again ignored those questions. We do not know what their advice says, why and when they sought it, who wrote it, what information was given when the advice was sought, or even who paid for it.
We believe the Vice Presidents and other NEC members who were elected under the ‘Time for Real Change’ banner or who now align themselves to this organisation are now openly attacking our union and our democratically elected General Secretary – the first woman to ever hold the position and who is honest, ethical and upholds the aims, values and objectives of our union.
We support the aims, values and objectives as laid down in the unions rule book and the democratically elected General Secretary and the staff of the union.
James Anthony
Josie Bird
Manjula Kumari
Chris Hanrahan
Sian Stockham
Sam Hemraj
Helen Firman
Ali Long
Katrina Murray
Tracey Wainwright
Sarah Crowe
Margaret McKee
Pat Heron
Edwin Jeffries
Gordon McKay
Catherine McKenna
Emma Proctor
Chris Tansley
Maureen Le Marinel

5 comments:

Louise B said...

Where has this statement been published? Can we share it?

John Gray said...

I would check out our former Presidents twitter https://twitter.com/MaureenNEC2021

Unknown said...

A worrying time for our union when this sadistic government continues to wreak havoc on our country. our members and their families. Our focus should be on fighting for a decent wage for our workers and generous reward to all our front line staff who put their lives on the line for the rest of us during the pandemic. I'm not sure what change they're calling for but it's not change for our low paid members. Christina McAnea has been a great representative for all our members and is the leader we elected and want.

John Gray said...

Agree 100%

Brian Smith said...

I'm afraid this is the three monkeys all over again.