Why we walked out of UNISON Community Conference? because a man dismissed for bullying & harassing 14 women was chairing it

 

A week ago there was a walkout of UNISON delegates and Service Group Executive members from our annual Community conference, which was being held in Glasgow. This has never happened before in Community.

This was an unplanned and spontaneous walk out since we had no idea until the last minute, that an imposter, pretending to be the lay President of UNISON, Paul Holmes, was going to chair our conference. Despite the fact he has recently been dismissed by his employer, following bullying and harassment allegations by 14 (yes 14) female UNISON members (and also by at least one male who was threatened with violence).

Not only has Paul Holmes been dismissed by his employer for bullying and harassing women but the current majority Group on the UNISON NEC have decided that they will "change" long established union rules to allow him to be our lay President, despite being unemployed, and therefore not eligible under rule to hold office.

The NEC has no right to change our rules to support men accused of such bullying and harassment. Only our annual National Delegate Conference can change such rules.

Paul Holmes has also recently lost an employment tribunal case for what is called "interim relief", which means the courts think it is likely he was fairly dismissed for abusing all these women.

We are a relatively small UNISON Service Group with only 60 delegates representing some 60,000 members. We also had visitors and members of the Service Group Executive.

I think around 25 members walked out including a former Female UNISON President, members of the Service Group Executive, delegates and visitors. Far more would have walked out if we had known in advance about this outrage.

Since then I have been contacted by UNISON members from all over the UK horrified that a man dismissed for abusing so many women can be allowed to hold office. They want him to be at least suspended until there is a proper investigation and process by UNISON into the allegations.

Otherwise it seems UNISON is saying to our 1 million plus female members, that no matter what you say, or how many say it, we won't believe you if you say it about one of our male NEC favourites.

UNISON Community Seminar 2022 (& the "imposter" dismissed for bullying & harassing women) Day 1

 

Friday was day 1 of the UNISON Community Service Group (Housing associations and voluntary sector members) annual Seminar and conference in Glasgow. 

It was so good to have a physical in person conference and meet other delegates who I have not seen outside zoom or teams for 2 years or so. I was part of the Greater London Housing Associations delegation. 

At noon there was a series of sector specific workshops. As you would expect I attended the Housing Associations workshop, where we had a very useful wide discussion on current issues and problems in our sector and what we can do about them. 

However, someone who described himself as the "President" of UNISON also attended despite admitting (and then demonstrating ) he had little or no knowledge of Housing Associations. This man  must be an imposter since he has been dismissed by his employer for allegedly bullying/harassing 15 female UNISON members (and also men). 

Nevermind the awful nature of these allegations, UNISON rules have never allowed someone who is unemployed to hold such an office, not least because we are a trade union representing members at work on their terms and conditions. 

There was also workshops on the CVO sector and Major Charities. After these sessions there was a briefing for new delegates to the seminar and conference. 

The seminar started officially at 2.45pm and there was a series of really interesting speakers on topical Community Service Group issues followed by Q&A. 

Derby City branch Community UNISON members have posted a really good account of this session here http://derbycityunison.co.uk/2022/03/18/unison-community-conference-2022-glasgow-day-1/

Afterwards we had a London regional delegation meeting followed by a meal in a Spoons in 

Sauchiehall Street. One of the London delegates mother was Ukrainian and she made it clear her hatred of what is being done to her family members  every time the TV screens showed pictures of the fascist monster Putin.