Support the Kirklees 15 - Believe Women (& Men) who report bullying and harassment & give them Justice

Donate here for the Kirklees 15

"On behalf of the Kirklees 15, we are fundraising to help us build awareness of our campaign for justice in our Union, Unison. We are made up of Unison members and branch employed staff past and present.

Our Complaints of bullying and harassment against the Branch Secretary of Kirklees Unison were made 2.5 years ago, the Union dragged their feet in investigating our complaints, but the investigating officer did recommend the case moved to a hearing. The NEC of Unison have met on March 15th, 2022, and summarily dismissed all our complaints without any basis or reason why.

This is in our opinion a dreadful abuse of power and corruption, totally ignoring everyone of us who have actually suffered horrendous sexism and misogyny over a number of years. The Hearings must be carried out, and we are appealing to all Unison members to support our cause.

The Funds will be used to help support our colleagues attending Local and National Delegate Conference, in accommodation and travel fees, for leaflets and materials to be produced to put our case. Also, funds for any future legal case".

Newham Governance Referendum will be a choice between Keeping Executive Mayor or Moving to Committee model

 

Picture is from the virtual Newham Council meeting on Monday, where I was pleased that it was agreed that the future governance referendum of our borough, due to be held next year on 6 May 2021 will give residents the real choice between carrying on with the present Executive Mayor system (all legal power in the hands of one person) or instead the Committee system (where power is shared amongst locally elected Councillors).

In the debate, I spoke strongly in favour of the Committee system. While I respect the views of those who wanted the question on the ballot paper to be different eg a choice between Executive Mayor and what is called the “Leader and Cabinet” model. I argued that this is not a real choice, since at best, the “Leader and cabinet” model is in reality "Executive Mayor Lite".  

The Committee model option is a real progressive alternative to the Executive Mayor. We need to change the political culture in Newham and I think the Committee model is the only one that will deliver on our manifesto commitment to deliver real participatory democracy to the people of Newham.

Check out the debate here on YouTube (and the excellent motion on Making Misogyny a Hate Crime by Cllr Mumtaz Khan) and also the twitter account https://twitter.com/ForNewham, website https://newhamforchange.org/ and Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/newhamvotingforchange set up by local residents to support the Committee model next May.