On Monday 19 December UNISON
the Trade Union with 1.3 million members is on trial facing serious allegations
about the running of the election campaign that saw Dave Prentis elected
general secretary of Britain’s largest public sector union, Unison last year.
The complainants allege that
Unison breached its rules and the 1992 Act in relation to the election for the
position of General Secretary of UNISON in late 2015.
The Hearing begins Monday 19
December to Wednesday 21 December (10am) inclusive and it is being held at:
Employment
Appeal Tribunal, Fleetbank House, LONDON, EC4Y 8JX.
The complaints were registered
by UNISON members after a whistle-blower provided an audio-tape of paid officials
plotting to campaign for Dave Prentis.
The complainants allege:
“The breach occurred at a
meeting organised and attended by UNISON officials in the Greater London Region
which took place at the UNISON premises known as Congress House and where UNISON
staff received a briefing on how to campaign for the re-election of David
Prentis.”
The plot thickened when an
article regarding campaign “Team Dave” emails were published by Private Eye in
February 2016.
“Team Dave; Update No 20 sent
at 09.44 on Friday 23 October 2015. States ‘It may be that in some
circumstances you may be able to “circumvent” hostile branches by covertly
working with sympathetic employer contacts. ….”
Full details of all of the
complaints can be found on the Certification Office website here:
If the Assistant Certification
Officer were to find against UNISON and make an Enforcement Order to order a re-run of the election then (with the
recent announcement that Len McClusky, Unite General Secretary has called an
early election next year) there could be two general secretary elections taking
place in 2017 affecting more than 3 million trade union members.
Notes to Editors.
Contact details: John Burgess 07835116441 or email: burgessjohn37@hotmail.com
Background #Unisongate
complaints:
1.
#Unisongate makes BBC Radio 4 Today Programme
2.
“UNISON: Union democracy on trial.”
4. Whistleblowing tape – 21 October 2015
A damning audio-tape emerged in early December 2015 providing
evidence that senior officials of Britain’s biggest public service union,
UNISON, had allegedly acted in blatant breach of the union’s own rules to
secure the incumbent General Secretary’s re-election. The 23-minute tape
appeared on an Anonymous Blog here:
The audio file can be downloaded online here:
The audio recording largely features the voice of UNISON’s London
Regional Secretary, repeatedly thanking paid union officials under her
management for their work in securing branch nominations for the three-term
incumbent UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis.
“We have done very well and I want to thank everybody and
congratulate them on getting the nominations that they have got. This is a list
of the Greater London branch nominations for Dave Prentis the deadline closed
last Friday, I do not have a list of the other candidates, and that will appear
in due course but I haven’t got it. But we have done very well, we’ve got
almost 50 nominations here so that is excellent and thanks very much, er Dave
is very very pleased and he has related that to me personally er it is very
important because obviously this is going to be a hard fought election.”
(UNISON London Regional Secretary to UNISON London Region paid
officials on 21 October 2015).
The recording includes derogatory references to Mr Prentis’ three
election opponents (Roger Bannister, John Burgess and Heather Wakefield) and
their supporters along with a detailed discussion of what London regional staff
can do to bolster the Prentis campaign in the days running up to the start of
the postal ballot on 9 November. There is also an explicit warning not to get
“caught out”, while mention of the union’s election rules provokes widespread
laughter.
5. Team Dave campaign emails
The public were first made aware of the Team Dave campaign emails
when an article appeared in Private Eye in early February.
Here are some extracts from the above Private Eye article:
“Leaked emails reach the Eye providing more evidence that
full-time staff of Unison mobilised to get general secretary Dave Prentis
re-elected in December making the union’s claim to be a “member-led” look
increasingly questionable.”
And
“The emails passed to the Eye from within the Prentis campaign
indicate that Unison officials were in fact the backbone of “Team Dave”. The
emails were sent by assistant general secretary Cliff Williams in October and
November. The bulk of the recipients were other Unison officials – a rough
count shows 45 of 50 addresses are regional secretaries, head office staff and
other unison staff.”
“One striking “Team Dave” note says: “it may be in some
circumstance you may be able to ‘circumvent’ hostile branches by working with
sympathetic employer contacts. I acknowledge that some colleagues may feel this
is ethically inappropriate but it doesn’t breach campaign rules; it will have
to be done with caution.”
It may not break campaign rules, but it still doesn’t look good.
Similarly, having Unison officials lead the Prentis campaign doesn’t match the
spirit of the union being “member led”.
The third extract above is in our view one of the most damming,
especially for those grassroots reps and members who have been fighting
employers who are sacking, privatising or cutting the Terms and Conditions of
our members. The idea that union paid unelected officials would go behind the
backs of locally elected branch officials is appalling and has no place in a
trade union. To date there has been no condemnation of these remarks or any
investigation.
Repeated calls for an independent investigation were turned
down.
The “Team Dave” emails provide a context to the content of the
audio tape of the meeting in London on 21 October 2015.
Read Three earlier Private Eye articles here
1. Unison on tape
2. A family affair
3. A greasy poll
End.
