Dear UNISON members and all trade union members.
As the the date of the three day hearing approaches, people are asking:
1. "What is #Unisongate and what are you complaining about?
2. "Can members of the public attend the hearing?"
The hearing which is OPEN TO THE PUBLIC runs for three days starting:
Monday 19 December to Wednesday 21 December inclusive
Venue: Fleetbank House, LONDON, EC4Y 8JX
Complaint 3
On or about 21 October 2015 to
on or about 18 February 2016, UNISON breached section 49(6) of the Trade Union
and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 in that it failed to ensure that
the Scrutineer duly carried out his functions and that there was no
interference with his carrying out of those functions which would make it
reasonable for any person to call the Scrutineer's independence in relation to
the union into question. This is evidenced by the following:-
1. The Scrutineer/ Electoral
Reform Society did not independently investigate and respond to the complaints
that were made to it in relation to the General Secretary 2015 Election in
accordance with the terms of reference of the election timetable and procedure.
Specifically with reference to the complaints arising from the disclosure of
the audio tape of the meeting held on 21 October in the UNISON Greater London
Regional Office.
2. The ERS issued guidance on
21 October that informed branches and nominating bodies they could now inform
their members why they had chosen to make a particular nomination. This
guidance was issued after an email from Team Dave, dated 15 October 2015, which
informed UNISON branches that they could publish the fact of their nomination
together with the reason why. Prior to the issuing of the guidance by the ERS
it was established procedure and known throughout the union that branches could
only inform their members who the branch had nominated and not why. In any
event the new guidance was not endorsed by the NEC as required by rule.
3. The Returning Officer, Alex
Lonie, was sent Team Dave emails in January 2016. Mr Lonie neglected to refer
to them in his official Returning Officer report published on 18 February.
4. The ERS was asked by
Private Eye magazine about the Team Dave emails and their investigation at a
time before the report was published and at a time when the ERS should have
been conducting an independent investigation. In its response, the ERS informed
Private Eye - "UNISON is preparing a report for Mr Lonie which would
enable him to decide if the election was properly conducted. UNISON would then
in turn report his decision back to its members."
Background
#Unisongate complaints:
To understand some of the issues please listen and read the
information and links below which have been all online in the public domain for
almost 10 months.
1. Whistleblowing tape – 21 October 2015
A damning audiotape emerged in early December 2015 provided
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.
2. 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.
You can read the Private Eye article here https://www.scribd.com/doc/312252796/Private-Eye-p-38-Feb-2016
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.
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