Unison gen sec election

[hitmouse]

Unison general secretary is still at war with the NEC, has apparently just ordered that all NEC committee meetings are suspended:

Statement on NEC Committee meetings — Time For Real Change

On Wednesday evening [26 January], UNISON’s General Secretary unilaterally issued an instruction to postpone important NEC Committee meetings without the agreement of the elected chairs of those committees. The General Secretary has no power under the UNISON Rulebook to unilaterally stop meetings; t

timeforrealchange.uk

Also, had missed that Paul Holmes is no longer suspended by Unison:

Union boss Paul Holmes to stand for re-election

However a council investigation remains unresolved after more than two years

www.examinerlive.co.uk

His disciplinary with the employer is still dragging on, but that's set to come to a head one way or another next week:

Veteran Kirklees union man to learn his fate two years after suspension

Unison official Paul Holmes was suspended by Kirklees Council amid an investigation into 'serious and confidential issues'

www.examinerlive.co.uk

 

[belboid]

Unsurprisingly, Kirklees have sacked Paul Holmes

Statement: Paul Holmes — Time For Real Change

Statement made by Nigel Pearce on behalf of Paul Holmes at the conclusion of Paul Holmes’s disciplinary case on February 2, 2022 Paul Holmes is the National President of UNISON (the largest trade union in the UK with 1.3 million members). He has been Branch Secretary of the Kirklees UNISON branch

timeforrealchange.uk

 

[Lord Camomile]

I've never been clear on just what he was suspended for

 

[belboid]

I've never been clear on just what he was suspended for

• Bullying, threatening and intimidating behaviour towards colleagues
• Repeated and unreasonable work demands on colleagues
• Behaving in a controlling and coercive manner
• Making sarcastic and demeaning comments towards colleagues, including constant and unjustifiable criticism

The actual details are very vague indeed, but I would imagine they will start becoming rather clearer now the investigation is definitely over.

 

[Lord Camomile]

Blimey.

 

[Dom Traynor]

While my sympathies are with some of the TFRC lot, I can't say I've ever liked PH.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

• Bullying, threatening and intimidating behaviour towards colleagues
• Repeated and unreasonable work demands on colleagues
• Behaving in a controlling and coercive manner
• Making sarcastic and demeaning comments towards colleagues, including constant and unjustifiable criticism

The actual details are very vague indeed, but I would imagine they will start becoming rather clearer now the investigation is definitely over.

Assume this will be going to an ET?

 

[19force8]

The actual details are very vague indeed, but I would imagine they will start becoming rather clearer now the investigation is definitely over.

Not so far, but there is this from Socialist Appeal:

Paul Holmes and Kirklees Labour council: Union-busting plot exposed | The Communist

For years, an unholy alliance of council employers, right-wing union bureaucrats, and disgruntled opponents have attempted to victimise Paul Holmes, the President of Unison. Now the truth is emerging about this disgraceful witch-hunt.

www.socialist.net

 

[hitmouse]

Oh yeah, mentioned in that article but looks like Kirklees Unison have just re-elected him:

Paul Holmes re-elected as Unison secretary after Kirklees Council sacks him

He has regained his union role after being sacked by Kirklees Council

www.examinerlive.co.uk

 

[hitmouse]

SGE elections are on at the moment, although you could be excused for not noticing. It says something about the dismal state of Unison democracy that there are so many seats uncontested - the list of uncontested candidates is here (3 pages), the list of contested seats is here (2 pages, even though by definition you have to spend more space listing a contested seats because there's more than one candidate). TFRC are running 59 candidates, cba doing the crossreferencing myself but I've heard at least 28 of them have been elected unopposed.

 

[hitmouse]

Busy few weeks for Unison, national conference is on and the SGE election results are out, full results at: https://www.unison.org.uk/content/uploads/2022/06/2022-SGE-Summary-Results-.pdf
Can't be bothered cross-referencing against the list of left candidates, but this article says TFRC got about 75% of the seats they stood in, although as I understand it, about half those seats were uncontested, so presumably around a 50% success rate for the actual contested seats?

Unison service group elections: A step forward in the campaign for real change | The Communist

Left activists are celebrating success in the recent elections for Unison's service group executives. These must be a launchpad for strengthening the struggle to transform the union.

www.socialist.net

eta: just had a look, and it seems like, out of the 14 TFRC health candidates, I think 10 got in, and 9 of those were in contested seats, so that seems pretty decent... but that's out of 36 health seats overall. HE seems to have "elected" 11 out of 12 TFRC candidates, but I think only one of them was a contested seat, so I think that says more about the dire state of Unison democracy than anything else. LG I think 15 out of 23, 7 contested, 8 unopposed. And in Community there were 10 TFRC candidates, 8 unopposed, two who stood in contested seats and didn't get in, so again just a testament to the low levels of engagement.
Putting the numbers together, looks like a total of 59 candidates, 27 unopposed, 17 elected in contested seats, 15 defeated.

Anyway, write-up of yesterday's conference goings-on here, sounds like two of the big motions coming from the right/officialdom and attacking the left/elected leadership were passed:

UNISON moving forward after a difficult and damaging afternoon

After a positive start to UNISON National Delegate Conference yesterday morning, I'm not sorry that my health precluded my hanging around t...

jonrogers1963.blogspot.com

Hopefully the results of the vote were not due to anyone carelessly infecting any left delegates with covid immediately before conference.

 

[hitmouse]

Sounds like it's been a fucking nasty conference, compare the less than upbeat report from Jon's labour movement blog above, to the confusingly similarly-named but far more right-wing John's Labour blog, which is pretty much gloating:

UNISON National Delegate Conference 2022: Day 2 (our NEC should resign)

A blog about Labour movement, trade unions, pensions, housing and councils.

www.johnslabourblog.org

So, seems like TFRC/the NEC have a respectable majority among that pool of UNISON members which is engaged enough to vote in union elections, and their opponents have a solid majority among that pool of UNISON members who go to conference. Obv it goes more or less without saying that the vast majority of members are not actually in either group.

 

[hitmouse]

Sounds like it's been a fucking nasty conference

turns out that apparently there was a walk-out being staged just as I was writing that. What a shitshow.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

turns out that apparently there was a walk-out being staged just as I was writing that. What a shitshow.

Sounds toxic as fuck. Can you imagine what young activists and workers attending their first conference will have made of the shit show? Or those attending to learn what their union might be able to do to challenge low pay or shit terms or bad bosses?

I might be well wide of the mark here but these reports indicate a war between two vying ruling blocs in a bubble rather than a battle of ideas, strategy and tactics. I don’t doubt those differences exist but from these reports you wouldn’t know it.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

i've not long re-joined unison (20 years away in other jobs / unions, having been a nalgo / unison member 1991 - 2002)

i've not got involved yet (i did try to go to branch AGM on zoom or whatever but they had a technology fail and i couldn't get to the re-arranged meeting.)

shitshow does not sound that inaccurate a description

 

[hitmouse]

If anyone wants to read more reports, one from Socialist Appeal - feel free to take with as much salt as you want, but at least they're covering it:

Unison conference: Right wing smells blood, as left runs for the hills | The Communist

This year’s Unison conference has ended with the right wing emboldened, and the left in retreat. Attempts to appease the right will only encourage them to intensify their attacks. To regroup and fight back, we need bold, unwavering leadership.

www.socialist.net

And a studiedly neutral writeup in the Morning Star:

‘We have listened’ - Unison exec apologises after unprecedented vote of no confidence

morningstaronline.co.uk

 

[Smokeandsteam]

If anyone wants to read more reports, one from Socialist Appeal - feel free to take with as much salt as you want, but at least they're covering it:

Unison conference: Right wing smells blood, as left runs for the hills | The Communist

This year’s Unison conference has ended with the right wing emboldened, and the left in retreat. Attempts to appease the right will only encourage them to intensify their attacks. To regroup and fight back, we need bold, unwavering leadership.

www.socialist.net

And a studiedly neutral writeup in the Morning Star:

‘We have listened’ - Unison exec apologises after unprecedented vote of no confidence

morningstaronline.co.uk

Does anyone know - hitmouse, others - how it is that Unison has a ‘left’ NEC but a ‘right’ delegate conference? It’s normally the other wet round in my experience

 

[hitmouse]

Does anyone know - hitmouse, others - how it is that Unison has a ‘left’ NEC but a ‘right’ delegate conference? It’s normally the other wet round in my experience

It is a bit confusing to me too, I'd like to say that it's because the NEC is elected by the whole membership (at least in theory, obviously it's only by a tiny fraction of the membership in practice) but conference delegates are chosen by branch committees, but then I didn't think the membership were that far to the left of branch leadership in most cases? I dunno, I suppose it makes sense that careerists and people who have some kind of relationship to the bureaucracy would be over-represented at conference, whereas the average member never really comes into contact with them?

 

[Dom Traynor]

It is a bit confusing to me too, I'd like to say that it's because the NEC is elected by the whole membership (at least in theory, obviously it's only by a tiny fraction of the membership in practice) but conference delegates are chosen by branch committees, but then I didn't think the membership were that far to the left of branch leadership in most cases? I dunno, I suppose it makes sense that careerists and people who have some kind of relationship to the bureaucracy would be over-represented at conference, whereas the average member never really comes into contact with them?

Delegates are essentially selected by branch committees from what I remember.

What I will say is that I know both the John(Jons) quoted above and whatever their political differences they are both excellent and committed trade unionists who have done their best for their members over the years.

 

[hitmouse]

Delegates are essentially selected by branch committees from what I remember.

Yeah, and I can't imagine there are that many branch committees where it'd be a sharply contested election? I dunno, in my branch pretty much all the important leadership positions are held by socialists/NEC majority supporters, not as the result of factional warfare or anything but just because those are the people prepared to put the work in to keep the branch running, and I'm sure there must be plenty of branches where the committee's made up of McAnea supporters and no-one really wants to challenge them either? I feel like my branch is a relatively healthy and functional one as they go, but the idea of actually having enough people wanting to be involved that we'd have contested elections for branch positions seems like a long way off from where we are?

 

[Lord Camomile]

Blimey; caught a bit of coverage of the first day, and watch McAnae's speech on their YouTube channel, but hadn't realised Holmes has resigned!

Honestly don't know enough of the details to know what is fact and what is mud-slinging. Would be quite nice if the union could simply support members in doing the work on the ground.

 

[hitmouse]

A bit more coverage, for anyone who's still interested:

What Happened at UNISON’s Annual Delegate Conference

the most significant part of the conference was the continued internal battle on the UNISON National Executive Council

www.thesocialreview.co.uk

Much of what happened at UNISON Conference happened before UNISON Conference.

Sun Tzu said that "every battle is either won or lost before it is fought". This was, I think, true of several important debates at UNISON's...

jonrogers1963.blogspot.com

 

[hitmouse]

NEC elections start this week, left slate is here:

Elections — Time For Real Change

timeforrealchange.uk

 

[Lord Camomile]

Online rally chaired by Corbyn and McDonnell tomorrow at 6:30pm

For a UNISON that fights and wins for members on pay!

When the ballot opens, long-time UNISON members Jeremy Corbyn & John McDonnell will co-chair the launch event for our NEC election campaign.

www.eventbrite.com

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Online rally chaired by Corbyn and McDonnell tomorrow at 6:30pm

For a UNISON that fights and wins for members on pay!

When the ballot opens, long-time UNISON members Jeremy Corbyn & John McDonnell will co-chair the launch event for our NEC election campaign.

www.eventbrite.com

anyone else go along?

seemed to be people saying the right (and by right i mean left) sort of things

 

[Lord Camomile]

Yeah, I can't claim to know the full details about everyone, but their material and rhetoric has always seemed pretty encouraging.

If nothing else, the fact they  have material is encouraging. Leaflets, promotional guides, comms timelines - the sort of stuff I wish the wider union would do more.

A lack of resources and guidance just makes it so much harder to organise on the ground.

 

[Pickman's model]

Yeah, I can't claim to know the full details about everyone, but their material and rhetoric has always seemed pretty encouraging.

If nothing else, the fact they  have material is encouraging. Leaflets, promotional guides, comms timelines - the sort of stuff I wish the wider union would do more.

A lack of resources and guidance just makes it so much harder to organise on the ground.

Strange. I've always found the tepid leadership of the union detracted from the efforts of activists in workplaces when trying to organise on the ground

 

[The39thStep]

Strange. I've always found the tepid leadership of the union detracted from the efforts of activists in workplaces when trying to organise on the ground

Absolutely .A union with some good branches and local activists ( and at one time a fairly strong rank and file ) with one of the blandest Labour supporting leaderships you could come across.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

ballot paper and all the bumf arrived in the post today.

must be 20 years since i was last in Unison (have been in other unions as appropriate for most of that time) - bit baffled by all the categories of seat, but am i right in thinking i can vote in all of them despite not being (for example) female?

i guess it's necessary to get representation across the range of membership (i have met bits of the left that seem to be all straight white men telling the rest of us to shut up while they get on with the revolution), but feels a pity it's got this complicated...

 

[Lord Camomile]

ballot paper and all the bumf arrived in the post today.

must be 20 years since i was last in Unison (have been in other unions as appropriate for most of that time) - bit baffled by all the categories of seat, but am i right in thinking i can vote in all of them despite not being (for example) female?

i guess it's necessary to get representation across the range of membership (i have met bits of the left that seem to be all straight white men telling the rest of us to shut up while they get on with the revolution), but feels a pity it's got this complicated...

This is a slightly edited version of the advice we were given by one of the candidates we nominated, and which I threw up on our site.

All members can vote in

• all the regional seats
• all the national Black and disabled member seats (regardless of your own ethnicity or whether you consider yourself disabled or not)

Service Group candidates
Members can only vote for seats in their own Sector Group (health, HE, etc...)

Young Members
Only members under 27 years old can vote for the Young Member seats.

<edit: just realised it doesn't address the one seat you explicitly mentioned

'ang on, I'll have another looksie at the original stuff... >