Friday 4 June 2010

UNITE Special Rules Conference decision

The UNITE Special Rules Conference has been debating the rule amendment from the Executive Council to allow the election of the next UNITE Executive Council. The proposal read:

Rule 14.3
Delete introductory paragraph and clauses 14.3.1 and 14.3.2 and replace with

14.3.1 Election to the Executive Council shall be on the basis of electoral constituencies determined by the Executive Council. These constituencies shall ensure the fair and equitable representation of the working membership and shall include representatives to be elected from the Regions as constituted in the union on the basis of each region with fewer than 150,000 members on the date at which the membership figures are struck having two representatives, each region with 150,000 members but fewer than 200,000 members having three, and each region with 200,000 members or more having four; and shall include representatives from teh national industrial sectors, on the basis of each sector with fewer than 50,000 members at the date at which the members at the date at which the membership figure is struck having one representative, each sector with 50,000 but fewer than 100,000 members having two and each sector with 100,000 members or more having three. The allocation of constituencies based on this formula will be automatically applied to all Executive Council elections henceforward unless the formula is varied by the Rules Conference.
The conference agreed the proposal, with 124 in favour, 92 against, and 2 abstaining.

The rest of rule 14.3 stands as it is, including clauses relating to national seats for women members and BAEM members, and to the designation of seats to ensure minimum proportionality for women and BAEM members.

Based on the membership figures in March, the Executive Council would expect that this would result in an executive of 64 people including at least 17 women and at least 4 BAEM members. It would mean one seat for "IT & Communications" and one seat for "Electrical Engineering & Electronics". The intention is to have one national seat for women and one national seat for BAEM in addition to designated seats within some of the larger constituencies. I gave more detail of the breakdown in my report of the March 2010 Executive Council meeting.



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