Monday 27 June 2011

Fujitsu Crewe to Strike on Thursday

UNITE has announced strike action by members at Fujitsu Crewe on Thursday 30th June, in defence of UNITE rep Alan Jenney, who has been singled out for an unfair and unnecessary redundancy.

There's more information about the campaign at www.ourunion.org.uk/news and an "Appeal For Support" leaflet at www.ourunion.org.uk. Please give your support and help members defend union organisation.



Support Southampton Council Workers

The united struggle by UNITE and UNISON at Southampton Council continues, trying to stop the council dismissing the workforce and re-employing them on new and worse contracts of employment. Don't let them get away with this bully-boy management, which would surely spread if it succeeds.



Make a donation to their strike fund:

  • TGWU 2/8 Strike Fund, Unity Trust Bank, Ac No: 20185358, Sort Code: 08-60-01
  • Cheques can be sent to Ian Woodland, Unite House, 15-16 The Avenue, Southampton, Hampshire, SO17 1XF.
Note that this is a UNITE fund, just using a long-established bank account.



Wednesday 15 June 2011

Third day of UNITE Rules Conference

Rule 19 Funds
A1 Annual financial report to include an audited account of all officers and organisers remuneration and details of departmental and regional spending, campaign costs and other significant expenditure. CARRIED
A2 EC to publish an annual report detailing the pay, benefits and expenses of senior officers and staff. CARRIED

Rule 20 Assets and Trustee Provision
A1 Add specific controls on residential property owned by the union. LOST


Rule 22 Political Organisation - The Labour Party

A2 Turn Political Committees into Labour Party Liaison Committees. LOST
A3 Prevents UNITE supporting any party other than the Labour Party in Northern Ireland and encourages affiliations to Labour. This is a very significant policy change carried by 53% despite the fact that the issue is highly contentious in the Irish Region, which is in the process of debating its political approach. CARRIED
A4 Would give branches a share of the political fund. LOST
A5 Withdraw support and question membership of Labour MPs who consistently oppose union policy. LOST
A6 Move coordination of political work from the Political Committees to the industrial and geographical structures. Only give financial support to candidates who broadly support union policies. LOST (the vote was exactly tied!)

Rule 23 Political Fund
A1 WITHDRAWN


Rule 24 Ireland
A1 Would allow the Irish Executive Committee to appoint subcommittees from beyond its own membership. LOST
A2 Replicate Irish structure in Scotland. REMITTED

Rule 27 Membership Discipline
A1 FELL
A2 Union employees dismissed after being found guilty of causing harm or detriment to the union or a union member will not be allowed to retire early or draw their pension before normal retirement age. CARRIED

Rule 28 New Rule - Membership Complaints Procedure
A1 WITHDRAWN
A2 Replace the member complaints procedure recently introduced by the EC with a new one in rule. LOST

Enabling Motion
"That the necessary conseqential action in regard to the amendments carried by the Conference be referred to the Executive Council for administrative action and implementation as appropriate". CARRIED



Second day of UNITE Rules Conference

The big debates of the day were over election of officers and branch funding.

Rule 10 Members in Retirement
A1 Removes the requirement for RMA branches to be regional. Adds RMA Regional Co-ordinating Committees. CARRIED
A3 A long amendment setting out details of how the RMA will work. CARRIED
A4 Would give retired members identical participation in the union structures as working members. LOST
A5 Allows retired members to stand for Regional Political Committee. CARRIED
A6 WITHDRAWN
A7 WITHDRAWN
A8 WITHDRAWN
A9 Would give retired members a seat on the EC and some of them votes for regional EC seats. LOST
A10 Proposed that the RMA should have a constitution. REMITTED
A11 Would turn Retired Members Association into a sector. LOST
A12 WITHDRAWN
A13 Replaces the rule on retired members with what was previously the EC guidance on the rule. CARRIED

Rule 11 Equalities
A1 WITHDRAWN
A2 WITHDRAWN
A3 Regional Equality Committees to be elected by constituencies at Regional Equality Conferences, rather than nominated from RISCs and AACs. CARRIED
A4 WITHDRAWN
A6 Add members with caring responsibilities to equality structures. LOST
A7 WITHDRAWN

Rule 12 Policy Conference
A1 Adds LGBT and disabled conference delegates from each region. Requires motions which commit to expenditure to be put to the EC if carried. Clause 3 of the printed amendment was removed. Removes requirement for candidates for the Standing Orders Committee (SOC) to be conference delegates. Bans employees and ex-employees of the union from being conference delegates. CARRIED
In the debate Assistant General Secretary Diana Holland, speaking on behalf of the EC, promised that if passed, this would not give the EC the authority to overturn conference policy decisions.
A2 Requires the General Secretary to present a financial report to Policy Conference. CARRIED
A3 Adds three delegates directly elected from each Regional Committee. CARRIED
A4 Would have added a delegate from each regional equality committee. LOST
A5 Would have doubled the size of conference. LOST
A6 WITHDRAWN
A7 Would have added a delegate from each regional equality committee. LOST
A8 WITHDRAWN
A9 WITHDRAWN

Rule 13 Rules Conference
A2 Would have given each RISC at least one delegate. LOST
A3 Would have given each RISC at least one delegate. LOST
A4 Doubles size of Rules Conference to match Policy Conference. CARRIED
A5 Would have given each RISC at least one delegate. LOST
A6 Would have given three delegates directly elected from each Regional Committee. LOST

Standing Orders Committee Election
East Midlands: Simon Rosenthal
Ireland: Frances Hourihan
London & Eastern: Danny Freeman
North East, Yorkshire & Humberside: Stan Sims
North West: Dave Rochester
Scotland: Lisa Crawford
South East: Sam Webster-Moore
South West: Agnes Hilditch
Wales: Julie Evans
An additional election will be held for a seat to be filled by a Black, Asian or Ethnic Minority (BAEM) member, to ensure proportionality of the committee as a whole.
[update: This election was held on the third day, and Jay Mistry was elected]

Rule 14 Executive Council
A1 Tidying up. Adds EC seats for BAEM, LGBT and Disabled members. CARRIED
The EC had previously decided that if this was passed, elections for these seats will be held soon, rather than waiting for the next term of office.
A3 Would have changed the formula for allocation of seats on the EC to give larger regions more seats than now. LOST
A4 WITHDRAWN
A5 WITHDRAWN
A6 Dealt with disabled seat on the EC, covered by A1. REMITTED
A7 Adds equality seast to EC. LOST
A8 Adds disabled and LGBT seats to the EC. LOST
A9 WITHDRAWN
A10 WITHDRAWN
A11 Would have changed all requality seats to being voted on by the entire membership. LOST
A12 Replaces six normal 3-day EC meetings a year with four 5-day meetings. Allows a majority of EC members to call a special meeting. CARRIED
A13 Would have replaced 6 meetings with 4 and allow 25% of EC members to call a special meeting. LOST
A14 For election of all officers. LOST
A15 For election of all officers. LOST
A16 For election of all officers. LOST
A17 For election of all officers. LOST
A18 WITHDRAWN
A19 For election of Deputy and Assistant General Secretaries. LOST
A20 For election of Deputy and Assistant General Secretaries, National Officers and Regional Secretaries. LOST
A21 Selection panel for appointments of Regional Secretaries and Regional Coordinating Officers, with approval by the Regional Committee. LOST
A22 Would have given the EC control over appointment of senior staff positions. Specified an appointment panel process. Required vacancies to be advertised and circulated to branches. LOST
A23 Would have extended EC control over appointments to cover senior staff. LOST
A24 Requires the EC to determine constitutional committees to which each officer will report and be accountable. CARRIED

Rule 15 General Secretary
A1 Tidying up. CARRIED
A2 Prevents General Secretaries continuing in office without election if within 5 years of their retirement age. CARRIED
A3 Limit General Secretaries to two consecutive terms of office. LOST
A4 Requires a Deputy General Secretary and their election. LOST

Rule 16 Election of Executive Council Members and General Secretary
A1 Requires members and employees to cooperate with investigations by the Electoral Commissioner in relation to union elections. CARRIED
A3 Election of officers. LOST
A4 Election of officers. LOST
A5 Require General Secretary candidates to attend hustings in each region. LOST

Rule 17 Branches
A1 More flexible approach to allocation to branches, but retaining workplace focus. Regional Committees responsible for ensuring branches function properly. Meeting details to be advertised. CARRIED
A3 Add local industrial sector branches. CARRIED
A4 Replace local branch with active geographical/composite branch. LOST
A5 Would remove focus on workplace based branches. LOST
A6 Prevent break-up of existing functioning geographical branches into workplace branches unless branch members vote for it. LOST
A7 Restrict affiliations to national organisations to those which "share the aspirations of UNITE". LOST
A8 Give branches 10% of subs. LOST
In opposing the motion on behalf of the Executive Council, Len McCluskey stated his commitment not to reduce the funding to any branches, and to end the two-tier system that currently exists, with ex-Amicus branches only getting 3%.
A9 WITHDRAWN
A10 Give branches 10% of subs. LOST
A11 Detailed requirements for branches to function. LOST
A12 Require branches to elect an Equality Officer. CARRIED
A13 Refer branches which don't meet at least quarterly to the Regional Committee. LOST

Rule 18 Workplace Representation
A1 Change maximum term of office from two years to three. CARRIED
A2 Change maximum term of office from two years to three. CARRIED
A3 Add Environment Representatives. CARRIED
A4 FELL
A5 Election of workplace representatives, where practicable, to have a gender and ethnic balance at least reflecting the members they represent. CARRIED
A6 Require 13 weeks continuous membership to stand as a rep. LOST
A7 Inquiry by the sector or region when any rep is dismissed, with a view to prevening victimisation. Industrial action ballots to be convened if necessary. CARRIED



Tuesday 14 June 2011

First day of UNITE Rules Conference

The biggest debate of the day was over a proposal to remove the wording in Rule 2.1 of the rulebook which ties the union to compliance with current and future anti-union legislation. Despite an EC recommendation to reject the amendment, it was only defeated by 53%.
Summary of decisions:

Rule 1 Title and Registered Office
A1 CARRIED

Rule 2 Objects
A2 Removing "so far as may be lawful" - LOST
A3 Strengthening (non-party) political objects - CARRIED
A4 FELL
A5 LOST
A6 Delete requirement to affiliate to the Labour Party - LOST
A7 Add caring responsibilities to the list of equality and fairness strands we aim to address - CARRIED
A8 Improve wording on gender identity - CARRIED

Rule 3 Membership
A1 Create category of membership for students and others not in employment who can participate in Area Activist Committees and Regional Political Committees - CARRIED
A3 LOST
A4 LOST

Rule 4 Membership Contributions & Benefits
A1 LOST
A2 LOST
A3 LOST
A4 LOST
A5 FELL
A6 WITHDRAWN

Rule 6 Lay Office
This was a major area of debate, with concerns about activists being excluded from participation in union structures because of unemployment, including blacklisting. The EC statement aimed to protect the general principle that the structures should be composed of accountable representatives of workers, while being more flexible where appropriate. Rule 3 A1 also expanded the involvement of those out of work.

EC Statement - CARRIED
A6 Add Union Learning Reps to the list of accountable representatives of workers - CARRIED
All other amendments were withdrawn or defeated.

Rule 7 Industrial/Occupational/Professional Sectors
A1 WITHDRAWN
A2 FELL
A3 LOST
A4 From IT & Comms NISC, to give industrial structures access to a proportion of membership subs - LOST
A5 LOST
A6 From NW IT & Comms RISC, to ensure National Industrial Sector Conferences are bigger than the corresponding National Industrial Sector Committees - CARRIED
A7 LOST
A8 LOST
A9 LOST
A10 WITHDRAWN
A11 LOST
A12 LOST
A13 LOST
A14 LOST
A15 WITHDRAWN
A16 empowering RISCs to fill vacancies, including those due to members who do not attend 2 consecutive meetings without good reason - CARRIED
A17 LOST

Rule 8 Regions
A1 clarifying election to Area Activist Committees - CARRIED
A2 WITHDRAWN
A3 FELL
A4 WITHDRAWN
A5 LOST
A6 LOST
A7 LOST
A8 Requiring the Regional Secretary to write to the nominating committee seeking a replacement delegate in the event of any seat on the Regional Committee becoming vacant - CARRIED
A9 CARRIED
A10 LOST
A11 LOST
A12 Giving resources to Area Activist Committees - LOST
A13 LOST
A14 LOST
A15 LOST
A16 LOST
A17 WITHDRAWN
A18 enabling 50%+1 of a Regional Committee to call a special Regional Committee meeting - CARRIED
A19 LOST

Rule 9 Young Members
A2 Allow Regional Young Members Committee to elect a delegate to Regional Committee - CARRIED
A4 Inrease age limit for young members from 27 to 30 - CARRIED
A5 WITHDRAWN



Sunday 5 June 2011

Fujitsu Crewe ballot in defence of rep Alan Jenney

UNITE has announced a strike ballot at Fujitsu's Crewe site, in defence of Alan Jenney, a rep singled out by the company for redundancy. There's more about the issues and the campaign on www.ourunion.org.uk/news. Please give Alan and the members at Crewe all your support.