Saturday 28 January 2012

Election for the new LGBT seat on the UNITE Executive Council

Voting is due to take place from 30 January to 22 February 2012 in an election for the new Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) seat on the UNITE Executive Council.  All members (other than retired members) are entitled to vote in the election.

I haven't seen a list of all the candidates who were successful in securing enough nominations to stand, but the candidate backed by the United Left, Harry McAnulty did and his leaflet is here.

The UNITE web site has some very sparse information about the election here.

Alongside the new LGBT seat there is also a new seat for Disability, but I understand only one candidate secured the necessary nominations and therefore no election will take place.

These two seats are important to end the anomaly where two major areas of UNITE's Equalities structures, which have their own regional and national committees, had no EC member accountable to them.

It is OK to distribute leaflets at work or put posters on union noticeboards, but you mustn't use any union resources (including membership information) to support a particular candidate, or directly contact members at home unless they have themselves signed up to receive such communications.

We should all try to encourage members to participate in the election - the composition of the Executive Council (EC) makes a real difference to the direction and effectiveness of the union.



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