Sunday 21 May 2017

Celebrations at Boot & Flogger Premature!

PRIVATE EYE (5th, May) reporting on the victory of Len McCluskey in his bid to hold the top job in Unite said that '...celebrations were premature.  The far left saw its majority slashed on the Unite executive council last week.'
It seems that after his win McCluskey, other Unite officers, and Corbyn's head of strategy and communications, Seimas Milne, 'decanted to the Boot and Flogger wine bar near London Bridge to celebrate their victory', where they enjoyed 'bottle after bottle of champaigne (the chepest of which costs £47 a pop, according to the wine list).'  The Eye claims:
'Handily for McCluskey, the Boot and Flogger is just a short stagger from the Borough Market flat Unite decided its members should buy for McCluskey with £400,000 of their hard earned money.'
Before the election, the left-wing group had around 80% of the ruling body's 63 seats.  But that has now been reduced to 54%, with 39 new members representing United Left, and 32 independents.
The result is significant because any changes to Unite's rules must be backed by 75% of Executive Council members.
Now according to the PoliticsHome website a Unite source has said:  'United Left have lost a lot of seats and they have a shaky majority. It means Len McCluskey has lost the ability to change rules, which he had before. He no longer has a pliable EC.'
Electoral Reform Services report into the Unite Executive Council elections shows that turnout for the EC section of the ballot was less than 10% across the country.  For the general secretary election, a total of 1,062,049 ballot papers were sent out to union members, but only 130,071 were returned - a turnout of 12.2%.
Labour MP, John Spellar has already referred branch nominations to the trade union certification officer.  More challenges under trade union election law could be in the pipeline.

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