Unite Drops Disciplinary Against N.V. Editor

EARLIER this month, after it was pointed out that Unite the Union had breached its own rules in its disciplinary procedures, the union decided that it 'would be inappropriate for us to continue with the Rule 27 Disciplinary, as natural justice would be very difficult under these circumstances'.  Last April, an editor of Northern Voices, Brian Bamford, who is also a Unite branch secretary, had been confronted with a complaint alleging he was 'bringing injury to or discredit upon the Union' and some of its members, by Unite's Chairman of the North West Local Authority Regional Industrial Sector Committee, Bro. Sidney Graves.  This related to a post on this Northern Voices' Blog posted in March this year, and entitled 'Unite Committee Bin's Blacklist Motion'.

 

Unite has apologized for its procedural 'error', and this matter is now closed.

Bury Unite's Ethical Stand

Struggling Against Surveillance & Blacklisting

FROM about 2005, the Bury Unite Commercial Branch became involved in a dispute with Bury Council when the T&G shop-steward at Bradley Fold Waste Disposal Depot, Joe Cleary, was sacked on the pretext of accepting a bribe for the removal of some trade waste:  Bury Council at that time, used a security officer to use a hand-held cam-corder to film a working team of Bury bin-men under the RIPA (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act).  The bribe which the sacked bin-men team were alleged to have accepted from an Asian shopkeeper was a bottle of Strawberry Volvic. 

In the end Bury MBC spent a large sum on legal costs fighting to dismiss the men and finally ended-up settling by paying a five-figure sum to Mr. Cleary.  The Bury branch of what is now Unite backed Joe Cleary throughout his fight with the Council, as did the Unite union officer Kathy Rutherford. 

I well remember talking to Kevin Coyne, the then North West regional officer of what is now Unite, and he encouraged me to continue our branch's struggle against surveillance.  He did say something of interest at the time when I told him that Bury Council was under Conservative control, he said 'Oh, that's good for us!' as it doesn't reflect badly on the Labour Party. 

Does party politics influence trade union activism at the top?  Are full time trade union functionaries less likely to oppose if a local Council is ruled by a Labour majority? 

Whatever the case this predilection for party politics didn't impact upon the moral integrity and ethics of the Bury Unite Branch.  After a militant shop steward such as Joe Cleary was dismissed using the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, the Bury Unite branch put in a series of Freedom of Information requests to Bury MBC and critical reports followed in the Bury Times written by the journalist Dave Thomson, and another report in the Mail on Sunday.  Because of all the bad publicity arising from the Joe Cleary case it appears that Bury MBC is no longer using this type of crude covert surveillance.   

Because of this traumatic history of involvement in covert surveillance with Bury MBC, Bury Unite Commercial Branch has since taken to supporting the Manchester electricians in their own campaign against the covert surveillance with regard to the blacklist in the British building trade.   Bury Unite branch has done this through its affiliation to Tameside Trade Union Council.  Our latest involvement as a branch has been through the secretary's joint-authorship of the book 'Boys on the Blacklist',  and now the motion on ethical procurement presented to the North West Local Authority Regional Industrial Sector Committee (Risc) on the 5^th,  March 2015.   

Unfortunately, for some reason that has yet to be fully explained, the North West Local Authority Risc, under the distinguished chairmanship of Sidney Graves and Deputy Chair Nick Parnell, failed to be able to move the motion.   An investigation into what happened has now been set-up by the North West Finance & General Purpose Committee. 

It seems that in the real world that ethics and politics are not very comfortable companions.

Unite Rule 27: MEMBERSHIP DISCIPLINE

Degradation Ceremonies & a Curious Caste System

 by Brian Bamford

WHEN, in the 1970s, I wrote my unpublished dissertation 'Members and Officials:  Some aspects of a Trade Union Dispute', I was mindful of the model proposed by Harold Garfinkel in his essay 'Conditions for doing Degradation Ceremonies'.   Degradation in Courts of law, the defrocking of priests, and even at disciplinary hearings of trade unions etc. is an accomplishment which must be brought about by demonstrating that the proposed 'offender' has conduction him or herself in some untoward way which would put the proposed 'offender' outside what is considered to be proper.  Somehow the interrogation must artfully show that the 'offender' is beneath contempt or is acting outside the rules in some way.

 

On the 12^th, August 2015, I have been called to an 'investigation' under Rule 27 of the Unite Rule Book, specifically 'Rule 27.1.5 Bringing about injury to or discredit upon the Union or any member of the Union'. 

 

The allegation is that in March a report appeared on this Northern Voices Blog entitled 'Unite Committee Bins Blacklist Motion' that was 'inaccurate', and contained material that had consequences for the Unite union and undermined Mr. Sidney Graves, who was merely doing his duty as Chairman of the North West Local Authority Regional Industrial Sector Committee (Risc.) at a meeting on the 5^th, March 2015.  The problem was that the crucial decision or the non-decision of the North West Risc. to move a motion supporting the promotion of an effective Ethical Procurement Policy in the way local authorities award contracts to companies that have been involved in blacklisting building site workers.  Northern Voices considered that this failure to find anyone on the North West Risc. to move such an important motion or for the chairman to even hold a discussion, was something that was in the public interest.

 

Mr. Graves seems to have taken a contrary view, and he quickly complained to the North West regional secretary of Unite, Mick Whitley, that the report on the Northern Voices Blog was 'inaccurate' and he believed had consequences for  him and his committee.  As I write these words I am listening to a report on the Radio Four 'Media Show' in which a Scottish football journalist has just been banned by Rangers because he had refused to oblige the Club by producing what is called 'corporate journalism' or reports that please the football club.  Can it be that this week's investigation (12/08/2015) by Unite into Northern Voices is an attempt to produce a kind of 'corporate journalism' for Unite the Union?

 

Interestingly, Unite Rule 27.1.4 says:

'A member may be charged with ... Inciting, espousing or practising discrimination or intolerance amongst members on grounds of race, ethnic origin, religion, age, gender, disability or sexual orientation.'

 

Yet, Unite Rule 27.8 determines that:

'A member may not be charged under this rule in respect of any alleged act or omission in connection with the performance of his / her duties as a full time officer and / or employee of the Union.'

 

Hence, there will be no discrimination on grounds of race, ethnicity, religion, age, gender, disability or sexual orientation, and yet discrimination is enshrined within Unite Rule 27 at Point 27.8 on grounds of functional status:  It is clear here that in Unite that there is an 'officer class' which is beyond the reach of Rule 27, and at the same time that there is an ordinary 'membership class' which is covered by the rule.

 

This represents a 'Get out of Jail Free Rule' and the consequences of this predicament as demonstrated by Rule 27:8 are not difficult to predict:  in terms of this Rule 27 the 'officer class' of Unite the Union are unaccountable, unelected, and untouchable. The rule therefore clearly discriminates between two classes of 'member' – a rank and membership class subject to discipline under Rule 27, and a privileged 'officer' or 'staff' membership category.  As a consequence ought we to be surprised that there have been widespread allegations of full-time trade union officials being inclined to incompetence, corruption, and complicity in blacklisting with the now disgraced Consulting Association?

 

But the situation is now worse than a simple apartheid within the rule, because by invoking Rule 27 to seek to  investigate a report on an independent publication outside the remit of the trade union by the potential use of this rule Unite is surely creating a precedence which could have serious implications for future reporting of trade union affairs.  Does this decision to investigate the editor of Northern Voices mean that Unite the Union is seeking influence editorial decisions of people who also happen to be members of Unite?  Of course, if Mr. Sidney Graves as the Chairman of the Risc, felt he has been defamed by the report in Northern Voices, then he always had the remedy of writing to the editor to seek to correct the report.  Instead of that he sent a complaint to the Regional Secretary of Unite in the North West. 


Similarly sources in the Unite Greater Manchester Community Branch have reported to our Blog that another lay officer, Evan Pritchard, has also put in a complaint to the Unite North West region about other reports appearing on this Northern Voices' Blog under Rule 27:  these reports have commented upon certain internal attempts to censor a face-book page of the Greater Manchester Community Branch and are clearly in the public interest. 
All of these actions  could easily be seen as an attempt to censor and gag the media through the machinery of the Unite union book by the use of Rule 27.  This is bad news for transparency and freedom of the media and suggests a degree of small-mindedness among some of the lay-functionaries within the Unite today:  it appears to be another attempt to establish 'corporate journalism' such as was applied by the Rangers Football Club.

Unite Committee Bin's Blacklist Motion

ORCHESTRATED by the Chair, Sidney Graves, this month, the Local Authority Regional Sector Committee (Risc) of Unite the Union in the North West, binned a motion from the Bury Unite Commercial Branch calling for local Councils in Greater Manchester to halt the awarding of contracts to companies that have been implicated in blacklisting of trade unionists in the British building trade.  Sources close to  Unite have told Northern Voices that Mr. Graves is currently seeking a full-time paid  position in the union and 'does not want to ruffle any feathers'! Certainly throughout the meeting, the Chair made it clear that he had a pressing engagement and wanted to get away by 1.30pm. 

Representatives of Bury Unite at the Liverpool meeting expressed astonishment when the Risc meeting Chairman asked if anyone wanted to discuss the motion on blacklisting and this was met with the silence of the grave.  Shortly before the Chair put this to the meeting Nick Parnell, representing Unite at Manchester City Council, told the meeting that as a Councillor on Bury Council that he had already moved a motion on Bury MBC adopting an 'Ethical Procurement Policy' with regard to awarding contracts in April 2014.  The implication being that Bury Council didn't need another policy on the awarding of contracts to building companies, but he said there may be difficulties in getting Manchester City Council to agree; possibly because the central Manchester Council and figures like Councillor Kieran Quinn the leader of Tameside Labour Council, are already in bed with companies like Carillion through the Greater Manchester Pension Fund.   

Two years ago, another Manchester Council -  Salford City Council also Labour, was challenged with a Unite demo when despite assurances from Ian Stewart that it was against blacklisting when it awarded a contract to a company that had been affiliated to the Consulting Association, a body proved to have been facilitating a blacklist.   

Since the Bury motion was unceremoniously binned by the Unite Risc in Liverpool, Northern Voices has been approached by people in Camden in London, who claim that Ethical Procurement Policies against blacklisting have been adopted down there and that this hasn't stopped contracts being given to dodgy companies.  Furthermore, Northern Voices  has seen the Ethical Procurement policy adopted by the Labour controlled council Bury MBC, and  we feel that it is not fit for purpose.   

Bury Unite Commercial Branch has a particular interest in the under-hand nature of the blacklist and sly surveillance, because ten-years ago a Unite shop-steward at Bury Council and two other binmen were sacked following the use of a hand held camcorder by a council employee under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) to spy of the workers.  The case did not go to Court and the Council ultimately settled out of Court following an expensive award to the shop-steward. 

But remember most of the councils in Greater Manchester that are guilty of being in bed with companies like Carillion are Labour Councils, and it may well be that Unite’s North West Local Authority Unite Risc sitting in Liverpool this month, may not have wanted this matter of Labour Councils awarding contracts to blacklisting companies airing as the election approaches in May.  Even the Blacklist Support Group is supposed to be looking forward to a Labour victory.  So the disgruntled members Bury Unite Commercial Branch should get their priorities right, calm down, and shut-up, until the great Labour leader Ed Miliband is ensconced in office in Downing Street.  And we can look forward to 5-years of a Labour Government.  Until then those who are blacklisted like the rest of us, will just have to wait for their salvation and the instalation of Labour Government under Ed Miliband.  Then perhaps all will be well, and even Mr Sidney Graves, the chairman of the North West Local Authority Risc may get his wish for some kind of stipend.