Tuesday 28 June 2016

#UNISONGATE - Jeremy Corbyn a success story

The following short report was found on Facebook and provides some much needed facts about Jeremy. Something mainstream media don't want to report on. 

JEREMY CORBYN - A SUCCESS STORY
By Simon Hardy
Some facts about Labour under Jeremy Corbyn.
Jeremy Corbyn won the leadership with the biggest mandate from party members that any leaders has ever won - 59%- more than all the other candidates put together.
Labour's membership has increased dramatically under his leadership - over 380,000 members.
Labour has won 4 by elections since he became leader, Oldham West, Sheffield Brightside, Ogmore & Tooting. Oldham West, Tooting and Sheffield Brightside saw Labour win on an increased majority.
Labour won London Mayor with Corbyn as leader. Sadiq Khan won with the largest personal vote a single politician has ever received in Britain, 1.3 million. It was also the first election of a Muslim candidate to a western capital city.
Labour also won Mayoral elections in Salford, Liverpool, Bristol.
In the local elections in 2016 Labour's performance was as good as 2001, when Labour won a second landslide in the general elections.
Labour has repeatedly been ahead of the Tories in the polls since the start of 2016.
Labour under Corbyn has helped fight of cuts to Tax Credits and PIP payments - scoring significant blows against the Tories austerity agenda.
Whilst the Brexit vote was very disappointing, Labour delivered 63% of its 2015 voters to vote REMAIN. Compared to the SNP's vote of 64% of their voters and 70% of Liberal Democrat voters, Labour didn't perform qualitatively worse. David Cameron and the Tories couldn't even deliver a majority of their voters - only 42% voted to REMAIN.

Even if the right wings arguments were true that Corbyn doesn't 'look' like a leader or doesn't 'get his message across in the media' - it just means that Labour is doing exceptionally anyway. Imagine how well Labour would do if its MPs were loyal to their members and leader and Labour could present a united campaign, unhindered by in-fighting?

Friday 24 June 2016

UNISON Conference please back Jeremy

We welcomed the positive reception given to Jeremy Corbyn at Unison conference. It was clear to see that he speaks the language grassroots reps want to hear.

He is the only Labour Party leader in living memory to proudly and publicly support trade unions. His promise to rescind the anti-union TU Bill is something that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown would never have made to Unison conference.


When friends and members are in trouble they look for support and now is the time for Unison to publicly enter the fray. Jeremy has faced unprecedented attacks from within the Parliamentary Labour Party who have sought any opportunity to undermine his leadership.

Now is the time for Unison to show its support for Jeremy and send a message to the Blairites who are already mobilising to undermine Jeremy again. Unison needs to state publicly that they will be providing complete support for Jeremy in the event the Blairites do force a leadership election.

 Unison conference has the afternoon session to organise a very simple message “We are backing Jeremy”


A Vote of Confidence in Jeremy petition 

http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/a-vote-of-confidence-in-jeremy-corbyn-after-brexit


Please share this petition and sign 

Note: Jeremy Corbyn faces coup after many Labour voters back Brexit

Monday 13 June 2016

Private Eye - Team Dave campaign emails

Team Dave campaign emails 

The public were first made aware of the Team Dave campaign emails when an article appeared in Private Eye in early February. 

You can read the Private Eye article here https://www.scribd.com/doc/312252796/Private-Eye-p-38-Feb-2016

Here are some extracts from the Private Eye article

“Leaked emails reach the Eye providing more evidence that full-time staff of Unison mobilised to get general secretary Dave Prentis re-elected in December making the union’s claim to be a “member-led” look increasingly questionable.”

And

“The emails passed to the Eye from within the Prentis campaign indicate that Unison officials were in fact the backbone of “Team Dave”. The emails were sent by assistant general secretary Cliff Williams in October and November. The bulk of the recipients were other Unison officials – a rough count shows 45 of 50 addresses are regional secretaries, head office staff and other unison staff.”

 “One striking “Team Dave” note says: “it may be in some circumstance you may be able to ‘circumvent’ hostile branches by working with sympathetic employer contacts. I acknowledge that some colleagues may feel this is ethically inappropriate but it doesn’t breach campaign rules; it will have to be done with caution.”

It may not break campaign rules, but it still doesn’t look good. Similarly, having Unison officials lead the Prentis campaign doesn’t match the spirit of the union being “member led”.

The third extract above is in our view one of the most damming, especially for those grassroots reps and members who have been fighting employers who are either sacking, privatising or cutting the Terms and Conditions of our members. The idea that paid officials would go behind the backs of local branches is appalling and has no place in a trade union. To date there has been no condemnation of these remarks or any investigation.


The “Team Dave” emails are further evidence of a national campaign and provide a context to the content of the audio tape of the meeting in London on 21 October 2015. 

Thursday 9 June 2016

Unisongate: What is going on, is there an investigation?

This post is to help understand the infographic/picture  trying to show what has happened since #Unisongate first broke on 1 December 2015.

Firstly let me remind the reader that at the time Unisongate came to light Unison was in the last stages of a general secretary election
.
There were four candidates. The incumbent, Dave Prentis; Heather Wakefield; Roger Bannister and John Burgess.

On 1 December 2015 an audio recording appeared of what seems to have been an official Unison meeting of paid officials in TUC Congress House on 21 October 2015.

The recording is still online and I recommend you listen to the audio recording to judge for yourself. http://www.4shared.com/mp3/HTYMDTN-ce/unison.html

The audio tape has rocked the union and all those active within UNISON who have heard it.
It is important for those listening to note that UNISON paid officials cannot campaign in worktime as this is a breach of union rules.

The audio recording reveals a disturbing attitude of paid officials towards UNISON members.

Listening to the audio tape it is clear paid officials have already been using union resources to support the incumbent general secretary in getting re-elected and also trying to stop the other three candidates from getting support.

One of the most damming comments from one of the senior paid officials is heard early on in the recording when she says:

“We have done very well and I want to thank everybody and congratulate them on getting the nominations that they have got. This is a list of the Greater London branch nominations for Dave Prentis the deadline closed last Friday, I do not have a list of the other candidates, and that will appear in due course but I haven’t got it. But we have done very well, we’ve got almost 50 nominations here so that is excellent and thanks very much, er Dave is very very pleased and he has related that to me personally er it is very important because obviously this is going to be a hard fought election.”

Many of those believe that the Dave she refers to is indeed the incumbent general secretary and that she is suggesting by her statement to her staff that he is aware of the work they have been doing for his campaign.

So what happened next?
First complaints were sent to the UNISON President from a number of UNISON members and complaints were also sent to the Returning Officer (RO), who is an employee of the Electoral Reform Services (ERS), as set out in the union regulations for the elections.

Many of the complaints were seeking an independent investigation by a respected figure within the Labour movement in order to establish if this alleged malpractice goes beyond UNISON London region to the other 11 regions across UNISON. This has happened before in the GMB where they appointed a QC to conduct an investigation about an allegation in the GMB general secretary election in 2004. 


However, UNISON responded 3 December 2015 and appointed a UNISON assistant general secretary (Y) to investigate instead.

Complainants responded by demanding that it must be someone outside the Union in order not to compromise the integrity of the investigation.

On 9 December 2015 at a scheduled NEC meeting, some members of the UNISON NEC tried to discuss the investigation but were out voted so no discussion was allowed on the basis that confidentiality must be maintained whilst an internal investigation was taking place.

The Terms of Reference for the internal investigation has not been provided to NEC or the complainants.

A few days later the UNISON President issued a statement saying an accredited audio specialist had carried out a forensic analysis on the recording and established the likelihood the tape had been tampered with was high.

Some NEC reps asked for a copy of the Forensic audio report but their request was denied.

It later came to light that the internal investigation by Y was only into one member of staff and nothing else.

To date and six months later almost all of the staff who were in the meeting (21 October 2015) have still not been interviewed and the outcome of an investigation into one member of staff has still not been completed.

Who is the Returning Officer (RO)?
The RO is the person who has to decide if there have been any serious breaches of legislation or union rules and has the power to decide if the election result should stand. The RO can order a re-run of the election if they declare the election result should be null and void.

Under the election procedures any UNISON member can make a complaint to the RO but had to do so by 11 December 2015.

The RO would respond to all complaints by 15 December 2015.

The RO did not respond to many of the complainants as set out in the procedures.

The RO decided to announce the general secretary election results and at the same time announced that he would investigate the complaints and give his decision in the second week of January 2016.

This was an odd decision because after announcing the result it would seem strange for the RO to potentially be in a situation of announcing those same election results declared in December were invalid as a result of the findings of his investigation.

At this point it is important to note that the role of the RO is independent from the union.
UNISON had signed a contract with ERS to provide services for elections, but the role of RO in terms of the scrutineer is set out in legislation  Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992.

Let’s Recap on what has happened so far.
·         UNISON has refused to organise an independent investigation to be carried out by a respected figure within the Labour movement.

·         UNISON has appointed an assistant general secretary Y to investigate only one member of staff.

·         UNISON has refused to discuss anything about the investigation and the role of the RO at two NEC meetings.

·         By the second week of January 2016 the RO report did not materialise.

·         The RO was not responding to many requests from complainants about when he was to interview them.

Private Eye magazine:
Over the course of Unisongate; Private Eye has published four articles. In their fourth article they make a number of statements.

Firstly they reveal that the RO is not carrying out an investigation, but has asked UNISON to carry out the investigation into the complaints.

“As the emails disclose, Roger McKenzie, who is carrying out the investigation for Unison, is a member of “Team Dave”. Unison is preparing a report for Mr Lonie, which would enable him to decide if the election was properly conducted. Unison would then in turn report his decision back to its members. Thus it appears “Team Dave” is effectively left to investigate itself!  Private Eye “Flexible friends” 16 February 2016. 

NEC reps at NEC meeting on 17 February 2015, tried to seek clarification about this claim and other comments in Private Eye, but their attempts were thwarted by a formal request to move on to other business.

Secondly they reveal that they have seen “Team Dave” emails which appear to be the campaign action plans throughout the general secretary election campaign.

“Team Dave” emails contain over 50 of the most senior Unison paid officials. Five of whom are the assistant general secretaries and include the UNISON President.
The assistant general secretary Y appointed to investigate had also received the “Team Dave” emails.

According the Private Eye article the RO had asked UNISON to investigate UNISON about potential claims of malpractice and breach of union rules.

A majority of NEC members voted not to discuss this worrying disclosure.

On 18 February 2016 the RO published his report and whilst a number of complaints were upheld his view was that the result stands.


What was UNISON’s response
Two weeks following the publication an email was sent to a number of UNISON members who had submitted a complaint to the UNISON President. The email states the response has been authorised by the UNISON President.

The email states, “In light of these independent findings and ongoing internal investigations we do not consider that a separate and further enquiry is warranted.”
A number of UNISON members have written back contesting this response and reiterating the need for an independent investigation carried out by a respected figure within the Labour movement.

Conclusions
Many Unison members are contacting #Unisongate to ask about the outcome of the investigation.

The only report produced is the RO report back in February this year and it is clear from reading this report that there has been no independent investigation - only a disciplinary investigation into one member of staff.

A Simple demand.
The content of the “Team Dave” emails and the audio recording brought together reinforce our demand for an independent investigation to be carried out by a respected figure within the Labour movement.

Monday 6 June 2016

Unisongate - What happened to the internal Unison complaints?

What happened to the internal Unison complaints?

An investigation by an Assistant General Secretary, was commissioned on 3 December 2015.

Now nearly six months later there is no further news of this disciplinary investigation.

We have heard that only one paid official is under investigation. Indeed, casual questioning of regional staff reveals hardly anyone has been interviewed with respect to their alleged attendance of that meeting.

Over 800 UNISON members have already signed an online petition calling for there to be an independent investigation and you can sign it too:


A substantial minority of National Executive Council (NEC) representatives called for a discussion to sort out the process of the investigation at a their meeting on 9 December 2015 at Unison HQ. But any chance of a discussion was swiftly scuppered by a majority vote of NEC reps.

In the second Private Eye article it stated “A swift tweet from union vice-president Eric Roberts that he had “complete confidence” in her, did little to convince the three other candidates that Unison chiefs hadn’t already prejudged the issue.”

On 17 February 2016 some NEC reps at their NEC meeting at Unison HQ, tried to have a discussion about breaking news of “Team Dave” emails quoted in a recent Private Eye article. 

http://unisongate.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/unisongate-in-private-eye-february-2016.html

The article revealing disturbing comments about Unison branches. Again all attempts for a discussion were thwarted and NEC reps told that Unison had no idea when the ERS report would be available.

Interestingly, the ERS report came out the next day, 18 February 2016. 

Sunday 5 June 2016

Our call for an independent investigation - Standards worse than a Council’s?

Our call for an independent investigation - Standards worse than a Council’s?

To date there has been no independent investigation.

As union reps we have direct experience of employers/organisations making decisions or taking actions at the detriment of the workforce or the community and on occasions we quite rightly make demands for independent investigations.

So if it is ok for trade unions to call for independent inquiries why is Unison refusing to organise an independent investigation?

In the case of Hillsborough, sadly it took 27 years and hard campaigning by families and their supporters to reach the truth about what really happened on that day.  In the London Borough of Barnet, where some residents were unable to vote on 5 May 2016 there has been a widespread call for an independent inquiry. Barnet Council has recognised it can't investigate itself so an independent external investigation is taking place. Furthermore there was a cross party agreement to widen the terms of reference of the investigation.

Now, just imagine a recording appears of a workplace meeting attended by all of your local Council’s senior officers discussing how to campaign to keep the local incumbent mayor or leader in office. Then imagine them laughing at procedures in place to ensure a ‘free and fair’ election.

If this happened where you live would you expect a departmental director to be appointed to investigate the alleged actions of the Chief Executive or Council Leader?

Would you expect those senior officers to carry on working while the investigation was underway?

Would you expect senior council officers to release a statement declaring the recording had been doctored without any explanation before an Investigator had completed their work?

No? In fact, the likely outcome of such interference is that the chief officers would be suspended and an independent investigator would be appointed.

And yet our election for General Secretary is about the leadership of a union with 1.3 million members – only London among British cities has a larger electorate – and so far there is no independent investigation to determine the extent of interference and who was responsible for it.

We need a union fully committed to winning the best possible deal for our members whose subs pay officers’ wages (and final salary pension!). Especially at a time when the public sector and its workforce faces ferocious attacks from a Tory government we need a union where members can be confident that officers are working tirelessly to fight jobs cuts, privatisation and the erosion of their real pay and pensions.

That is why we are campaigning for an Independent Investigation.

You can sign our live online petition requesting an independent investigation here


Saturday 4 June 2016

#Unisongate in Private Eye February 2016

Unisongate in Private Eye February 2016


Extracts from Private Eye February 2016 edition:

“Leaked emails reach the Eye providing more evidence that full-time staff of Unison mobilised to get general secretary Dave Prentis re-elected in December making the union’s claim to be a “member-led” look increasingly questionable.”

“The emails passed to the Eye from within the Prentis campaign indicate that Unison officials were in fact the backbone of “Team Dave”. The emails were sent by assistant general secretary Cliff Williams in October and November. The bulk of the recipients were other Unison officials – a rough count shows 45 of 50 addresses are regional secretaries, head office staff and other unison staff.”

“The Unison president’s letter to the Eye says this is a non-issue: “The individuals to whom the Team Dave Update were sent , save for a few are on flexible contracts and , accordingly, have freedom in how they manage their time.

“One striking “Team Dave” note says: “it may be in some circumstance you may be able to ‘circumvent’ hostile branches by working with sympathetic employer contacts. I acknowledge that some colleagues may feel this is ethically inappropriate but it doesn’t breach campaign rules; it will have to be done with caution.”
It may not break campaign rules, but it still doesn’t look good. Similarly, having Unison officials lead the Prentis campaign doesn’t match the spirit of the union being “member led”.



“Meanwhile, the Eye asked the Electoral Reform Services (which ran the election) what had become of its investigation into the alleged “organised election abuse” arising out of the taped meeting…………A spokesperson at the ERs said the complaints had been passed to Unison, which was also carrying out a disciplinary investigation.”

“As the emails disclose, Roger McKenzie, who is carrying out the investigation for Unison, is a member of “Team Dave”. Unison is preparing a report for Mr Lonie, which would enable him to decide if the election was properly conducted. Unison would then in turn report his decision back to its members. Thus it appears “Team Dave” is effectively left to investigate itself!”



To view full article click on link below


Thursday 2 June 2016

UnisonGate transcript of Unison meeting at Congress House, on 21 October 2015

Transcript of a meeting of UNISON paid officials in the Greater London Region which took place at Congress House, on 21 October 2015, where UNISON employees were briefed by the Regional Secretary for Greater London on how to campaign for the re-election of General Secretary, Dave Prentis.
Transcript begins below: 
“Sorry not much choice on this. The piece of paper that you have got handed out um you haven’t seen so it is not for distribution elsewhere.
Ok
Um because this has been obtained unofficially. You have not seen it or you don’t hand it out anywhere
We have done very well and I want to thank everybody and congratulate them on getting the nominations that they have got. This is a list of the Greater London branch nominations for Dave Prentis the deadline closed last Friday, I do not have a list of the other candidates, and that will appear in due course but I haven’t got it. But we have done very well, we’ve got almost 50 nominations here so that is excellent and thanks very much, er Dave is very very pleased and he has related that to me personally er it is very important because obviously this is going to be a hard fought election.
There are a number of branches we know as Karen, you most of you not all of you, but most of you sent them to Karen on what was going on and there are a number of branches also that choose not to make a nomination. And so particularly for those of you that work in Local Government and the EBS I know that some of your hard work is not in terms of getting the nomination but not getting the nomination because you have got the wrong one so just because obviously ??? the health team has worked hard on the health branches so long as they are effectively organised they produce results the health branches the other teams have worked hard as well in different ways so you have done well thank you.
Erm I  don’t have the final figure for John Burgess but I think John Burgess has got around 15 nominations from London maybe slightly well more or less its around that figure.
Heather Wakefield has 3 nominations from London of which 2 are being challenged and I think Roger Bannister has 2 nominations from different branches in London is what I hear.
So we have done well, thank you.
So you can see here which are your branches and I don’t want anybody to do anything without talking to their regional manager first.
So um I don’t want you to do anything coming out of this meeting talk with these named branches here you need to talk to your regional manager about the approach.
(break in the recording)
What’s going to happen next and what we need you to do in discussion with Vicky or Helen or Chris and I remiss that I should have congratulated Helen on her appointment as Regional Manager she is not official Regional Manager until 2nd November but she is.

So what happens next is the ballot will open on Monday 9th November and it will run for 5 weeks which actually I cannot remember the date, sorry closes on the 14th, closes on 4th runs for four weeks.

So it opens Monday 9th November and closes on Friday I think the  4th December the announcement I think will be on 17th December so the work really needs to take place in that week before the ballot opens and in the first week of the ballot.
So there are two jobs to be done one is to get the branches to encourage as many members to vote as possible and the other is to talk to the branches that have made nominations.
So let’s start with the branches that have made nominations.
The branches that have made nominations can legitimately and democratically should notify their members that they have nominated Dave and they have made the nominations so they can send out an email to their members telling them that the ballot is going to open on 9th November and that their branch nominated Dave Prentis. They can also legitimately put a footer on all emails saying vote in the General Secretary elections and that our branch voted sorry nominated Dave Prentis. They can also send out a newsletter with a small piece in it that says General Secretary Election opens on 9th November and you and all members encouraged to vote this branch nominated Dave Prentis.

Now I am told that we are going to get wording for that but we haven’t got it yet, but will get wording for that next week I am told so we can get that to you.

So what we should get next week is we should get a bundle of leaflets from the vote Dave Prentis campaign, a huge bundle of leaflets I am told and we will get some posters as well.

So the priority when we got those is going to be for you , not all of you necessarily but some of you, to be approaching the branches that have made the nominations and get the leaflets to them with the posters and sit down with them, and go through with them what they should be doing. What you should really be doing is setting aside the three or four days immediately after the lobby of parliament.

The lobby of parliament is the 2nd of November it is the week before the ballot opens so we should have the materials by then it would be good to talk to the supporting branches now or this week or early next week, sometime early next week will be fine. But set some time aside week commencing 2nd November to actually get the leaflets and posters around the branches and also to be able to sit down with the branch secretary with the wording and say right you can put this email out and put this in the newsletter and you put this as an email footer.
There are also branches that do Facebook and twitter there is some text for Facebook and Twitter as well.

So we need you to start planning ahead on that one talk to the branches to be prepared and get them focused, we know that with the best will in the world the branches will mean to do it but they won’t do it so you need to get them focussed that this has got to be sorted out by week commencing 2ndNovember cause ideally they start putting stuff out just before the ballot starts um we do not know for certain but I assume the ballot papers will start landing on 2nd November. So talk to the branches get their head around the fact that the first week Monday 9th November is when people will vote, if their not going to vote that week they will not vote at all, the ballot papers will be going out to their home addresses so it’s quite obviously not straight forward to get them organised to vote but if branches can get stuff out in the few days before the ballots opening, we want you to vote, we nominated Dave that’s what we need to do, so that’s for the branches on this list.

For all the other branches there is still a job to do but it is less focused and less directed so you will have to use your judgement but everybody can get a supply of leaflets and everybody can attempt to talk to friendly people in branches, there will be branches that didn’t nominate because they didn’t get their act together and there will be branches that nominated one of the opposition and that you may not be able to do anything with them at all or there may be one or two people in silos in the branch who may be able to get leaflets out to people who are interested in voting for Dave.
So you are gonna  have to use your judgement on that but we will have leaflets I hope sometime by midweek next week so you can all get a bundle and you can start getting them into the hands of people in the branches who did not nominate.
The branches are still..erm people can this is a lay member activity briefing so you understand so the lay members can hand out leaflets to who they like there is nothing to stop them handing out leaflets to any member at all and they should but they won’t have that benefit of being able to openly bang it round the branch publically and say we have made a nomination and effectively we are not encouraging you to vote for Dave. But they can still hand things out put stuff on notice boards scatter things in canteens and that is what we want them to do.
Erm we not been given this yet but there will be a helpline for people that lose their ballot paper and we don’t normally get that until the ballot has opened which is a pain in the neck it normally opens a week after the ballots open but as soon as we have got that we will put it round and then we can erm  you can talk you just need to be talking to the branches those where there are queries or they think they need to contact them as people will lose their ballot papers or the dog will be sick on it or kids will rip it up.
Hand shot up there and I will take questions in a minute.
This is an absolutely critical election, John Burgess and Heather Wakefield.
I understand I have not seen the figures but Dave has got about 200 nominations they got around 50 each Roger Bannister got around 25 30.
The SWP and the ultra-left in the labour party are right behind John Burgess and have a machine that they will attempt to get a vote out for.
Roger Bannister might have a few nominations but Militant now known as the socialist party has a very good machine and will always turns a good vote out for him.

And Heather Wakefield is an unknown entity because she is a woman and she is going to play the woman’s card even though she has evidence even though I didn’t hear it or about it, her piece on woman’s hour she was blaming unison for failing to do enough for equal pay for women when she was responsible for it, so I am not sure why that happens but there will be an issue around her pushing I am the only woman candidate. Really this is one of the toughest election that Dave has had to fight and it is very important that Dave is delivered as I have said before that not one of the others is capable of running the union quite frankly.
So it is important that we get stuff out, so erm last thing really there are also, getting the Dave Prentis leaflets out are the most important thing when they arrive but there are some about using your vote, get your vote heard which are the officially unison leaflets about encouraging people to vote and some stickers which we have here you might find that useful.
So any questions.
Oh one more point sorry Chris has just prompted me in your role in all of this you are entitled to brief branches on what their rights are and what their role is in this election
you clearly cannot be caught out saying vote for Dave but we do expect you to talk to branches, the nominating ones certainly about that.
You’re absolutely entitled to speak with them about the processes and procedures and I would want you to do it just be careful what is put into the public domain you should not be using official unison email to do and  just be careful about witnesses to conversations make sure they are friendly witnesses.
Yeah? The only reason for saying that, two reasons, one is if we are caught out of that then all the opposition might raise complaints theoretically there is a possibility
so it is important, opposition gets evidence that people have been using unison resources which includes staff unison resources there could be complaints so you just need to be careful and use your discretion and don’t not use emails as these can be traced so carefully.
Right sorry questions Carol first then Dario.
Carol – Before when we have been talking to branches we were told we could say that the NEC was supporting Dave, can we say that the branches email their members can they say that the NEC supported Dave and can they say the region is.

That is a good point I had not thought about that one I think the important thing is where branches have nominated him they can say that they have nominated but yes I think branches can say that NEC and so has the London Region.
Dario first
Dario – a bit of a tricky question, well with those branches that have nominated Dave it is straight forward they can receive leaflets but lets say with those branches that have nominated other candidates but we find that we can trust someone let’s say within the branch so we can hand these leaflets to and then the branch all the branch officers questions this person where they got the leaflets from I don’t know how we play it

They got them from the regional convenor, remind me to tell her, they got them from the regional convenor or the regional convenor team that is perfectly fine
Jamie I think you had one and then Zecial
Jamie – The branches that made no nominations – inaudible – they can still put an email to encourage people to vote and still say the NEC and Region support, it still encourages it rather

The priority message has to be the election is happening and encouraging members to vote and then as a sort of drop in and throw away then yes the NEC and Region nominated Dave.
Zecial – branches that have not nominated no one and then they cannot be encouraged to vote for particular candidate but if they use their personal email account but they cannot use their branch chair or branch secretary email – inaudible –

Yes it does if anything is sent out in the official mail to the branch or by the branch secretary in their official capacity can only do so if they made an official nomination. So if the branch has not made an official nomination then, you’re talking about the opposition aren’t you ?
Zecial – no nomination but yes someone in the branch wants to encourage the members

Well they can only do it in a personal capacity and they should not be using unison resources and they shouldn’t be using unison titles and they shouldn’t use unison mailing lists, yeah. Yeah so that I the official line and the official position and that applies to people supporting Dave as well, which means they can still do personal emails but they shouldn’t be using unison mailing lists.
Clare and then Rachel
Clare – so the two weeks you have mentioned before and after the opening of the ballot would that be a good two weeks to tie up the branches to vote wrong way in this other activity – laughter – one if I have one branch vote the wrong way I could get them to convert their intention

Yes excellent idea, there is a lobby of parliament that is a good idea Clare.
Rachel – inaudible

I think they can we have always said they can, because they took the decision inquorate meeting, did not fill in form properly then they still can but if it was not a quorate meeting it more important
Barry – Branches putting out positive messages from their own, negative messages about other candidate’s
They should not put out negative messages about the other candidates Dave campaign is a positive campaign it is about them so no they shouldn’t that might invite challenge slander liable
Joy and Joe
Joy – I cannot wait for your newsletter – inaudible-

Ok Good I think it will be next week mind, if you want to put something out this week not a problem perhaps put the wording through one of us first.
Joe – Unfriendly branches that have not nominated Dave, we will come across those branches, if we come across those campaigning in ways they should not have been

I think it depends what it is but the best bet is to contact the RMT, contact Karen, it depends what it is and it depends how serious it is as to if it is worth registering, but there is a complaints process.
Clarification Hayley from Southampton
I do not know for sure, but there was word she was not going to get enough votes. She needed 25 votes for nomination, I do not think she got that but I do not know for certain.
§  Inaudible question –

Yes they can yep 2nd November yes they can definitely
Are people clear then?
The burden talking to health branches will mainly fall to health team, the health team should talk to Chris. Some staff will have a heavy burden and other not so much so share it out a bit.
Local government speak to Vicky
EBS to Helen about the nominated branches.
EBS to talk to Helen or Chris..or both ?
Yeah talk to Helen , about the nominating branches….but then as we have got leaflets somehow Karen will get the word around the region that they will be in her office even though she will not say what they are….yeah?
Great so make sure you set some time aside 3rd, 4th 5th November to see the branches.
Vicky – Just a very quick one just with regard the emailing that also includes you don’t email Karen to say can you have some more of those leaflets it’s any email no emails at all on this not even internally amongst staff I mean all on this. Don’t email the branches internally you don’t see them.

Shall we move on to the trade union bill”