Jump to content

Unite the Union

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 195.200.159.2 (talk) at 14:06, 11 January 2011 (→‎Joint General Secretary Election and Merger Suspension: comma separation for number clarity). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article is about the British and Irish trade union. For other uses, see Unite (disambiguation).
Unite - the Union
Founded2007
AffiliationsTUC, ICTU, AfF, CSEU, Labour Party[1]
Website

Unite – the Union, known as Unite, is a British and Irish trade union, formed on 1 May 2007, by the merger of Amicus and the Transport and General Workers' Union. The General Secretary of Unite is Len McCluskey [2]

On 2 July 2008, Unite signed an agreement to merge with the United Steelworkers to form a new global union entity called Workers Uniting which will represent over 3 million members in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, North America and the Caribbean.

Executive Council

The Yorkshire, North East and Humberside regional headquarters are in Leeds

As part of the merger process, a Joint Executive Council (formed of the executives of both the predecessor unions) took office on the vesting day. In March 2008, a new Executive Council for the expanded Union was elected, taking office on 1 May 2008 and having a three year term.The Executive Council was tasked with putting a new Unite rulebook to a postal ballot of members during July 2008. The rule book was accepted by a majority of members and will not be subject to amendment until a Rules Conference is held.

The Unite Executive Council consists of 40 seats elected by former Amicus members and 40 seats elected by former TGWU members.

The 40 "Amicus seats" comprised one seat for each of the 10 UNITE regions, four women's seats and one seat for each of the 26 industrial sectors.

Within both the Amicus and T&G sections, the majority of victorious candidates were from the broad left slate, and a number of positions were uncontested. The first EC meeting took place 21-22 May 2008.

The UNITE special Rules Conference in 2010 agreed a rule change including a formula for how seats will be allocated on the UNITE Executive Council which takes office in 2011. The process for electing this new EC began on 10th January 2011 when nominations opened. There are a number of factions within UNITE which are supporting particular candidates in the election, including:

  • United Left, the group behind the election of Len McCluskey as General Secretary
  • Grass Roots Left, a group around Jerry Hicks
  • Unite Now, a group around Simon Dubbins

Controversy

Hunger Strike

The participants in the 2008 rooftop hunger strike at Unite's Transport House building in Belfast, were formerly shop stewards of the Transport and General Workers Union, now the T&G section of Unite the Union.[3] The dispute is over legal fees and compensation for an unfair dismissal action against the workers' employer, arising from a 2002 strike at Belfast International Airport, and the related actions of a full-time union official employee.[4][5][6]

Joint General Secretary Election and Merger Suspension

On the 9 October 2008 the executive council of Unite announced that there would be an election for the General Secretary (Amicus section), with a timetable of January/February 2009 for the election, the results being announced in March 2009. This election was for a fixed term until December 2010.

The Executive council also postponed the adoption of the new rule book and integration until May 2009. This action was taken in light of the potential success of a legal challenge to Simpson's extension of tenure by a "single member" of the union.[7] Jerry Hicks, a former member of the union's Executive and its General Purposes and Finance Committee and unfairly dismissed convenor of Rolls Royce at Bristol, disclosed at the outset that he was the person behind the challenge. He made the same legal challenge that Simpson deployed successfully on his predecessor Ken Jackson.[8][citation needed]

Candidates seeking nomination for the election, and their main union positions at the beginning of March 2009, were:

  • Derek Simpson (incumbent)[9]
  • Jerry Hicks (former convenor, Rolls Royce, Bristol)[10]
  • Laurence Faircloth (Regional Secretary, South West Region)[11]
  • Kevin Coyne (Regional Secretary, North West Region)[12]
  • Paul K. Reuter (National Officer)[13]

All candidates received sufficient nominations but Laurence Faircloth stood down after nominations closed, recommending that his supporters support Derek Simpson.[14]

Candidate Votes Cast Percentage
Derek Simpson 60048 37.7%
Jerry Hicks 39307 24.7%
Kevin Coyne 30603 19.2%
Paul Reuter 28283 17.8%
[spoilt votes] 1031 0.6%

A total of 159,272 voting slips were returned, out of a possible 1,096,511 voters, a turnout of 14.5%. Simpson won the election with 37.7% of the total votes cast,[15] and will remain in the post of Joint General Secretary until December 2010.

References

  1. ^ http://www.unionstogether.org.uk/pages/member_unions
  2. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11805884
  3. ^ "Hunger strikers in bad shape". libcom.org. libcom collective of libertarian communists.
  4. ^ "Belfast airport workers: Union leaders' broken promises". Socialist Party<!. 11 September 2001. Retrieved 17 December 2009.
  5. ^ Gordon McNeill (18 June 2008). "Press release: Sacked airport shop steward rejects union compensation "offer"". Retrieved 25 June 2008.
  6. ^ "Belfast Airport Shop Stewards - The Truth and Nothing but the Truth". Transport and General Workers' Union. 20 June 2008. Retrieved 25 June 2008. [dead link]
  7. ^ [1]
  8. ^ "Jerry Hicks For General Secretary". Jerryhicks.wordpress.com. Retrieved 17 December 2009.
  9. ^ http://www.re-electdereksimpson.com/
  10. ^ http://www.jerry4gs.com/
  11. ^ "www.faircloth4gs.com". www.faircloth4gs.com. Retrieved 17 December 2009.
  12. ^ http://coyne4gs.net/
  13. ^ "Paul Reuter's Blog". Amicusgselection.wordpress.com. Retrieved 17 December 2009.
  14. ^ Unity Gazette statement on Laurence Faircloth's withdrawal
  15. ^ Unite Amicus Section - Election of Joint General Secretary Independent Scrutineers report

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Unite the Union.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Unite_the_Union&oldid=407272410"