Defend the Unison Four - sign petition online

Unison took disciplinary action in 2007 against Glenn Kelly, Onay Kasab, Brian Debus and Suzanne Muna on trumped up charges and then took three of the activists' branches away from democratic lay member control and into regional administration.

The Four challenged the union's actions in court and twice the courts ruled that they were unlawfully and unjustifiably disciplined.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal further found that the disciplinary action violated Unison members' democratic rights.

The real reason for the action against us was that we sought discussion at Unison's 2007 conference on Labour Party funding, greater lay member control over industrial action, and the election of union officials.

Unison has used disciplinary action in an attempt to constrain legitimate debate at its decision-making forum.

Unbelievably, Unison is once again appealing against the court's decision. We are therefore petitioning to demand that the union stops wasting its members' money on appealing the courts' decisions and restores all branches to full democratic, lay member control.

Please sign and circulate our online petition at http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/general-secretary-unison-stop-the-witch-hunts-in-unison.

At a time of unprecedented attacks on our jobs, pay, pensions and other terms and conditions, as we suffer public service cut-backs and sell-offs, Unison should be focusing every last resource on working with other leading unions to fight austerity, not fighting trade union activists.