Defend the Four
The Hackney Unison branch committee has unanimously passed a motion welcoming the decision of Unison to withdraw its High Court appeal against witch-hunted Socialist Party members Glenn Kelly, Onay Kasab, Suzanne Muna and Brian Debus, which has probably saved the union £100,000.
A week after the ban on holding office being lifted by Unison, Brian Debus was elected as a shop steward for Shoreditch Library.
But the Bromley branch is still being run by unelected regional officials with no lay member control.
The motion calls for a lay member-led review into the way senior unelected officers have been allowed to waste large sums of money, challenging legal decisions and using regional supervision against branches as a form of mass disciplinary action.
The motion will go to Unison’s national conference unless blocked by the Standing Orders Committee. If it is, stand by for another campaign.
See http://youtu.be/HDdKmGNAYLw for the Reel News film about the witch-hunt and the Defend the Four campaign.
Mid Yorks NHS
Admin and clerical workers at the Mid Yorks health trust have been fighting downgrading proposals. After their three-day strike on 20-22 November, they were invited for talks by the trust.
But then a member of the strike committee was threatened with disciplinary action following an “incident” during the strike. The strike committee unanimously agreed to refuse to attend any negotiations unless this blatant attack was withdrawn.
Management have not backed down so the committee agreed to support any further action against the downbanding and the victimisation of members for taking strike action, voting for a branch wide ballot if necessary.
Bromley bins
Bin workers in Bromley will begin a series of strike action in the run up to Christmas and over the New Year. The union’s repeated calls to bosses at Veolia Environmental Services to re-instate four unjustly sacked workers for alleged gross misconduct have fallen on deaf ears, leaving Unite with no option but to issue strike dates.
Strike action will begin with 24 hours on 14 December 2012, then 48 hours from 27 December and 24 hours from 31 December.
More than 80% of refuse workers, working out of the Churchfields refuse and recycling centre, voted in favour of strike action in a recent ballot.
