Unison's right wing still witch-hunting

The witch-hunt against the five officers of some London Unison branches has not yet been resolved.

Four London branches at Unison's national and local government conference in June 2007 produced a leaflet complaining about the number of resolutions being removed form the agenda by the standing orders committee. They used the well-known cartoon of three monkeys saying: "Hear no evil, speak no evil and see no evil" to emphasise how the union was ignoring branch rights at conference.

This then led to a ridiculous situation where the right wing claimed the leaflet was racist and called for an enquiry. Since then there have been hearings but no further progress on whether or not the five officers will have to face disciplinary charges.

The campaign against the witch-hunt nevertheless continues as a warning to the right wing that if they do press these false charges against these officers (four of whom are members of the Socialist Party) then they will kick up merry hell in the union. The union itself will be brought into disrepute by this wasting of the members' money and resources.

The campaign has received copies of letters addressed to the general secretary Dave Prentis, supporting those under threat and basically telling the union leadership that they are out of order.

They remind the leadership that the workers are engaged in struggle with the employers and the last thing they need is for the union to attack their own branch officers. The only people who would win under these circumstances are the bosses.