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Onay Kasab, photo Paul Mattsson |
In June last year, the Unison bureaucracy launched a disciplinary investigation into five union officers. This was for daring to print and publish a leaflet attacking the union leadership for blocking the union conference’s right to debate issues such as the funding of the Labour Party, the election of full-time officials and control over strike action.
A Unison member
Having done nothing with the disciplinary investigation for seven months, four of the five under investigation have just been informed that they ARE now to face a disciplinary hearing. And guess what? The only members of the five to face action are the four Socialist Party members! (Glenn Kelly, Onay Kasab, Suzanne Muna and Brian Debus).
The four were told in a letter from the misnamed “head of democratic services” that they are to be brought to a hearing. The only problem was, the letter arrived a week before the national executive (NEC) had even met and voted to approve the decision to go to a hearing!
Before disciplinary action can be taken against a member, the NEC has to approve it. But at the NEC meeting on 13 February, the union denied NEC members the right to debate the report and instead moved straight to a vote.
It is now clear that the union are intent on trying to silence the Socialist Party within the union and in the process hope to cow others.
We now call on all Unison members to write to their regional NEC members calling for the hearing to be dropped.
Suzanne is also being ‘disciplined’ by her employers but she has the full backing of her fellow union members.
