Comments on: New Unite Rule Book

By: Rachael Webb

Rachael Webb — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:47:50 +0000

I agree there is great cause for concern, the Branch is the basic unit of workers democracy, or rather it should be.

In my case I am an international freight driver working in Region 3, ie the 26 Counties of the Republic of Ireland. The workers I try to organise amongst are from various diferent countries and we all go to lots of EU countires in our our working lives. We are from various different countries such as South Africa, Poland and so forth, is our union going to tell us we cannot organise together becauser of where we live or where we work?

At the moment the 26 Counties is where international haulage is based, but, does the “national” part of the new Rule Book rule out us who live and/or work in the 26 Counties organising with UK drivers? What of the Polish drivers who only have permanant addresses in Poland or the South African drivers who often live in their cabs for a yer or more? This is 2008, ours is not all that unusual in a globalised economy, we either wake up to that fact or the union will be irrelevant.

By: Eugene Finlay

Eugene Finlay — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:35:32 +0000

Oops!Kindly note my my self-correction of ‘hierarcy’ into ‘hierarchy’ – sorry!

By: Eugene Finlay

Eugene Finlay — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:31:43 +0000

I am a member of the T&G Section and was one of those affected when Swissport (UK) Limited went into volunatry administration on 16 November 2004 with the loss of 750 T & G jobs. Since then the union have stifled criticism by appointing a pro-tem Secretary and then failing to hold any branch meetings for over eighteen months contrary to the existing rules. My point is that rules are worse than useless if there is no enforcement mechanism and that is the situation with the current Rule-book.Indeed the T & G do not have an effective internal grievance procedure for members’ and in the case of our Branch the union hierarcy have broken numerous rules without any hesitation. There is no accountability of senior officers with the T &G indeed they do as they like whilst some lay members’ pontificate about ’socialism’ whilst real members in real struggles are ignored with impunity. One of the real issues as far as I am concerned is the utter mediocrity of full-time officials who, it appears, do not even have the ability to articulate writtern responses to complaints but merely acknowledge them (if you are very lucky!) and promise further substantive responses than never materialise. Any member is welcome to contact me on eugenefinlay@yahoo.co.uk for further information on the Swissport situation and until I hear from you do take good care out there.

By: Ian Rez

Ian Rez — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 19:34:40 +0000

The reorganisation of branches under the new draft Rule Book will be an absolute disaster for our NHS branches, many of whom have functioned despite falling activity of members because they represented a number of hospitals and workplaces in an area but all with the same industrial problems of the NHS.
General branches for our health service membership will be very poorly attended, just look at the Area Activists Quarterlys in London and how poorly they’ve been attended over the last few years.
It’s a pity but there will be no alternative but to vote against acceptance of the new Rule Book in the ballot!

By: Jon Rogers

Jon Rogers — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 22:58:30 +0000

Beware of the Rule Book on merger. UNISON’s Rule Book was accepted when the members voted for merger and we have been trying to improve it (with great difficulty) ever since.