Analysis Breaking Exclusive

Exclusive: TSSA suppressed earlier merger approach from RMT too

Documents show RMT’s Lynch requested talks when talks with US IBB union collapsed – and before that too, as well as in January as Skwawkbox revealed yesterday

Skwawkbox revealed yesterday that the TSSA – which has been rocked this week by sexual harassment and bullying scandals yet is in merger talks with another union with ‘endemic’ issues of the same sort – had ‘suppressed’ a merger approach from the RMT union, led by left-winger Mick Lynch.

And Skwawkbox can today reveal that at least two earlier approaches from Lynch were also kept back from many members of the TSSA’s elected executive.

Lynch wrote to then-TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes in September 2021 to open talks, when TSSA was in discussions about becoming a ‘district’ of right-wing US union IBB:

Some TSSA figures have tried to defend the suppression of the RMT approach by asking why Lynch didn’t approach TSSA when the IBB talks collapsed last September. But Lynch did – and this time his letter was acknowledged by Cortes:

TSSA executive members have, however, admitted that they were ‘kept in the dark’ about the approaches.

Cortes reportedly remains on the union’s payroll, despite ‘retiring’ last year under a cloud after whistleblowers came forward with allegations of repeated sexual harassment by him and other senior figures in the union. Baroness Kennedy’s report on her investigation of the allegations this week slammed the union’s culture and the habitual cover-ups of harassment and bullying, and even the denigration of victims by the ‘locus of power’ in the union. Kennedy recommended the removal of a number of figures and some have already gone, with all other senior staff named in the report now suspended including the man lined up to be Cortes’s successor but still being paid.

Skwawkbox understands that HR manager Val Stansfield, another senior staff member named in the report, attempted to gate-crash a large meeting of GMB members working for TSSA and complained of unfair treatment when she was refused entry, but then packed up her belongings and left the building.

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40 comments

  1. Two Cheeks
    30% turnout 10% swing on a bright shiny day in Lancashire
    Have you got enough fingers to work out what this means for Poundshop War Criminal
    Summed up by BBC
    He will barely scrape into No10

    Which means he wont last, possibly slightly longer than Truss

      1. Two Cheeks
        Red Tories have a ‘Use by Date’
        Sometime next year your bubble will burst, realpolitik
        The next GE will bring in PR and Scottish Independence by default
        Congratulations on your bastard offspring

      2. Doug – I sincerely hope that FPTP is replaced by PR, don’t you? After all it is a far more representative voting system.
        As for Scottish independence then surely that is for the people of Scotland to decide.

  2. On a lighter note…

    🎵Supertanksii’s Adolf Hitler photo is atrocious

    The bullshit that she’s now since typed it smells like halitosis

    And now she’s threatenin’ skwawky cos she thinks she’s so ferocious

    The silly cow has shot her bolt and thinks no-one will notice…🎵

    1. oops – https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/shocking-images-police-matrix-van-26213566
      A police Matrix van and car were set on fire this evening in disgraceful scenes as hundreds gathered outside a hotel in Kirkby.
      Shocking images from the scene outside the Suites Hotel show the van, parked near to the gathering, initially vandalised with graffiti before being set alight. A line of riot police quickly surrounded the van.
      Police have confirmed they were initially called to Ribblers Lane at around 6.30pm to what they said was initially a “peaceful protest and counter protest”. However they said missiles were then thrown and damage caused. Footage sent to the ECHO shows people taking what appear to be sledgehammers to a police vehicle.
      It is understood a number of far-right groups were involved in organising the protest

      1. SteveH

        Don’t the far-right reportedly have scores of undercover officers infiltrated into their ranks, acting as agent provocateurs?

        I’m not defending the far-right, I can’t stand their views. But nor do I trust media reports 100% either. The ongoing Spy cops scandal showed the most zealous in any extremist organisation or activist group are usually UCs. And your hero Starmer and his RW PLP voted for that to continue.

      2. https://socialistworker.co.uk/news/anti-refugee-riot-in-liverpool-is-a-terrible-warning/
        Anti-refugee riot in Liverpool is a terrible warning
        There was a warning of what the far right is capable of on Friday as several hundred fascists and racists rioted outside a refugee hotel in Knowsley, Liverpool.
        Around 450 thugs gathered around the Suites hotel shouting racist abuse. Some were armed with petrol bombs and set a police van on fire.
        In videos posted online they said their aim was to attack the refugees inside the hotel. Given the opportunity, the protesters would have gladly raided the hotel and physically attacked the refugees inside, and perhaps killed people.
        This shows how dangerous the far right can be when they mobilise. The protest organisers manufactured claims that they were “defending children” to justify their violence.

      3. Two Cheeks
        As a Hitler apologist you are the hard right
        As ye sow so shall ye reap

      4. Doug – You are more than welcome to try and prove your stupid lies.

  3. Anti-refugee riot in Liverpool is a terrible warning
    There was a warning of what the far right is capable of

    The mildright, under starmer however…

  4. Toffee – Says the sad ToryBoy who has admitted that he couldn’t be bothered to vote for Corbyn in the last General Election and in previous comments has made it very clear that he’d rather vote for the Conservatives than vote for Labour at the next one

      1. For the cunteenth time,prick.

        Find a SINGLE instance where I said I would rather vote toerag than smarmerite labour?

        Do it, or shut yer fucking grid. Permanently.

      2. Toffee – We’ve been here before. Why on earth do you keep doing this to yourself, are you stupid?

        You said above
        “Find a SINGLE instance where I said I would rather vote toerag than smarmerite labour?”

        Here is a direct quote from you (AGAIN)🥱
        “And yes, I’d rather vote toerag than that shower of shit [Labour]”
        https://skwawkbox.org/2020/05/23/excl-leaked-report-whitewash-continues-starmer-using-forensic-computer-investigators-on-those-who-compiled-report/#comment-146897

        You were saying?😏

      3. And once AGAIN – for the cunteenth and second time, prick…

        WHAT WOULD BE THE DIFFERENCE?

        You know EXACTLY what I’m talking about

        Because according to you it would’ve made NO difference had keef ORDERED the peers to OPPOSE the toerag shithousery of denying kids a meal at school.

        But you have ZERO qualms about allowing kids to go hungry….and that’s not the whole story, is it, nonce?

  5. Interesting news from Moldova.
    Economic crisis leads to collapse of government.
    How will the new government be constituted?
    Will it change the, hitherto, fiercely pro-Ukraine policies?
    Will the West seek to intervene?
    Give it a few weeks any we should find out.
    Meanwhile, watch out for some articles critical of Moldova in our media.

    1. Vested Interests tend to assert tight control over these things, no?

      When Union executives and management play the same game against the interests of their members, the trade union they represent and its members are violated. Mick Lynch’s “sixth sense” must have told him that TSSA’s failure to disclose his approach proved something very fundamental was wrong.

  6. Re”SteveH12/02/2023 AT 3:45 AM
    goldbach – You’re more than welcome to link to the polls that support your perspective, I’ll look forward to reading them.”
    The i Weekend (paper edition) has an article discussing the West Lancashire by-election “landslide”. I quote:
    “While shifts in support at by-elections do not usually play out uniformly at general elections, a 10.5% swing from the Conservatives would put Labour on roughly 300 seats and just short of a majority, according to Chris Hopkins, the Director of Savanta.
    And Patrick English, associate director of YouGov, said it would require something closer to a 13% swing, applied uniformly, to lead to a Labour majority of just one.”
    Let me know when you see the next pigs overhead.

      1. Do you question the validity of Chris Hopkins’ and Patrick English’s analyses?

      2. goldbach – Did you actually read the page that I linked to above, your above response indicates that you didn’t bother?

      3. Two Cheeks
        Put up or shut up
        £10 on everyone of your predicted results should make you a tidy sum
        Good Luck

      4. Doug – I see you are still trying to bolster your feeble contributions with childish insults, Grow up.

        In answer to your suggestion – Given that the bookies also think that Labour will win the next general election the winnings would be unlikely to be worth the effort.

      5. Fortunately, I have just returned to this thread so I can answer “yes” to the question that SteveH posed. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem able to say whether he questions the validity of the analyses that Hopkins and English refer to or, if he does question them, why he does so.
        It’s par for the course though, Doug.

      6. goldbach – I suppose that depends on whether you think that attempting to extrapolate the results of a single mid winter by election to project the outcome for the whole country is either a valid or a sensible thing to do. I don’t, do you?

  7. Interesting how the media is keen on finding fault with Erdogan in relation to the earthquake.
    Couln’t be anything to do with the fact that he has been trying to act as an intermediary between Ukraine and Russia for the past year, and has been trying to achieve a negotiated outcome to the conflict, could it?

      1. Indeed we will. The collective West clearly want him out. No doubt they will be doing all they can to achieve their objective. It will probably be a close run thing. We will see soon. However, it doesn’t seem that a change of government will change the position of Turkiye in wanting a diplomatic settlement to the conflict in Ukraine. Let’s hope the peace-seekers prevail.

      1. I agree that it is rather strange that the article that I linked to above didn’t make this clear.

  8. Now it’s time for the Beeb to headline the dreadful Syrian government – not getting aid ti the earthqauke area aroind Idlib.
    What they fail to say is that the area around Idlib is under the control of Al Qaeda/ISIS/the White Helmets.
    Just a slip I imagine.

    1. goldbach – Really, have you actually been watching the news or is this something you’ve just made up.

    2. Concentrate, young man, focus your mind.
      1. The headline story to which I refer is still on the BBC website though it is no longer the top story.
      2. This story refers to the “White Helmets”, and other stories on the website, has/have said that the “White Helmets” are operating in and around Idlib.
      3. The map to which I refer, which shows that Idlib and the surrounding area is under the control of “Jihadists” is also on the website.
      Ergo, if this was made up, it was made up by the BBC.
      What’s your problem in understanding this? Do you think that the Beeb is putting out misinformation?
      Or was it just too many pina coladas?

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