Unite exec majority issues statements to staff and members to counter management disinformation

Misleading claims and smears by Green and other supporters of Sharon Graham followed this week’s democratic vote by elected representatives to remove Green as chair. Exec members put the record straight

Earlier this week, a majority of members of Unite’s elected executive council (exec) were forced to issue a statement condemning the union’s war on democracy, after Unite’s management stepped in to block the removal of the exec’s pro-Graham chair for which a clear majority of members had voted. So egregious was this anti-democratic move that a majority of exec members have said they will not attend any further executive meetings until the situation is corrected.

Two days later, the same exec majority had to issue a second statement correcting what they described as a ‘continual’ ‘false narrative’ being pushed by democratically deposed chair Andy Green, who was refusing to concede to democracy, and by Unite’s management, which appears determined to keep Green in place to support the problematic Graham.

Now, in what appears to be an unprecedented move, the same members of the executive have issued two statements on the same day – one to Unite’s staff and officers and another to members and committees, condemning the intransigence of Graham and her management after smears and ‘misleading’ claims by Green and others in an apparent attempt to tarnish those whose votes are being ignored.

To the union’s officers and staff, the exec wrote:

Statement from the majority of the Unite Executive Council to all Unite Officers and Staff

We are taking the unusual step of issuing a statement to Unite employees, given the unprecedented situation that the Union is in. We fully respect the established mechanisms for the Union to engage with officers and staff on industrial issues but wanted to be clear about our position. Colleagues will no doubt have heard that the majority of the Unite EC adjourned their participation in this week’s meeting of the Unite Executive Council. You may also have been told misleading reasons as to why.

We adjourned our participation following a special meeting of the EC, that took place prior to the normal meeting, to debate and vote on a single motion under rule 14.7. This rule provides for the election and removal of Executive Council Chairs. At this meeting, a majority of the EC voted for the EC Chair, Mr Andy Green, to be removed from his position by 31 votes in favour, with 28 against, and 1 abstention.

Despite the clear democratic will of the majority of the EC being expressed, the ex-
Chair, acting under the advice of Unite’s Legal Director, Mr Stephen Pinder, refused to accept the outcome thus ignoring the Unite rule book.

The decision to adjourn participation by the majority of EC members was not taken lightly. For over 1 ½ years, numerous EC members have frequently raised serious concerns about governance, scrutiny and accountability within our union, as well as the basic financial stability of our organisation. Unfortunately, Mr Green has sought to stymie our attempts to have these serious concerns addressed.

The EC is a member elected body, and each EC member has a legal responsibility to ensure the proper running of the union on behalf of its members. It would be a dereliction of duty if we don’t ensure that we can question or hold the General Secretary and the wider administration to account on their actions and behaviour and the use of our money.

Executive Council meetings at the moment are not allowing us to carry out our scrutiny and governance role due to the actions of the ex-Chair. We will continue to fight to ensure that members money is protected and that their voice in their union is heard. This is the role and function of the EC according to our rule book and we make no apologies for taking our role as guardians of our great union very seriously. Despite the attempts to smear and denigrate our actions, we will continue to fight for a restoration of democratic scrutiny and financial transparency in our union.

Unite the Union is a lay led member union and the Unite Executive Council is obliged to provide the governance of the organisation, and to ensure accountability of the senior officials in the union.

Contrary to the smears and inaccuracies being put out by certain people, we have remained present and available in the same building as the minority section of the EC, seeking to find a way forward. Unfortunately, every approach we have made has been flatly rejected. We have given the General Secretary a number of opportunities to resolve this and to respect the majority of the EC, as per the rules of our union, but her refusal and the continuation of an inquorate EC led by the ex-Chair, have meant we have needed to take this action. We repeatedly confirmed that we would return immediately to the meeting, upon confirmation that the ex-Chair would respect the democratic will of the EC and stand aside. He repeatedly refused to do so. As a result all week we have been liaising with legal advisors on the next steps to ensure that the democratic will of your EC is honoured. We continue to hope that such legal action will not be necessary and that Mr Green will agree to step down immediately and recognise the democratic decision of the EC.

East Midlands
Dawn Borthwick & Raffiq Moosa
Ireland
Marie Casey
London and Eastern
Paula Brennan
NEYH
Michelle Smith
Scotland
Eddie Cassidy & Sylvia Stewart
West Midlands
Maggie Ryan & Nick Wareing
Aerospace & Shipbuilding
Mark Porter
Automotive Industries
Debbie Dempsey & Craig McDonald
Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Process and Textiles
Cliff Bowen
Civil Air Transport
Jas Gill
Community Youth workers and not for profit
Ruth Hayes
Education
Ken Drury
Energy and Utilities
Nick Jeffery
Engineering, Manufacturing and
Steel
John Clarke & Carl Needham
Finance & Legal
Carolanne Watson
Food Drink and Agriculture
Matt Gould
Graphical Paper and Media & Information Technology
Tom Murphy
Health
Steve Thompson
Local Authorities
Brian Robertson
Passenger Transport
Paul Ainsworth, Patricia Davis & Natalie Osborne
Unite Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians
Stuart Grice
National women’s seat
Angela Duerden
National LGBT+
Jenny Douglas
National Young members’ seat
Frankie Leach

The same elected members wrote to Unite’s members and constitutional committees:

Statement from the majority of the Unite Executive Council to all Unite constitutional committees, branches, activists and members

We are taking the unusual step of issuing a statement to Unite constitutional committees, branches, activist and members , given the unprecedented situation that the Union is in. We fully respect the established mechanisms for the Union to engage with all members, but wanted to be clear about our position given recent communications that have been sent out . Colleagues will no doubt have heard that the majority of the Unite EC adjourned their participation in this week’s meeting of the Unite Executive Council. You may also have been told misleading reasons as to why.

We adjourned our participation following a special meeting of the EC, that took place prior to the normal meeting, to debate and vote on a single motion under rule 14.7. This rule provides for the election and removal of Executive Council Chairs. At this meeting, a majority of the EC voted for the EC Chair, Andy Green, to be removed from his position by 31 votes in favour, with 28 against, and 1 abstention.

Despite the clear democratic will of the majority of the EC being expressed, the ex-Chair, acting under the advice of Unite’s Legal Director, Steve Pinder, refused to accept the outcome – ignoring the Unite rule book.

The decision to adjourn the participation of the majority of EC members was not taken lightly. For over 1 ½ years, numerous EC members have been raising serious concerns about the lack of governance, scrutiny, transparency of finances and financial decision making within our union, as well as serious concerns over the day to day financial stability of our union. Unfortunately, Mr Green has sought to stymie our attempts to have these serious concerns addressed.

The EC is a member elected body, and each EC member has a legal responsibility to ensure the proper running of the union on behalf of its members. It would be a dereliction of duty if we do not ensure that we can question or hold the General Secretary and the wider administration to account on their actions and behaviour and the use of our money.
Executive Council meetings at the moment are not allowing us to carry out our scrutiny and governance role due to the actions of the ex-Chair. This is the role and function of the EC according to our rulebook and we make no apologies for taking our role as guardians of our great union very seriously. Despite the attempts to smear and denigrate our actions, we will continue to fight for a restoration of democratic scrutiny and financial transparency in our union.

We wish to make it clear that Unite the Union is a lay led member union and that the Unite Executive Council is obliged to oversee the governance of the organisation, and to ensure accountability of the senior officials in the union. – that is our role and that is what we’ve been elected to do.

We voted to remove the ex-Chair because we wanted to ensure that we could carry out our legal obligations to ensure to transparent and smooth running of the union, which he was actively seeking to prevent.

Contrary to the smears and inaccuracies being put out by certain people, we have remained present and available in the same building as the minority section of the EC, seeking to find a way forward. Unfortunately, every approach we have made has been flatly rejected.

We have given the General Secretary a number of opportunities to resolve this and to respect the majority of the EC, as per the rules of our union, but her refusal and the continuation of an inquorate EC led by the ex-Chair, have meant we have needed to take this action. We repeatedly confirmed that we would return immediately to the meeting, upon confirmation that the ex-Chair would respect the democratic will of the EC and stand aside.

He repeatedly refused to do so. As a result all week we have been liaising with legal advisors on the next steps to ensure that the democratic will of your EC is honoured. We continue to hope that such legal action will not be necessary and that Mr Green will agree to step down immediately and recognise the democratic decision of the EC.

According to ‘UniteInsider’, a well-placed source inside Unite’s staff, the management responded by placing cronies of Graham in the lobby of the hotel where the exec meeting was supposed to be held, to ‘record the comings and goings of Unite executive members who are fighting for lay member democracy’ against the ‘pernicious and cretinous’ regime:

These are not the first occasions on which elected members have felt forced to take action because of what they say are anti-democratic moves by Green on behalf of Sharon Graham. Last year, the key ‘F&GP’ committee walked out after the pair refused to allow exec members to meet Unite officers who were then on the verge of industrial action against Graham and her team that is still ongoing.

Graham is also embroiled in a dispute by union staff working in the department she created for her husband to run, who allege that he and managers working under him have bullied and abused staff. At least three and by some reports four of the five women working in the department have quit and Graham and her team have been accused by furious workers of employing union-busting tactics to break up the strike, including having allies join the GMB union that represents staff working for Unite to try to vote down the strike action, an allegation that the union’s sector committee has demanded be investigated. Unite’s officers have also accused her of using anti-union legislation to stop them organising collectively.

And in a stunning development exclusively revealed by Skwawkbox, lawyers acting for Unite and Graham also confirmed Skwawkbox’s reporting that the union had destroyed evidence gathered by staff, particularly women, who had recorded the behaviour her husband, Jack Clarke, in their complaint that he was behaving abusively and misogynistically.

Clarke was appointed to his current role, after Graham became general secretary, despite being on a final warning from the union for his behaviour. The industrial action continues and threatens to spread to the whole HQ staff after more than 9/10 workers there voted in favour of strike action over the issue.

Graham has also been heavily criticised for her refusal to implement the union’s position, democratically agreed by delegates, to support the people of Palestine against Israel’s apartheid and genocide – instead insisting that she will prioritise arms industry jobs over calls to stand against the genocide. She has also claimed that leaked financials showing the union in a dire financial position are ‘fake’, even though they bore marks of coming from Unite’s internal ‘Sharepoint’ system. Unite has not filed annual accounts since she became general secretary.

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