Transcript of a meeting of UNISON
paid officials in the Greater London Region which took place at Congress House, on 21
October 2015, where UNISON employees were briefed by the Regional Secretary for
Greater London on how to campaign for the re-election of General Secretary,
Dave Prentis.
Transcript begins below:
“Sorry not much choice on this.
The piece of paper that you have got handed out um you haven’t seen so it is
not for distribution elsewhere.
Ok
Um because this has been obtained
unofficially. You have not seen it or you don’t hand it out anywhere
We have done very well and I want
to thank everybody and congratulate them on getting the nominations that they
have got. This is a list of the Greater London branch nominations for Dave
Prentis the deadline closed last Friday, I do not have a list of the other
candidates, and that will appear in due course but I haven’t got it. But we
have done very well, we’ve got almost 50 nominations here so that is excellent
and thanks very much, er Dave is very very pleased and he has related that to
me personally er it is very important because obviously this is going to be a
hard fought election.
There are a number of branches we
know as Karen, you most of you not all of you, but most of you sent them to
Karen on what was going on and there are a number of branches also that choose
not to make a nomination. And so particularly for those of you that work in
Local Government and the EBS I know that some of your hard work is not in terms
of getting the nomination but not
getting the nomination because you have got the wrong one so just
because obviously ??? the health team has worked hard on the health branches so
long as they are effectively organised they produce results the health branches
the other teams have worked hard as well in different ways so you have done
well thank you.
Erm I don’t have the final figure for John Burgess
but I think John Burgess has got around 15 nominations from London maybe
slightly well more or less its around that figure.
Heather Wakefield has 3
nominations from London of which 2 are being challenged and I think Roger
Bannister has 2 nominations from different branches in London is what I hear.
So we have done well, thank you.
So you can see here which are
your branches and I don’t want anybody to do anything without talking to their
regional manager first.
So um I don’t want you to do anything
coming out of this meeting talk with these named branches here you need to talk
to your regional manager about the approach.
(break in the recording)
What’s
going to happen next and what we need you to do in discussion with Vicky or
Helen or Chris and I remiss that I should have congratulated Helen on her
appointment as Regional Manager she is not official Regional Manager until 2nd November
but she is.
So what
happens next is the ballot will open on Monday 9th November
and it will run for 5 weeks which actually I cannot remember the date, sorry
closes on the 14th, closes on 4th runs for four weeks.
So it
opens Monday 9th November and closes on Friday I think the 4th December
the announcement I think will be on 17th December
so the work really needs to take place in that week before the ballot opens and
in the first week of the ballot.
So there are two jobs to be done
one is to get the branches to encourage as many members to vote as possible and
the other is to talk to the branches that have made nominations.
So let’s start with the branches
that have made nominations.
The
branches that have made nominations can legitimately and democratically should
notify their members that they have nominated Dave and they have made the
nominations so they can send out an email to their members telling them that
the ballot is going to open on 9th November and that their branch nominated Dave Prentis. They can
also legitimately put a footer on all emails saying vote in the General
Secretary elections and that our branch voted sorry nominated Dave Prentis.
They can also send out a newsletter with a small piece in it that says General
Secretary Election opens on 9th November and you and all members encouraged to vote this branch
nominated Dave Prentis.
Now I am
told that we are going to get wording for that but we haven’t got it yet, but
will get wording for that next week I am told so we can get that to you.
So what
we should get next week is we should get a bundle of leaflets from the vote
Dave Prentis campaign, a huge bundle of leaflets I am told and we will get some
posters as well.
So the
priority when we got those is going to be for you , not all of you necessarily
but some of you, to be approaching the branches that have made the nominations
and get the leaflets to them with the posters and sit down with them, and go
through with them what they should be doing. What you should really be doing is
setting aside the three or four days immediately after the lobby of parliament.
The lobby
of parliament is the 2nd of November it is the week before the ballot opens so we should
have the materials by then it would be good to talk to the supporting branches
now or this week or early next week, sometime early next week will be fine. But
set some time aside week commencing 2nd November
to actually get the leaflets and posters around the branches and also to be
able to sit down with the branch secretary with the wording and say right you
can put this email out and put this in the newsletter and you put this as an
email footer.
There are
also branches that do Facebook and twitter there is some text for Facebook and
Twitter as well.
So we
need you to start planning ahead on that one talk to the branches to be
prepared and get them focused, we know that with the best will in the world the
branches will mean to do it but they won’t do it so you need to get them
focussed that this has got to be sorted out by week commencing 2ndNovember
cause ideally they start putting stuff out just before the ballot starts um we
do not know for certain but I assume the ballot papers will start landing on 2nd November.
So talk to the branches get their head around the fact that the first week
Monday 9th November is when people will vote, if their not going to vote that
week they will not vote at all, the ballot papers will be going out to their
home addresses so it’s quite obviously not straight forward to get them organised
to vote but if branches can get stuff out in the few days before the ballots opening,
we want you to vote, we nominated Dave that’s what we need to do, so that’s for
the branches on this list.
For all the other branches there
is still a job to do but it is less focused and less directed so you will have
to use your judgement but everybody can get a supply of leaflets and everybody
can attempt to talk to friendly people in branches, there will be branches that
didn’t nominate because they didn’t get their act together and there will be
branches that nominated one of the opposition and that you may not be able to
do anything with them at all or there may be one or two people in silos in the
branch who may be able to get leaflets out to people who are interested in
voting for Dave.
So you are gonna have to use your judgement on that but we will
have leaflets I hope sometime by midweek next week so you can all get a bundle
and you can start getting them into the hands of people in the branches who did
not nominate.
The branches are still..erm
people can this is a lay member activity briefing so you understand so the lay
members can hand out leaflets to who they like there is nothing to stop them
handing out leaflets to any member at all and they should but they won’t have
that benefit of being able to openly bang it round the branch publically and
say we have made a nomination and effectively we are not encouraging you to
vote for Dave. But they can still hand things out put stuff on notice boards
scatter things in canteens and that is what we want them to do.
Erm we not been given this yet
but there will be a helpline for people that lose their ballot paper and we don’t
normally get that until the ballot has opened which is a pain in the neck it normally
opens a week after the ballots open but as soon as we have got that we will put
it round and then we can erm you can
talk you just need to be talking to the branches those where there are queries
or they think they need to contact them as people will lose their ballot papers
or the dog will be sick on it or kids will rip it up.
Hand shot up there and I will
take questions in a minute.
This is an absolutely critical
election, John Burgess and Heather Wakefield.
I understand I have not seen the
figures but Dave has got about 200 nominations they got around 50 each Roger
Bannister got around 25 30.
The SWP and the ultra-left in the
labour party are right behind John Burgess and have a machine that they will
attempt to get a vote out for.
Roger
Bannister might have a few nominations but Militant now known as the socialist party has a very good machine and will always turns a good vote out for him.
And Heather Wakefield is an
unknown entity because she is a woman and she is going to play the woman’s card
even though she has evidence even though I didn’t hear it or about it, her
piece on woman’s hour she was blaming unison for failing to do enough for equal
pay for women when she was responsible for it, so I am not sure why that
happens but there will be an issue around her pushing I am the only woman
candidate. Really this is one of the toughest election that Dave has had to
fight and it is very important that Dave is delivered as I have said before
that not one of the others is capable of running the union quite frankly.
So it is important that we get
stuff out, so erm last thing really there are also, getting the Dave Prentis
leaflets out are the most important thing when they arrive but there are some
about using your vote, get your vote heard which are the officially unison
leaflets about encouraging people to vote and some stickers which we have here
you might find that useful.
So any questions.
Oh one more point sorry Chris has
just prompted me in your role in all of this you are entitled to brief branches
on what their rights are and what their role is in this election
you clearly cannot be caught out
saying vote for Dave but we do expect you to talk to branches, the nominating
ones certainly about that.
You’re absolutely entitled to
speak with them about the processes and procedures and I would want you to do
it just be careful what is put into the public domain you should not be using
official unison email to do and just be
careful about witnesses to conversations make sure they are friendly witnesses.
Yeah? The only reason for saying
that, two reasons, one is if we are caught out of that then all the opposition
might raise complaints theoretically there is a possibility
so it is important, opposition
gets evidence that people have been using unison resources which includes staff
unison resources there could be complaints so you just need to be careful and
use your discretion and don’t not use emails as these can be traced so
carefully.
Right sorry questions Carol first
then Dario.
Carol – Before when we have been
talking to branches we were told we could say that the NEC was supporting Dave,
can we say that the branches email their members can they say that the NEC supported
Dave and can they say the region is.
That is a good point I had not
thought about that one I think the important thing is where branches have
nominated him they can say that they have nominated but yes I think branches
can say that NEC and so has the London Region.
Dario first
Dario – a bit of a tricky question, well
with those branches that have nominated Dave it is straight forward they can
receive leaflets but lets say with those branches that have nominated other
candidates but we find that we can trust someone let’s say within the branch so
we can hand these leaflets to and then the branch all the branch officers
questions this person where they got the leaflets from I don’t know how we play
it
They got them from the regional
convenor, remind me to tell her,
they got them from the regional convenor or the regional convenor team that is
perfectly fine
Jamie I think you had one and then
Zecial
Jamie – The branches that made no
nominations – inaudible – they can still put an email to encourage people to
vote and still say the NEC and Region support, it still encourages it rather
The priority message has to be
the election is happening and encouraging members to vote and then as a sort of
drop in and throw away then yes the NEC and Region nominated Dave.
Zecial – branches that have not
nominated no one and then they cannot be encouraged to vote for particular
candidate but if they use their personal email account but they cannot use
their branch chair or branch secretary email – inaudible –
Yes it does if anything is sent
out in the official mail to the branch or by the branch secretary in their
official capacity can only do so if they made an official nomination. So if the
branch has not made an official nomination then, you’re talking about the
opposition aren’t you ?
Zecial – no nomination but yes someone
in the branch wants to encourage the members
Well they can only do it in a
personal capacity and they should not be using unison resources and they
shouldn’t be using unison titles and they shouldn’t use unison mailing lists,
yeah. Yeah so that I the official line and the official position and that
applies to people supporting Dave as well, which means they can still do
personal emails but they shouldn’t be using unison mailing lists.
Clare and then Rachel
Clare – so the two weeks you have
mentioned before and after the opening of the ballot would that be a good two
weeks to tie up the branches to vote wrong way in this other activity –
laughter – one if I have one branch vote the wrong way I could get them to
convert their intention
Yes excellent idea, there is a lobby
of parliament that is a good idea Clare.
Rachel – inaudible
I think they can we have always
said they can, because they took the decision inquorate meeting, did not fill
in form properly then they still can but if it was not a quorate meeting it
more important
Barry – Branches putting out positive
messages from their own, negative messages about other candidate’s
They should not put out negative
messages about the other candidates Dave campaign is a positive campaign it is
about them so no they shouldn’t that might invite challenge slander liable
Joy and Joe
Joy – I cannot wait for your newsletter
– inaudible-
Ok Good I think it will be next
week mind, if you want to put something out this week not a problem perhaps put
the wording through one of us first.
Joe – Unfriendly branches that have not
nominated Dave, we will come across those branches, if we come across those
campaigning in ways they should not have been
I think it depends what it is but
the best bet is to contact the RMT, contact Karen, it depends what it is and it
depends how serious it is as to if it is worth registering, but there is a
complaints process.
Clarification Hayley from
Southampton
I do not know for sure, but there
was word she was not going to get enough votes. She needed 25 votes for
nomination, I do not think she got that but I do not know for certain.
§ Inaudible question –
Yes they
can yep 2nd November yes they can definitely
Are people clear then?
The burden talking to health branches
will mainly fall to health team, the health team should talk to Chris. Some
staff will have a heavy burden and other not so much so share it out a bit.
Local government speak to Vicky
EBS to Helen about the nominated
branches.
EBS to talk to Helen or Chris..or
both ?
Yeah talk to Helen , about the
nominating branches….but then as we have got leaflets somehow Karen will get
the word around the region that they will be in her office even though she will
not say what they are….yeah?
Great so make sure you set some
time aside 3rd, 4th 5th November to see the branches.
Vicky – Just a very quick one just with
regard the emailing that also includes you don’t email Karen to say can you
have some more of those leaflets it’s any email no emails at all on this not
even internally amongst staff I mean all on this. Don’t email the branches
internally you don’t see them.
Shall we move on to the trade
union bill”
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