MEREL DONS UNIDARITE VOMELNS Fred Leplat, UNISON London Regional Committee (personal capacity) A REPORT which attacks the right of branches to campaign to change the union's policy was adopted by UNISON's National Executive Committee on December 10.
This surprising move was initiated by UNISON's general secretary, Rodney Bickerstaffe, at the NEC in September when he alleged he had received unspecified complaints about the Campaign for a Fighting and Democratic UNISON (CFDU) - the broad left inside Britain's biggest union.
Senior officials in UNISON have been concerned about the influence of the CFDU for a while. This left was launched when UNISON was formed in 1994 by the merger of Nalgo, NUPE and COHSE.
In 1995, the CFDU candidate for general secretary, Roger Bannister, running against Bickerstaffe, got 18 per cent of the vote.
Last year, the CFDU produced a well researched pamphlet arguing against the deal that had been negotiated for the "Single Status" -the harmonisation of blue and white collar terms and conditions for local government staff.
While supporting Single Status, the CFDU argued that the deal had too many pitfalls, including allowing employers to unilaterally move away from national conditions.
The CFDU arguments had such an echo that 40 per cent of delegates from. local government branches rejected the deal at a special With the election of a New Labour government, UNISON's leadership could not afford the risk of the left winning on a key issue. An inconvenient decision at a conference could sour its relationship with Tony Blair.
The need to maintain a honey. moon with the new government is seen as central - even if it means holding back a campaign for a minimum wage, negotiating "Best Value" (a form of voluntary privatisation) despite it being contrary to union policy, or attacking union democracy by witch-hunting individuals and restricting the right of branches to influence union policy.
Greetings
This orientation is spelt out in a New Year "greetings" letter from Bickerstaffe to all branches in which he states that: "The Government will listen if they know that we are relevant and representative of our members. That is why we must challenge all attempts to subvert internal democracy by outside groups who put their interests ahead of our members."
The report on the CFDU adopted was produced by Brian SAVE UCH • AND THE MOLESEX DEFEND THE A NO PRIVATISATION Langstaff QC at a cost running into . five figures, probably ten times the money received by the CFDU from UNISON branches and individuals. Its 8 pages of recommendations are based on spectacular insights such as "individuals who are active in the CFDU may also be active in UNISON", and is followed by 52 pages of documents from the CFDU assiduously collected by some UNISON bureaucrat over a 3 year period. The report speculates that the CFDU has the support of Militant Labour and other socialists, that it has links with similar organisations in other unions. It argues that the left seeks to influence union It is necessary to defend UNISON's democratic founding principles, that it is a member-led union with autonomous branches and a sovereign national conference.
policy and replace members of the leadership with its own nominees. All this is typical of a broad left that seeks to organise branches and individual members to steer their Reaching for gag: Bickerstaffe union in a particular direction. A perfectly legitimate democratic exercise. Yet the OC's report manages to conclude that only the NEC may use union finances and resources to form or change union policy, as there is nothing in the rules to allow branches and regions to do likewise.