press "discovers" TGWU ballot rigging
ALAN THORNETT looks at the current press campaign to unseat Ron Todd as TGWU General Secretary, and explains the long history of TGWU ballot-rigging. AS we go to press it looks as if there will be a fresh ballot for the new Transport and General Workers
It is a serious eror for Evans to have backed down in this way. The current Camot igas first motivated ast years ballot was first motivated by (now Lord) Chapple and pursued by his employer, Daily Mail. media has now ceated the conditions where a fight could overturn the previous result and replace Ron Todd as General Secretary elect.
This situation now has serious implications for the whole of the labour movement. Wright would swing the TGWU to the hard right and line the union up with Terry Duffy or worse -Chapple and Eric Hammond on the project. Equally seriously it would give a huge boost to the campaign by the Tories and sections of the trade
hard right for confronting postal ballots in which the media would have a much increased in(Although the election of the T&G General Secretary as such would not be affected since it does not carry a
The whole situation is a creation of the media. It started initially with a proven case of ballot rigging in one of the IGWU's Bristol branches. There a 95% "turnout" figure led to complaints and subsequently an internal union inquiry. Iwo full time officals were sacked by the union and the branch secretary suspended from office for life.
The media started to float the issue to see what other complaints could be drummed up. That was successful and the issue escalated considerably. Complaints have been made over the conduct of the ballot in another Bristol branch and others in the London Region.
George Wright
Most of the publicity recently has centred on the work the media has done in the North of Ireland. Region 11 recorded a 70% poll, clearly very, difficult to achieve in that kind of ballot. The Observer has conducted a poll of I&G memebers there, as has Marplan. They both claim that these
that only 32% in fact participated in the ballot. They have interviewed shop stewards who claim that no ballot at all was conducted in
Although none of that constitutes hard evidence the media is now claiming that a question mark is raised over enough votes to alter the outcome of the election if the alledga. tions were proven correct. Ron Todd
Selected by 277,662 - a margin of 45,000 votes. In Ireland, Ron Todd received 55,000 votes against George Wright's 8,000.
More important, George Wright has now emerged personally into the fray and called for a fresh ballot -Although he stands an an individual member he is using his position as a full time appointed official to camhypocritical than Wright emerging as the saviour of democracy in the Socialist Viewpoint, No. 5, April 1985. Page 4
TGWU. There was a 61% "turnout" in Wales, where the vast majority of votes went to him. He was unknown at the time of the election, how did he get so many votes?
Moss Evans has now abandoned his previously correct response - prove the case and I will call a new electior if the votes concerned are enough to affect the result - and cancelled his attendance at the Scottish TUC and intimated that he is about to call an order a fresh election. It fits in with the shift to the right he appears to have taken in recent months.
The whole right-wing against Ron Todd is sheet hypocrisy. They have known the nature of T&G ballot procedures for years and have sat back while the right wing in various sections of the union kept out left candidates by ballot rigging
campaign is dishonest. They have known for years
IGWU ballot procedures and the abuses which have taken place. They have never taken the issue up before because in most cases the left had been the victims of malpractice trom the right.
Why all this sudden press interest in TGWU elections? These elections have been dubious for many years and the press have never shown the
branch officials in the British Leyland Cowley Body Plant rigged the ballot to stop me getting on the union's Midlands Regional represented 350,000 members. ballot rigging was not only proven but shown to have been on a massive
I stood against Adams, an unknown right-wing candidate from the (now closed) MG car plant in Abingdon. At that time there were 6,500 TGWU members in the plant organised into the 5/60 branch, all the officers of which were magistrates.
Adams won the election with 6,134 votes. We were able to establish that almost all of these came from the Body Plant, and there was no possibility that they were cast legitimately by the members since the balloting had been monitored by militants in the plant.
It was easy to check. There were
SUSPICIOUS SILENCE SILENT IN FACE OF BALLOT COMPAINTS NO ENQUIRY INTO 'IMPOSSIBLE VOTES SOCIALIST PRESS RIGGING! : Guilty official keeps full time position only two ballot boxes, which were placed in the main canteen for the one-hour lunch break on two con secutive days. Militants sat by the ores and counted exactly ma voted - which was less than 200. was in any case impossible for 6,000 people to vote in 2 hours - that would be almost one per second
When the result was announced the branch secretary refused to reveal the individual voting figures for that individual branch (the election covered a geographical area involving a number of branches).
Complaints were made to the TGWU Midlands Regional Committee, who carried out a "preliminary investigation" "investigation found that a "technical infringement of the rules" had taken place, and a fresh election was ordered. The "technical infringement" they were referring to was that the branch of-
• Aero UNION DEMOCRACY SUPPRESSED
FARI
NO COMPLAINT
Labour witch-hunt * rebuffed
Page 5 p.6.7 WITCH HUNTERS COVER UP BALLOT ficers had destroyed all the ballot papers to avoid scrutiny! Under the rules, the ballot papers must be kept for three months.
The Regional Committee ordered a
ballot of the whole electoral division, which they saw as meeting their responsibilite and avoiding the nothing was done to improve the system even in the re-run ballot, except that far more ballot boxes were
Tand the militants could not check them.
Although this was all public knowledge and it involved a huge car Plant often in the news, the media on-
In 1977 Alan Law, TGWU fulltime official in the Midlands Region dealing with the road haulage industry was caught red-handed casting the Socialist Viewpoint, No. 5, April 1985. Page 5
whole of the votes from the huge 5/35 branch, of which he was secretary, for candidates of his own choice. Law was asked to resign • by the Midland Regional Committee after an inquiry found him guilty. Although the Sunday Times took the matter up there was no media campaign and no calls to change the balloting procedures in the IGWU which make such things
The reality is that TGWU leaders have supported and defended the existing ballot procedures over many have always been open to the kind of campaign now being mounted. In fact there are no procedures in the TGWU which inhibit ballot-rigging in any significant way. In fact the procedures are so loose as to constitute an open invitation. In most cases unnumbered ballot papers are sent in bulk to branch officers who send back a return sheet with the results on it. The General Secretary's election is a slight exception to this, where card
ballot boxes which are returned to Region. there is nothing to ensure that it is the members who vote.
The right-wing have known this for years. So why all the campaigning now? It is true they are taking a lead from the Government, but the Tories were already active on the ballot issue in 1977 since they were preparing to make it a part of their election campaign.
There is an additional reason for matter of the right wing campaigning their attitude this time. Now it is a against the left. Today's moves, they were successful, could significantly alter the balance in the trade union movement to the advantage of the right wing. In Cowley in 1975 it was the left battling against ballotrigging conducted by the right. Alan Law got a bit more attention since he had been portrayed as a knew that he was a part of the ToWy Midlands establishment.
Today the TGWU leadership has acted decisively in Bristol where there was hard evidenc of corruption Since the Bristol branch votes could not alter the overall vote, they have cleaned up this obvious abuse.
T&G members must reject media interference into their union. They must campaign to return Ron Todd as General Secretary if there are fresh elections.
More than this, however, ballot procedures must be changed to prevent this kind of intervention in the future and provide a democratic election procedure within the union.
There have been attempts in the past to do this. The Cowley 5/293 branch campaigned for changes at the last IGWU Rules Revision Conference in 1980 (TGWU Rules Confernces are held every 6 years). The branch produced a leaflet advocating
Solidarity with