AFTER OVER 90% of the membership of Unison, the largest public service trades union, voted in line with their leadership’s recommendations – voting ‘Yes’ to accept the government’s new pensions deal – on the 24th August, an email leaked to anarchist website Libcom showed off the union leaders’ darker side. While the deal accepted was a better version than what the Con-Dems first offered before the strikes of November 30th, the agreement now still obliges the majority of workers to work longer, pay more contributions and earn less. In the run-up to the ballot, not only did the leadership campaign hard for a ‘Yes’ against the interests of their members, but when, despite bullying, some rebel branches still rejected the deal, the leaders hypocritically cited ‘Code of Good Branch Practice 4.4’ (a rule actually brought in to stop individual branches campaigning AGAINST industrial action when it had already been democratically voted in), and spied to coerce workers to toe the line: implying the threat of disciplinary action purely against those who would fight to defend themselves.
Whilst we recognise that unions are one of the most viable ways for people to organise to improve their lot, particularly in the face of current Tory-inspired economic attacks, we here at the Mutineer once again find ourselves disappointed by the actions of the bureaucrats at the top of certain unions, who seem to take every opportunity to side with the bosses and stifle meaningful resistance. Despite frequent tough talk and posturing, Unison head honcho Dave Prentis and friends have made a long-running habit of expelling and demonising members who really want to take the fight to the bosses. We can only hope that the Unison rank and file take a leaf out of his book and kick out the bigwigs who always seem to side with the boss at the first opportunity.
http://libcom.org/blog/unison-officials-spy-their-own-activists-ensure-yes-vote-pensions-25082012
