Breaking News: Press release Press release Press
release: Immediate
UNITE: THERE WILL BE
A FIGHT!
Shock for Unite Trade
Union establishment as Jerry Hicks challenges Len McCluskey in election for
General Secretary.
It
has been confirmed by the Electoral Reform Service [ERS] that rank and file
Unite member Jerry Hicks has secured more than the 50 required nominations to
be the only other candidate in the election for Unite General Secretary,
challenging Len McCluskey for the position.
Jerry
Hicks said “This election should never have been called when McCluskey
still had 3 years to go. Our members and their families face massive attacks
and Unite’s time, energy and resources should be used to fight the Con Dem cuts
and defend our members’ jobs, pensions, terms and conditions.”
Mr
McCluskey announced the snap election, dragging it forward 3 years and pushing
it through at break neck speed on the false premise of avoiding a clash with
the 2015 General Election.
Many
in Unite thought that the election would never actually happen, but the
nomination ‘success’ of Jerry Hicks against all the odds and many manoeuvres,
means that all of Unite’s 1.5 million members will be balloted from March 18th
to April 14th and it’s they who will choose who is to be their next General
Secretary
Jerry
Hicks was quick to pay tribute to all those members and branches who have
nominated him, pointing out that had it not been for them Mr McCluskey
would have been unopposed, extending his time in office to 2018 when he becomes
67 whilst denying members a vote.
Now
that the election is actually going to happen the contrast between the two
candidates will become evident and already there are clear differences:
Jerry
Hicks has promised to take just an average workers wage while McCluskey draws a
pay package of £100,000
Jerry
Hicks says members should tell the union who they want to represent them by
electing their officials. Mr McCluskey backs to the hilt the current system of
appointing officials
Mr
McCluskey talks about reclaiming Labour but with no evidence of any change. He
has promised ‘no blank cheques’ [2010] yet has lavished over £6m on Labour with
pitiful returns. Jerry Hicks has a far less complicated approach - of payment
by results, funding Labour only when they do the right thing. And he says that
McCluskey made the wrong decision when backing Ed Miliband for Labour leader,
he should have, as Jerry Hicks did, backed John McDonnell
Jerry
Hicks said “McCluskey makes tub thumping speeches but fails to turn the
rhetoric into reality as with the failure to back co-ordinated public sector
strike action last March. Now McCluskey chooses to deliver a fiery speech in a
university theatre for the Ralph Miliband lecture, then heads off to Dundee for
some ‘self promoting’ electioneering. I would have made that speech in the car
park of Honda at Swindon where 800 job losses were announced the same week. I
would have made that speech at Rolls Royce’s Ansty factory in Coventry, where
half the workforce faces the sack.”
Jerry
Hicks argues that in the case of branch re-organisation, the development of
Community branches is a good thing but has been painfully slow. The orientation
to workplace branches is progressive as that is where industrial power lies,
but is chaotic and far too dictatorial. And that tens of thousands of retired
members feel disconnected. Unite is a union not a business yet it looks much
like a big company, with jobs for life and a layer of officials more the
equivalent of directors who simply don’t live the same lives as the members.
Our union gets its money from the pockets of the members and we deserve more,
much more.
Ends:
Notes to
Editor:
Jerry Hicks was unlawfully sacked by
Rolls Royce in 2005. He is on the now infamous illegal blacklist of workers and
is among 100 other in a class action High Court case represented by Guney Clark & Ryan Solicitors.
Unite is the biggest union in the UK
with 1.5 million members.
Unite is currently holding an election
for its General Secretary, in which there are only two candidates, Jerry Hicks
and Len McCluskey.
Jerry Hicks was runner up in Unites
General Secretary election of 2010 beating two Assistant General Secretaries
and securing 52,527 votes.
