Unison bans branch secretary over ‘offensive’ wise monkeys leaflet
TSA staff stage mass union walkout over suspension
Large numbers of staff at the Tenant Services Authority have walked out of their trade union in protest at the suspension of one of its representatives.
The move, prompted after Unison banned its TSA branch secretary from office for three years, has forced the regulator to change the way it consults with staff.
Suzanne Muna, Unison branch secretary for the TSA, was banned in March after an internal disciplinary procedure found her guilty of breaking union rules. Shortly after her suspension, Unison officials also raided the TSA branch office and removed Unison-branded material.
The dispute emerged after the TSA reported that overall union membership at the regulator had dropped from 54 per cent of its 231-staff at the start of 2010 to just 28 per cent in April. The TSA said Unison membership fell from around 70 to just over 30 in the same period.
Members of the TSA’s board were told last week that this drop in membership has caused a gap in staff consultation procedures.
The dispute stretches back to 2007, when Ms Muna and three other Unison representatives distributed a leaflet complaining about the union’s standing orders committee at its National Delegates Conference. The leaflet contained a cartoon of the famous Japanese maxim involving three wise monkeys who ‘see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil’. The leaflet claimed the committee had rejected more than a third of the motions submitted to it.
Clytus Williams, chair of the standing orders committee, complained that the leaflet had racist connotations because he is a black man. Bev Miller, chair of the national black members committee, said the leaflet was an unfunny joke which ‘belongs in the past with Bernard Manning’. She said black members had asked how anyone could consider the cartoon acceptable.
Ms Muna and the other representatives denied any racist intentions and also apologised for any offence they had caused. But they were found guilty by an internal investigation of breaking Unison rules around dignity and respect for members and democratic standards.
After a number of appeals, the case went to an industrial tribunal. The tribunal upheld Unison’s original decision and on 3 March 2010, Ms Muna was banned from office.
A report presented to the TSA’s board meeting last week said it intended to maintain its current recognition agreements with Unison and Unite.
But it added that it is now considering setting up a staff consultative forum through which it can discuss issues such as pay structures with staff below senior management level.
Ms Muna declined to comment on her suspension. Unison also declined to comment.
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Readers' comments (5)
Gerald Wiley | 07/05/2010 4:54 pm
I can not tell you how dissapointed I am as a black man that Unison have disgracefully made this an issue of race. I encounter genuine predjudice every day, so when a Union seeks to stifle dissent by playign the race card - it makes my blood boil. This is an issue about accountability - nothign else. Shame on you Unison
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Janey G | 12/05/2010 11:44 am
I discussed this leaflet with all the black members in my shop and not one of them found it offensive. It's clear this was just used by the union's heirarchy to get rid of someone they didn't want involved - and look what it's done to union density in the TSA.
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| 12/05/2010 12:58 pm
Such is the pernicious nature of this Orwellian Newspeak that the extremist leftists within the race relations industry have been allowed to impose on the nation during the dark days of NuLab rule. The three wise monkeys are "racist"? Against who precisely? Another great reason for the Tories to derecognise the nest of NuLab funding Trots that are known as Unison...
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| 14/05/2010 0:08 am
I take it that this "Leon John" is one of the Unison Sparts responsible for this outbreak of PC lunacy. Your views appear to be in the minority. But I guess you're used to that aren't you? Waste of DNA.
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Anonymous | 04/06/2010 12:52 pm
"extremist leftists within the race relations industry have been allowed to impose on the nation during the dark days of NuLab rule"
People who talk like that are usually the kind of people who talk about 'that nice Mr Enoch Powell". The tragedy here is unfortunately that the people doing the suspending are not "extremist leftists within the race relations industry" but career centre-rightists in the Union industry using it to silence their critics.
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