Unison urges TSA members to return
Unison has written a begging letter to 41 Tenant Services Authority staff who walked out of the union after it banned their branch secretary.
The letter, seen by Inside Housing, urged the members to reconsider their decision. It said that the TSA plans to review its current redundancy policy and withdraw team bonus payments of £1,500 as part of efficiency savings demanded by central government.
The TSA staff walked out of the union in protest after its decision to ban Suzanne Muna, the TSA branch secretary, from office.
Ms Muna was found guilty in March of breaking union rules by distributing a leaflet which some members considered racially offensive.
The leaflet criticised the union’s standing orders committee. Part of this criticism contained a cartoon of the famous three wise monkeys who ‘see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil’.
Some Unison members said the monkeys had a racist connotation as the chair of the committee, Clytus Williams, is a black man. The charge and subsequent axing of Ms Muna was seen as so ridiculous by the 41 TSA Unison members that they left the union.
In its letter, the union indicated that those who left might come to regret the decision. It stated: ‘[The] TSA now faces an uncertain future and while your recent resignation from Unison has been actioned, I urge you to reconsider your decision and prepare to defend your workplace rights against future cuts by rejoining Unison.’
A TSA spokesperson confirmed it intended to bring its redundancy package closer in line with other similar organisations, but said changes would not come into effect before April 2011. She added: ‘We have indicated to staff that we intend to withdraw the annual team bonus that has been a feature of our pay policy in recent years.’
The union members have also written to Dave Prentis, the general secretary of Unison, demanding that Ms Muna be reinstated. A letter, signed by all 41 members, praised Ms Muna for her work representing staff. It said: ‘As the TSA starts telegraphing its desire to downgrade terms and conditions, ordinary members know we will need Suzanne in her full capacity as branch secretary more than ever.’
Linda Perks, regional secretary for Unison, said the union was unable to reverse Ms Muna’s ban as this had been upheld by a tribunal. She said: ‘We don’t see this as a begging letter. The TSA has a recognition agreement with Unison and with Unite and that is the mechanism through which consultation and negotiation takes place.’
Have your say
You must sign in to make a comment
Readers' comments (8)
gordon thompson | 04/06/2010 10:00 am
Having ben represented by Unison in a former role I can honestly say there is no value in being a member. They will not be able to oprotect their members so the staff may as well save the union fees. I have to say that the reasons for banning the lady which led to the walkout seem rather ludicrous - unless there is other context which is not reflected in the article.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 04/06/2010 10:29 am
I was a member of the TSA branch, and know that it was well run by committed, elected representatives. Several letters to Dave Prentis all went unanswered. Suddenly, after we had resigned, we were bombarded with letters from the paid officers who had ignored us previously.
The committee that Clytus belonged to had around 20 people on it. To say that the three wise monkeys cartoon (which was to highlight that the committee was not listening to the branches) was a racial slur on one committee member was ridiculous. There was another agenda that Unison was pursuing all along - that of silencing any internal criticism.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 04/06/2010 10:34 am
It is always ease to jump on the race bandwagon because some buffoon has decided something they don't like is discriminatory therefore its racists. Unite needs to look at what had happened in this case and what the real agenda is behind this suspension despite the tribunal findings.
The TSA will not survive in its present form and it should not either. Creating jobs for the empire building is a folly. Unfortunately, it is the innocent that suffer through job losses. If it can shed £2.7m of its budget, the question remain how are you able to do this considering you have hardly started?
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 04/06/2010 12:28 pm
One only needs to look at the mass UNISON exodus from the neighbouring HCA to see how absolutely useless UNISON have been over this issue, and over the reorganisation of the latter organisation. Almost all former UNISON members there are now members of PCS, after UNISON did absolutely nothing about threatened redundancies, new (and worse) contract terms and conditions, and staff victimisation. You reap what you sow, Geoff Martin and co, I guess selling small circulation 'socialist' newspapers for minute Trotskyist groupscules are a better use of your time than actually defending members at work.
Ironically, Ms Muna is a member of the Socialist Party, another minute Trotskyist groupscule, but is professional enough to put that to one side when dealing with staffing issues. The so-called 'racist leaflet' was illustrated by 3 monkeys "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" depicting the intrasigence of a particular organisation which no-one in their right mind would deem to be racist even in their wildest dreams. This is a witchhunt by UNISON's National Executive against the SP, pure and simple. Shame on UNISON, and shame on anyone who backs their ridiculous stance.
And before anyone has a pop about partiality, I also am a UNISON member, an immigrant, and a Labour Party supporter.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 04/06/2010 2:38 pm
Im an ex Unison member I know well how badly the paid officers perform. Dave Prentis is too busy pandering to new labour and adopting their Thathcherite/Stalinist principles to take time to deal with letters from members. The national executive are completly paranoid about criticism. Lets be clear, Ms Muna was suspended to shut her up. Unison are a disgrace.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 04/06/2010 4:14 pm
I previously worked at the TSA and this article is slightly wrong in that staff wrote to Dave Prentis a long time before Ms Muna was banned pointing out what an asset she was to staff and their relations with the management. The letter was never once responded to or mentioned, members were ignored at every turn by Dave Prentis and other Unison officials who stonewalled members completely.
Unison has behaved little better than a greedy insurance company - they want your subs but you get nothing in return. When you need them they attempt to cosy up to management and head you off from doing anything that a normal trade union would encourage.
At the local branch level it was well organised and highly democratic thanks to Ms Muna, the other reps and their committed help to people but Unisons corporate shoddy behaviour has ruined this.
In the HCA many people also left Unison in droves reacting to their incompetent and obtuse approach.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 04/06/2010 4:40 pm
Unison are a bunch of fascists. How they will rebuild their discouragable reputation after this, if it’s possible, is an absolute wonder. The whole ridiculous nature of this case is absolutely pathetic- even the McCarthy witch hunts of the 60s were better constructed. The very fact that Suzanne Muna is a Socialist, and also, incidentally, from an Iraqi background, just collapses their whole ruse of 'intentional racism' altogether. In fact, they're probably the more prejudiced if they can't even recognize a widely-used Eastern symbol. But Unison still carries on its facade, as if it’s completely rational!
Obviously, they're so far up their Thatcherite, Himmler-esque backsides that they can't tell North from South.
First they came for the Socialists, eh.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Wyllieboy | 07/06/2010 1:26 pm
My own experience as a member of Unison was that the membership was always there when they needed us. When I needed them my branch secretary was a complete waste of space. Much like the labour party, Unison has been taken over by self serving full timers who have never held any position other than that of a paid union official. The real problem here is not with the union but with the membership, if we respond passively to the dictates and whimsies of the bone idle thickos who fill the ranks of the full timers then we only have ourselves to blame. Well done to the TSA staff that have voted with their feet and joined a union that properly represents their views.
Now let us look at the situation in Greenwich where similarly high handed and imperious dictates have been handed down from Unisons very own “Dear Leader” to remove a democratically elected branch secretary in favour of their own form of direct rule as he would not follow the party line. Remind me again why members pay their subs? Once Unison was the biggest union, now it is the biggest joke. How long must the membership wait for a vote of no confidence to be put to the membership at the annual conference?
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment