News

Emergency motions flood in

MSF Branches throughout the country have begun submitting emergency motions to MSF's June Annual Conference, mostly about internal witch hunts by the right wing executive of the union.

A year and a half ago Roger Lyons, General Secretary of MSF, suspended the 3 key officers of London Region and froze it's bank account, some £100,000. Lyons followed this up 3 months later by suspending the 3 new officers that the region had elected to replace the first 3!

In addition, the day after one of these officers, Dr Sue Michie, topped the poll of all members in London and Southern region for a seat on the National Executive Comittee (NEC), the same NEC extended the original suspension to cover any post. This prevented Dr Michie from taking her place on the NEC and disenfranchised two entire regions.

Since then Lyons and the NEC have made determined efforts to keep these officers from their elected posts, even to the point of ignoring a ruling from the Trade Union Certification Officer in Dr Michie's favour.

At last year's Annual Conference, four of the suspended officers, despite being elected delegates to the Conference, were prevented from entering the hall and were threatened with removal from the building. All the pass cards were re-printed at some expense the night before to prevent them coming in as visitors. The officers were Sue Millman, elected to Conference Standing Orders Committee, Hugh MacGrillen, Secretary of London Region, Sarah McDonald, replacement Secretary of London Region, and David Beaumont, Treasurer of London Region and author of the anti-corruption website www.rogerlyons.com .

Numerous emergency motions had been submitted on behalf of these officers. After over an hour of heated debate, Conference re-established its authority as the supreme governing body of the union and forced the NEC to allow the officers in as visitors. Of the original 6, 4 officers remain suspended and one has been banned. London Region's £100,000 is still frozen. You can read the background to the suspensions here.

Branches can submit an unlimited number of emergency motions to Annual Conference. This year Branches have begun submitting new Emergency motions condemning the witch hunt:

1. "This conference notes with deep concern that Sue Michie has been suspended from her NEC seat for one year, without disciplinary proceedings being concluded, despite her frequent requests for a meeting to be held. We further note that she has been informed in a letter dated 4th May that the first date offered for the next meeting is in July, 9 months after the last one was cancelled by the secretary to the disciplinary committee.

In view of these unacceptable circumstances, the conference decides that Sue Michie should be reinstated to her NEC seat forthwith"

2. "This Annual Conference, noting the action taken by the Certification Office in response to the allegations of financial irregularities in the union, believes that the standing and reputation of MSF have been seriously demaged by the scandal. Conference further believes that a failure by the NEC to properly scrutinise the activities of the General Secretary and other employees is a major factor contributing to the scandal. Conference has no confidence in the ability of the NEC to conduct the affairs of the union in the interests of the members."

Points: 1) any motion which directly criticises Lyons is virtually certain to be ruled out of order but a no confidence motion in the NEC is in order provided the other emergency criteria are met; 2) Branches are proposing that their delegate is given final authority to submit the motion in the light of what the Certification Officer does on 5 June.

3. "Disciplinary Proceedings. This Annual Conference notes that the NEC has decided to appeal an order by the Certification Officer made in March 2001 to lift the suspension from office of Ms. Susan Michie, former London Regional Council President and current London NEC member, pending the hearing of her appeal against suspension which she submitted well over a year ago.

Conference further notes that no conclusion has been reached by June 2001 to investigatory/disciplinary/appeal proceedings initiated against London members in November 1999 and April 2000 despite a decision by the NEC in November 1999 to conclude matters quickly.

Conference believes that there has been an exceptional failure by the NEC to carry out its duties properly to the detriment of the members concerned. Conference instructs the NEC to terminate all outstanding proceedings against the members concerned other than appeals under rule 17 and to quash any sentences issued in connection with these proceedings."

4. "Misgovernment in MSF. This Annual Conference believes that complaints and actions brought by MSF members and employees against the union cumulatively demonstrate a consistent and undeniable pattern of misconduct by the NEC which has brought the union into disrepute. Conference has no confidence in the ability of the NEC to conduct the affairs of the union in the interests of the members. "

The Conference Standing Orders Committee (SOC) answer only to Conference, nonetheless in previous years the NEC have exerted strong pressure on them to accept or reject motions. The following conditions are interpreted stringently by the SOC. Emergency motions must be accepted if all the following apply:

(a) They are delivered to the secretary of the SOC by 10 am on the first day of Conference.

(b) Each motion is accompanied by a statement in writing signed by the chair and secretary of the sponsoring branch which gives the grounds for emergency and the details of the meeting at which the motion was adopted - the meeting type (ordinary, extraordinary), and date.

(c) Emergency motions must be concerned with an issue which has arisen since the closing date for the submission of ordinary motions, which could not have been dealt with by an amendment to an ordinary motion and which could not be considered after Conference. In the case of internal union issues it needs to be proved that 'normal union channels have failed to operate on the matter'. A written explanation proving (not just asserting) this MUST accompany the motion. It is not necessary to prove that all union procedures have been exhausted although SOCs have sometimes tried to claim this. An example of proof is the one and a half year delay by union channels in resolving the issue, plus the ruling of the independent Trade Union certification Officer who said:

"The right of appeal against suspension is set out in Rule 14 c) and Rule 17 and neither of these rights have been permitted. The decision of the NEC to defer the appeal was in effect a decision not to allow the appeal to proceed. I therefore find against the union in that, by postponing Ms Michie's appeal until all relevance of that appeal had been lost, the union effectively denied her the right of appeal. The rule book states that an appeal shall normally be heard within two months. By denying that appeal the suspension can no longer be regarded as being legitimately within rule.It is for these reasons I find MSF has breached Rule 14(c) and Rule 17(b) of its rule book."

The NEC will argue that the appeal has now been heard so they have thereby corrected this failure. This is Catch-22, by doing so they are admitting that the normal union channels did fail to operate. In addition David Beaumont's appeal has not been heard and the already held appeals were not in accordance with rule 17(b).

(d) In giving grounds for the emergency, Branches must not only state that the ruling on further investigation was too late for submission of normal motions, but also that this matter must be dealt with at this conference (i.e. why it can't wait for submission by normal process next year). For example with emergency motion 1 above, Branches' accompanying letters have been stating:

"It was only known that the date for the rescheduled disciplinary hearing was to be in July after the closing date for submission of motions and amendments. The late re-scheduling of this meeting will disenfranchise an elected member of the NEC from participating in the June 2001 Conference and it is, therefore, a matter for the consideration of the June 2001 Conference. On these grounds, this motion is submitted on the basis of emergency. "

(e) Branches are advised to ensure that each motion is accompanied by an agenda from the branch meeting that considered it (although arguably it does not have to be an agenda item), details of the quorum at that branch, and that each motion is signed by Branch Secretary and Chair.

All this will at least ensure that motions cannot be ruled as incorrectly submitted and therefore they must be printed for Conference to see.

The left in MSF will be holding a joint AEEU-MSF Left fringe meeting at the conference on Sunday evening, 10th June 2001.

Follow this link to the London Region Defence Campaign set up to defend the suspended officers.
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 14th May 2001