13 February 2002
The Guardian
119 Farringdon Road
London EC1R 3ER
(by e-mail)
Dear Sir,
With reference to The Guardian Diary (Friday, 1st February 2002) I wish to correct some points concerning the suspended MSF London Region Officers.
· David Beaumont, (the former London Region Treasurer) was not involved as one the individual MSF members who attempted to take legal action against the Labour Party to try and get them to reverse their decision not to allow MSF London Region to participate in the selection of the mayoral candidate for the Labour Party (the individuals were: Sue Michie, Hugh MacGrillen, Jim Mortimer, Pat Mortimer, Glen Sutherland and myself).
·
Sue Michie has been banned for six years from taking
office on the Amicus MSF Section NEC not
the Labour Party NEC.
·
The MSF merged with the AEEU on 1st January
2002 and is now the MSF Section of Amicus.
What is even more bizarre than your diarist, Matthew Norman comments is that MSF London Region has no direct control over its political fund, for which it affiliates to the London Labour Party and for which the region's members would have been allowed a vote. At the time of this fiasco we had asked for the affiliation fees to be paid later than re-affiliation date (this had been normal practice over the years). However, whilst the fee was accepted by the Labour Party many months before their decision on a cut-off date the Region was still not allowed a vote.
Moreover, David Beaumont as Treasurer had no involvement in this matter.
Sue Michie's six-year ban from office is absolutely outrageous. Her crime when President of the London Region was to chair a meeting of the Regional Council whose members took the decision to pursue the Labour Party to attempt to get our vote back.
The NEC's treatment of Hugh MacGrillen (the former Secretary) is beyond belief. In holding the charges against him in abeyance in case he recovers from inoperable lung cancer has only added to the stress during his illness. As a member of my branch said "if one of our members was treated by the Management like this the union would be the first to condemn their action."
Cont'd/…2
Throughout this two year period, since the NEC has been carrying out what can only be called a witch-hunt against its former officers and the Region. The London Region has had the control of its ordinary funds taken from it by the NEC and it appears that the members of the Regional Council may never have these funds returned to their control.
This contrasts starkly with the NEC's treatment of the former full-time official who was in charge of the union's finances and who was found by the Certification Officer to have defrauded the union by making false travel expense statements amounting to thousands of pounds. This individual must have colluded with senior lay members to get the cheques signed, unless he was allowed to sign his own cheques! However, the NEC have drawn a line over this episode and do not appear to be doing anything about recovering the loss of funds or pursuing any investigation into this matter which is far more serious than anything that may have happened in the London Region two years ago.
Amicus, is the so-called friendly
union. However, the MSF NEC members and the General Secretary who have been
responsible for the action against the London Region and its former officers can
hardly be described as members friends. They should be thoroughly ashamed of
themselves, as it is they that have brought the union into disrepute by their
actions.
Yours faithfully,
Ian Rez
(In a personal capacity)
Vice-President, London Region, Amicus MSF Section