Old headlines

Strange cyber goings-on at MSF Conference
Scroll down to the bottom of this Guardian Article
Posted www.rogerlyons.com on 13th June 2001

Unions' merger delayed
Scroll down to the bottom of this Guardian Article
Posted www.rogerlyons.com on 13th June 2001

Uncensored!
Today restrictions preventing MSF delegates accessing this website and www.rogerlyons.com were removed. This was ordered by an unspecified senior official, having read the paper version of the website that was handed out this morning. The order was given at 10am but took some time to filter through: Around 11am a delegate who had successfully accessed the emergency mirror site was told she must not read what was on her screen. She promptly produced the paper edition of the same text and asked if she was allowed to read that.
Posted www.rogerlyons.com on 11th June 2001

Censored!
This website and it's sister site, the anti-corruption www.rogerlyons.com, were disabled on Sunday at MSF's Annual Conference. [Censored!]
Posted www.rogerlyons.com on 8th June 2001

Lyons moves against www.rogerlyons.com
As part of the deepening scandal surrounding the recent NEC elections, the General Secretary has sent a veiled letter (click here) to David Beaumont, the owner of the anti-corruption web site, www.rogerlyons.com, alleging breach of rule. In addition there is evidence that the web site belonging to the right wing candidate may have been registered, set up and hosted by MSF itself. If true this would be illegal as well as being an outrageous attempt to rig the election.

[Lyons moves against www.rogerlyons.com]
Posted www.rogerlyons.com on 8th June 2001

NEC - £1/4 million well spent?
The National Executive Committee costs members around a quarter of a million pounds a year to run (source: 1999 accounts). And people complain about the cost of Annual Conference! See who are the most expensive NEC members for the last 5 years. Guess who has claimed nearly £25,000? (It's Bob Braddock). Coincidentally these high cost claimants are thought to be the most supportive of General Secretary Roger Lyons, who spent up to £900,000 of members' money in payoffs to staff who blew the whistle on his own expense claims.

[NEC Expenses]
Posted www.rogerlyons.com on 8th June 2001

'Corrected' membership figures out - 17% down.
General Secretary Roger Lyons revealed today that the MSF membership is now 345,434, 17% less than was stated at the time of the merger ballot.

In addition the new membership system is clearly working, the number of members without addresses has gone up to 32,308, a 23% increase! 'It does fluctuate up and down' said Alex McKenna, but looking at the Annual returns the average deviation for the previous 4 years was 5%. Mysteriously the number of members allowed to vote has remained fairly static at 299,106, as had the number of retired members, meaning that the decline has been in members who had an address , were not retired, but could not vote. There is no such class of member.

Our only conclusion is that a large number of members at the time of the last Annual Return, Dec 1999, were ficticious.

General Secretary Lyons is awaiting a judgement from the Trade Union Certification Officer over a claim that he has failed to keep accurate membership records. An emergency motion to MSF's Annual Conference implying that the true figure may have been witheld from the membership to avoid jeopardising the merger ballot, was prevented from being discussed on Tuesday.

[Membership collapse]
Posted www.rogerlyons.com on 7th June 2001

30% Budget Cut threat to Health Sector
The future of the MSF Health Sector is in doubt after the merger with AEEU Engineering union goes through later this year, suggests this article from the respected Health Service Journal. The article contains further details about the rising MSF star Roger Spillers. Mr Spillers has been 'appointed' MSF head of health, despite no NHS background, after he backed multi-national drug companies in a campaign against ethical banks

[Budget cuts]
Posted www.rogerlyons.com on 29th May 2001

NEC election rigging scandal hits MSF
MSF officials have written and posted identical letters promoting the right wing candidate Leonie Cooper in the Women's NEC seat election, a breach of Rule 30. This rule clearly forbids circulation of written material in support of a candidate. In addition there may be fraud in the list of nominating branches, with what appear to be non existent Branches nominating Ms Cooper, and branches that nominated her more experienced rival, Jane Stewart, being omitted from her ballot paper statement. In a final breach, Ms Cooper has been allowed to include her dreadful website, www.leoniecooper.com in her election statement

[election scandal][copy of the letters]
Posted www.rogerlyons.com on 19th May 2001

Jackson tries to stay on, knives being sharpened for Roger Lyons
"In an unprecedented move, the union's executive intends to propose an emergency motion at the AEEU policy conference calling for a rule change that would enable Sir Ken to continue for an unspecified period as general secretary. Roger Lyons, general secretary of MSF, continues to face allegations over financial maladministration. 'There is a widely held view that Sir Ken will ensure the new union's integrity,' said one senior officer yesterday." Click below to read yesterday's Financial Times story

[FT article]
Posted www.rogerlyons.com on 18th May 2001

MSF to face full-scale Certification Officer's inquiry.
The Trade Union Certification Officer has called in MSF officials to answer allegations of financial irregularities in the union. Click below to read today's newspaper story

[Guardian article][Daily Mail article]
Posted www.rogerlyons.com on 15th May 2001

Emergency motions flood in
MSF Branches througout 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.

[full story]
Posted www.rogerlyons.com on 14th May 2001

MSF backs multi-national drug firms' boycott of ethical Banks that 'give in' to animal rights 'terrorists'
MSF today gave its whole hearted support to the Pharmaceutical Industry in its threat to boycott ethical financial institutions who 'give in' to animal rights 'extremists'.

[full story]
Posted www.rogerlyons.com on 8th May 2001

Israel: London Region express horror but National Executive Committee are content
"More than 200 Palestinian protesters have been killed and several thousand injured. Of these 30% were under the age of 16 and 60% were killed by shots to the head and upper body." (Total killed as at end of April 500)

[full story]
Posted www.rogerlyons.com on 17th April-2001

MSF-AEEU MERGER BALLOT - read what they don't want you to know. Voting papers are being sent out this week
There's been a completely one sided campaign, funded by members subs, to persuade you to vote for a merger. Here you can get the other side of the story. READ THIS BEFORE YOU VOTE!

[full story]
Posted www.rogerlyons.com on 10th March-2001

"I find MSF has breached Rule 14(c) and Rule 17(b) of its rule book." Trade Union Certification Officer yesterday.
"I declare that the Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union was in breach of Rule in that the union failed to allow Ms Michie's appeal against her suspension to be dealt with under rule." This was the decision of the Trade Union Certification Officer in a 31 page ruling issued yesterday.

Dr Sue Michie was suspended from all posts in the union the day after she won outright the postal ballot for NEC (National Executive Committee) member to represent London Region. The Certifiation Officer went on to order "That all suspensions in respect of Ms Michie be lifted from the date of this decision until such time as an Appeals Court has considered the question of these suspensions under Rule 17. Such an Appeals Court should be properly constituted under rule to hear Ms Michie's appeal within two months."

[full story]

NEW read the background to this story here
Posted www.rogerlyons.com on 15th March-2001

“Put my name(Roger Lyons)on every page” insists Roger Lyons MSF General Secretary
MSF General Secretary Roger Lyons, General Secretary of MSF, has reportedly demanded that his name, Roger Lyons, be on every page of the new MSF (General Secretary: Roger Lyons) web site "MSFweb".

[full story]
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 17-Feb-2001

Exclusive expose of the scandal that is 'Roger Lyons'
If you know little or nothing about the major and on-going financial scandal that has cost MSF members £900,000, read on... .

[full story]
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 15-Feb-2001

Corrupt Employer, Corrupt Union, or both together?
Shorts Belfast: Officer wins victory for the workforce, MSF suspends Officer. 1.3 BILLION Canadian dollars at stake. An industrial tribunal in Belfast ruled 10 days ago that employees have been underpaid for holidays since 1995, amounting to a bill estimated by the workers at £3 million pounds

[full story]
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 10-Mar-2001

The Marcia Solomon Story
Marcia was sacked by MSF for whistleblowing, read this fascinating and amusing account of how this courageous woman won her Employment Tribunal against MSF.

[full story]
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 10-Mar-2001