Our
Ref: RL/SD/aeeu-26
Your Ref:
05 April 2002
Sir Ken Jackson
General Secretary
Amicus, AEEU Section
Hayes Court
West Common Road
Hayes, Bromley
Kent BR2 7AU
On 3rd April we took
a call from a “Guardian” journalist (David Hencke) who sought an MSF response
to statements made by the AEEU about MSF, its finances and its pension scheme.
We arranged for Paul Talbot to respond, as Secretary to the General Purposes
and Finance Committee. However, before responding Paul tried to contact you and
Charlie McKenzie on your mobiles, but without success. Paul did contact John
Lloyd who said he had no knowledge of the matter.
Hencke had been extensively
briefed by the AEEU about the unsubstantiated views you outlined about the
future financial position of MSF in 2003/2004 which you alone raised at the
joint management team meetings of 7th March and 21st
March. Likewise with your views on the future of the MSF Pension Scheme which
you raised on 7th March, 21st March and at the Joint
Executive meeting on 9th March at Millbank.
At the joint management team
meetings on 7th March, 21st March and the JEC on 9th
March, we explained to you that we were unaware of any problem with our Pension
Scheme, which remained in surplus, and met the actuarial and regulatory
requirements for all such schemes. We explained that our financial out-turn for
2001 would show an operating surplus of over £1.5m, and a net surplus of over
£1m. I pointed out in response to your apparent concerns that this meant that
pro rata the MSF surplus for 2001 was larger that that of the AEEU (excluding
investment income). We emphasised at the JEC that MSF confidently expected to
be debt-free by the end of 2002.
It was agreed by the JEC that
the Joint General Secretaries and their Financial Advisors should meet before
the next JEC to consider financial strategy over the next three years. This we
confirmed at our joint management team meeting on 21st March.
The above information was
provided in a most selective manner to Hencke, who is well-known as deeply
hostile to us.
Our Co-chairman, John Gardner is
most concerned, as he chaired the last JEC, and it appears that the frank
exchanges and financial detail provided to the meeting were selectively leaked
to Hencke by the AEEU in complete contravention of any concept of trust and
confidence, let alone the formation of a new, unified union.
The inaccurate comments about
MSF’s finances and its Pension Scheme appear to be part of a pattern. You will
recall that you told your Executive last year that it would cost the AEEU more
than £11m to merge with MSF. I subsequently asked you to justify this figure,
but you were unable to. Nonetheless references continued to be made to this figure
around the union.
Let me make it clear. Both the
AEEU and MSF are proud of their histories, their successes, their traditions
and their cultures. For the merger to succeed it is incumbent on both sections
to show mutual respect to each other. The briefing of Hencke by the AEEU does
the opposite. It seems part of an operation to damage the reputation of MSF in
the public arena. Instead of us making progress on the merger and integration,
your briefing and unjustified comments on the MSF Pension Scheme do the
contrary and also waste management time, as well as causing unnecessary
concerns to employees.
In our view the principles on
which the new union project is based remain intact. The vision of the new union
for the new century is as relevant industrially and politically as ever.
However, for the vision to be implemented in practice we need to re-establish
the essential trust and confidence which has been shattered by the AEEU
briefing of Hencke.
We sincerely hope this can be
done by the Joint Executive, and in the meantime see no purpose in any other
joint meetings at any level. Such meetings are therefore suspended until the
Joint Executive has a full opportunity to discuss this matter, as well as the
ten issues raised in my letter to you of 27 March 2002.
Roger Lyons
Amicus, MSF Section