Unison claims mandate for strike with 1 out of 5 members voting yes
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
I admit that I am no mathematical genius but 1 out of 5 equals 20% and that is NO majority; not by a long shot.
While there may have been a majority of yes votes amongst the ballot papers returned the fact that about 70% of Unison's membership did not even bother to vote should tell the union and its leadership a thing or two. Namely that there is NO interest from the sides of members in a strike and thus NO mandate for any such action.
The message from the members is a loud and clear one that they – the majority of them – do not want a strike. Only Dave Prentis and his cronies in Unison and other public sector unions want one.
Unison's idea of democracy seems a rather strange one and not just in relation to this particular ballot.
The same is the case with a majority, from my questioning, of members not wishing their dues to prop up the British Labour Party.
And let's not even mention the fixed leadership elections even with people already “elected” to positions on the ballot papers without members given a say as to yeah or nay.
All women, all “Gay”, all Black, shortlists are NOT democracy and to appoint people to the board, whether national or regional, simply because of gender, sexual orientation, race or creed is NOT democratic. It is Stalinist fascism.
Time for Unison (and other unions) to rethink its ideas.
© 2011
