Union Bullies (15/02/15)

I came across this article in The Times which tells the tale of a GMB activist who was victimised by his now trade union, the GMB.

Now if I had been Ed Miliband I would have just spoken to Keith Henderson and said that I would be crossing his picket line at the House of Commons, because MPs have their own jobs to do and coming out in 'solidarity' with striking public sector workers was both silly and a complete a non-starter.

But according to The Times, some sneaky person in Ed Miliband's office (presumably with the Labour leader's knowledge) phoned the GMB general secretary, Paul Kenny, who in turn  phoned Keith Henderson to give him a 'bollicking' for embarrassing the Labour Party. 

Now strange as it seems I had a similar experience many years ago, soon after the 1997 general election when Labour was in power in Scotland prior to the creation of the Scottish Parliament in 1999.  

I responded publicly to an article by Callum McDonald at the time, if I remember correctly, Labour's local government minister, who had made a controversial call for councils in Scotland to put more of their services out to competitive tendering; a policy that Unison opposed because it often led to a 'dutch auction' over workers' pay and conditions of service.

Now I said what I had to say in the same robust terms as the Labour minister and I criticised him for promoting a policy which had never been discussed never mind agreed with the trade unions in Scotland.  

Shortly thereafter my Unison superiors received a letter from the Government Minister complaining about my behaviour, which was solicited by the way, even though I was standing up for the union's policy and the interests of its members. 

I knew the letter was solicited, by the way, because it was faxed to my own Edinburgh office in error and the covering note gave the game away about cosy conversations taking place behind my back.

The complaint was essentially the same about 'embarrassing' the Labour Party although as Unison's Head of Local Government in Scotland I was in a better position than Keith Henderson to stand up for myself and give the complaint the short shrift.

But it taught me a big lesson, that too many people in the trade union movement put the interests of the Party above those of their own members which is why I resigned from Scottish Labour in 1999.         

So much for solidarity: union picked on member for being too left wing

Keith Henderson won a trade union discrimination case - Photo David Bebber

By Will Humphries - The Times

Trade unions are not usually known for their aversion to socialism — but that can change when one of their number upsets the leader of the Labour party.

Ed Miliband triggered a legal battle in which the GMB union was found guilty of discriminating against and harassing one of its workers for his “left-wing democratic socialist” beliefs, it has been claimed.

The landmark decision means that “left-wing democratic socialism” will now be recognised as a belief under equality law and put on a par with Christianity and other protected world faiths.

The bizarre chain of events began on November 30, 2011, when Keith Henderson, 29, a GMB worker, led a picket line outside parliament on the day of prime minister’s questions. He wrote an article that appeared in two national newspapers asking Labour MPs not to cross the picket line and to stand in solidarity with union members in their action against public sector pension cuts.

His comradely call to arms “embarrassed” Mr Miliband after the Labour leader was mocked by David Cameron in their weekly joust in the Commons. Mr Miliband’s office phoned Paul Kenny, the GMB general secretary, to convey the Labour leader’s “displeasure”.

Mr Henderson told an employment tribunal that he received a phone call from Mr Kenny soon after: “He phoned me and shouted at me, saying that the article I had written about the picket line was ‘too left-wing’. Ed Miliband’s office phoned Paul Kenny because David Cameron had asked Ed in PMQs whether he had to get permission from the GMB to come into work that morning. When he asked that question every genuine GMB member would have felt a glow of pride. Ed Miliband thought it was embarrassing for the Labour party.

“That was the start of the discrimination I received from the union,” he claimed.

Mr Henderson was sacked from the union after a long-running dispute with his superiors. The report that led to his dismissal was compiled by Warren Kenny, son of the GMB chief and a senior organiser at the union.

Mr Henderson lost his claim for unfair dismissal and unjustified discipline by the union. However, the tribunal judge did find that he had been discriminated against because of his left-wing beliefs. Judge Nigel Mahoney found that “left-wing democratic socialism is a philosophical belief for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010”.

The tribunal was told that left-wing democratic socialists believe in “an economic system characterised by social ownership of the means of production and co-operative management of the economy”.

The GMB, which has 650,000 members and donates around £150,000 to the Labour party each year, is appealing against the discrimination ruling today at a hearing in central London.

Mr Henderson, now a self-employed market trader in Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, said: “Discriminating against someone for being a socialist surely goes against every founding principle of the trade union movement.”

The Labour MP John McDonnell said that it was the first instance he knew of a trade union discriminating against someone for believing in left-wing democratic socialism.

Protected beliefs

Religion and belief, one of nine protected characteristics under the Equality Act, has been broadly interpreted. Apart from the major religions, also protected are:

•“Green views”: courts have included climate change beliefs and given environmentalism the same weight in law as a religious and philosophical belief. That can mean ecologists should not have to take flights for business meetings, nor vegans have to clean out office fridges with meat or dairy products.

•“Public service”: in 2014 an employee who became mayor of Liverpool won a ruling that belief in and commitment to public service was protected.

•Druids and pagans: guidance for employers in 2010 says that employees with these sincerely held beliefs should have their views respected and be protected.

• Also protected: atheism, humanism, free-market capitalism.

Not (yet) protected: belief in Jedi knights.