Stacking the Deck

A good friend of mine has lodged a complaint about Unison's membership ballot to decide who will become the the union's next general secretary.

The present boss is Dave Prentis who has been in post for the past 15 years, having acquired the top job in 2000 after a previous stint as Unison's deputy general secretary.

So Dave is the establishment candidate, the bookies favourite and part of the power networks that runs the union across the UK. 

But back to my friend's complaint to the Electoral Reform Society which alleges that Prentis supporters are stacking the deck in his favour by directly emailing potential voters urging them to 'Vote 4 Dave'.

On Day 1 of the ballot, the complainer received an 'all members' email containing a flattering video of Dave, followed on Day 2 by a further email to a specific group of union members in London (again featuring Dave) and on Day 3 a third unsolicited email targeted at Unison members in the careers service extolling the virtues of a Mr D. Prentis.

The laugh being that the complainer has never had any involvement or dealings with the careers service, directly or indirectly.

So with the ballot underway the complainer is calling upon the Electoral Reform Society to make the same Unison resources available to other candidates in the election.

Let's see what happens.