Baylissgate Day 107 - Bayliss Removed as Head of Finance!
At last we can report that General Secretary Simpson has made one decent move in the seedy Baylissgate affair. He has removed Les Bayliss as Head of Finance of the union. Of course this action had to carefully wrapped for Christmas, it was enclosed between a note listing Bayliss's big new responsibilities and another note reminding staff that the man "has been fully exonerated" (Judge for yourself).

We learn from the General Secretary's newsletter that Bayliss is now responsible for the merger (actually this is just old news, Simpson gave him that responsibility back in July). He is also responsible for 'development of amicus within construction', whatever that means, and involved in the 2012 Olympics, which we presume involves sitting on a QUANGO helping to allocate masses of government funds to needy construction companies.

Simpson is obviously getting touchy about leaks from staff, this newsletter is stamped "for amicus staff only and should not be passed externally". Not something members or indeed the National Executive should know about our union then.
[amicustheunion] News from the General Secretary
[amicus.cc] Baylissgate - start here
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 20th December 2005

Amicus Member Wins Libel Payout
Amicus member (and amicus.cc editor) David Beaumont has just won Ł7,000 in damages from 'Reed Business Information', publishers of 'Personnel Today' magazine. They also settled David's legal costs of around Ł11,000 with his solicitors, Carter Ruck. The publishers finally conceded the case more than a year after the defamation. Had it gone to court, it is thought the magazine may have faced total costs of around Ł1/4 million, plus damages in the range of Ł5,000 to Ł25,000. The magazine admitted the libel and had already published an apology.

The defamation occurred because Personnel Today printed an account of Mr Beaumont's Employment Appeal Tribunal case against the union and stated, completely without foundation, that he had been expelled "because of his BNP membership". In fact the only political party David has ever been a member of is the Labour Party and he is wholly opposed to the BNP and its racist policies. The actual reason for his expulsion (by the then General Secretary Roger Lyons) was his academically praised anti-corruption website www.rogerlyons.com.

Neither the union nor anyone else has never alleged that David was a member of the British Nationalist Party, or indeed of any racist party or organisation. David was reinstated by the union back in 2002 and they had to pay him Ł5,600 in compensation plus his Employment Tribunal costs. This current website amicus.cc is largely funded by these sums.

It is still unclear how the defamation came about. Probably David's case was mixed up with an ASLEF union case which did involve expulsion of a BNP member. However it is odd that no other details of the ASLEF case were mixed into their account. So it is possible that the lie was created by a senior union official at the time, on the MSF side of amicus. If so we wish Season's Greetings to them, whosever they may have been: The funds will be useful to defend amicus.cc against any legal action in future.

Meanwhile David has been invited to speak at an academic conference in New York next February on 'trade unions and the internet'. The conference is organised by the prestigious Cornell University. They kindly list David Beaumont as:

"A pioneer of extending union participation through Infomation Communication Technologies in the UK trade union movement, where he has been a lay union official. His activities have been the subject of reflection on the potential of Information Communication Technologies for trade unions by academics from and publishing within the USA, Canada and the UK".

[Reed Business Information] amicus.cc's legal fund
[Cornell University] Global Unions Conference
[amicus.cc] Previous story - Employment Appeal Tribunal Decision
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 18th December 2005

'The New Industrial Tyranny'
The union's email dirty tricks, first reported here, have reached this week's Private Eye. The union had set its own email server to forward employees' emails to this website.

We were aware that their press office had been taking a very strong line with enquiries on the subject - 'amicus.cc has endangered the jobs of union staff by publishing these emails!' (Read the actual emails to see how funny that is).

One conversation between a journalist and the press office went like this:
Journo: 'In that case you'll have thoroughly investigated what happened in order to stop it occurring again?
Press officer: 'Er yes..'
pause
Journo: 'Well what was the problem exactly?'
Press officer: 'Technical error'
Journo: 'Please explain it to me, I do understand computers'
Press officer (getting irate): 'It was just a technical error, all right?'
Needless to say no technical details were forthcoming.

Given this strong line by the Press Office, you would have expected it would have at least merited a five minute rant by General Secretary Simpson at the Executive meeting last week. Or maybe even further disciplinary action against member 'Beaumont', editor of amicus.cc? But no, not a word. A cynic might think the union had something to hide.

In fact it is now looking like the union was attempting to intercept and spy on its own employees' emails. They wanted to direct any staff member's email sent to amicus.cc to their internal spam mailbox, for later inspection. However some techie screwed-up and put the filter on the wrong way round so everything sent to the spam mailbox was sent to this website. General Secretary Simpson has an Open University degree in computing so it's not likely to have been him.

The union publishes good guidelines for employers on these matters (from which the title image is taken):

"There is an increasingly thin line between the needs of employers and workers' rights to privacy. The monitoring and surveillance of employees including the monitoring of electronic communication, email and internet use.. is becoming more and more common place. This activity however, has been described as the 'new industrial tyranny'. Monitoring and surveillance can also be divisive and counter-productive to good employment relations within the workplace. "

The guidelines continue:

"Under the Human Rights Act, secret surveillance of employees can be an infringement of their rights to privacy. It is only likely to be justifiable in extreme circumstances relating to national security, public safety or crime prevention." "Article 8(1) of the convention says; 'Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence.'"

and:

"In April 200S Amicus lodged a complaint with the Information Commission on behalf of staff at the Association of Head Teachers concerning the unauthorised and possibly unlawful monitoring and interception of employee's emails. " "Secret monitoring of email and Intenet use is unlikely to be justified by the employers unless there are extreme circumstances'"

and finally

"The Data Protection Code says that, wherever possible, employer's should avoid opening e-mails. Amicus recommends that any monitoring or retrieval of messages should only take place if the employer is legally obliged to do so or has a reasonable reason to believe that an employee has committed a criminal offence. In such cases, e-mail will be monitored and retrieved only in the presence of union reps."

Well that's OK then, in fact union employees are spoilt in this respect. Their private email is probably being opened in the presence of union people much more senior than just reps....
[Private Eye] TU News
[www.amicustheunion.org.uk] Amicus Guide to Privacy at Work
[amicus.cc] Previous Story - Union Dirty Tricks
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 24th November 2005

US helicopter gunships firing white phosphorus at Fallujah

US Used Chemical Weapons on Fallujah
It is now clear that the US deployed chemical weapons on the Iraqi city of Fallujah. The irony of this will no doubt be lost on the Americans: the war was supposedly begun to rid the country of chemical weapons, and to prevent Saddam's chemical gas atrocities like Halabja.

White phosphorous burns with a bright light on exposure to air, hence it is used in flares for illumination, as the military are keen to point out. However it has other properties. Like the napalm the US used in Vietnam, it is used as an incendiary to set fire to people and buildings. Whereas Napalm had the 'useful' property of sticking to bodies, white phosphorous is fat soluble and will penetrate to bone, burning as it goes. The main 'advantage' of white phosphorous over napalm is that it continues to burn in the presence of water - the human body is 60% that. Therefore once it hits someone it will continue to burn no matter what they do.

"Persons struck with the smoke from white phosphorus are burned immediately. The effect is the same, if not worse than napalm. The smoke doesn't effect clothing at all, but will burn the skin underneath. Pictures show persons burned to the bone with their clothes still intact. Once begun the effects of the burning are irreversible." Wikipedia

A Pentagon spokesman told the BBC "We use them primarily as obscurants, for smokescreens". Yeah right. At Night. The 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons (Protocol III) prohibits the use of air-delivered incendiary weapons against civilian populations or indiscriminate incendiary attacks against military forces co-located with civilians. View this shocking film:
[RAI 24 News] The hidden massacre [video contains horrific scenes]
[Guardian] US admits using white phosphorous in Falluja
[BBC] US used white phosphorus in Iraq
[Wikipedia] White phosphorus
New! [Guardian] Behind the phosphorus clouds are war crimes within war crimes
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 16th November 2005, updated 23rd November 2005

Simpson deploying bugs?

Union Dirty Tricks
Paranoia is rife at the top of the union in the run up to next week's diciplinaries and the two day meeting of the Executive. So much so that they have been attempting dirty tricks against this website, or possibly against their own employees. Judge for yourself:

Over a period of three days the union's email server was set up to forward four copies of every suspect email from its quarantine area to this website. We received a total of forty dodgy emails, fortunately stripped of any viruses by our own Internet Service Provider. What is left is a random mix of union traffic, such as 'something to brighten your day' (an illustrated 'poem') , a letter to the union's solicitors and correspondence with Unison. We of course have made them all available for you to see.

It's not clear what the union were up to. It may be that they were incompetently implementing some spyware to monitor their own employees' emails. One contained this telling conversation:

Are my E Mails reaching you ?
Your email came through just now [Thursday] although you sent it on Monday.
I wonder what happened to the one I sent last week ?? How strange. Is it only me that is being blocked?
Your emails are being blocked and I have to go through a special procedure to get them. I will ring you as I think that’s best at present.

Each email came to us as an attachment on a simple summary email which conveniently contained all the 'to' and 'from' addresses. One of these summary emails had the General Secretary's personal address 'Simpson.Derek@btconnect.com' on it. We do strongly recommend to anyone wishing to email, fax or phone amicus.cc not to use any union owned resources. Even emails to us from the union's senior legal advisor can spend a mysterious two days between being sent and arriving.

The union's response to our inevitable complaint was

"This was ..due to a technical error. It was not harassment as it was not an intended act."

We have taken steps to make each author aware of the union's 'technical error'.
New! It turns out that the emails the union sent to us were witheld from their intended recipients. They now have them thanks to amicus.cc.
[confidential@amicustheunion.org] What the summary emails looked like
[Fairman, Susan] Something to brighten your day
[Roddis, Sheila] Wortley Hall - 9 December 2005
[Sepulveda, Catalina] ET Representation - File Review
[Fairfield, Denise ] 'Your emails are being blocked'
[Scott, Ian] Maybe Spam
[Casey, Gordon] Stirling University Porters
[Golds, Janet] AMICUS in Higher Education
[Matheson, Chris] 'due to a technical error'
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 9th November 2005, updated 11th November 2005

Baylissgate Day 69
The three suspended senior amicus officials have now been given a date for their disciplinary hearing, 14th November. They were told they are accused of 'breach of trust' but still no specifics have been given, some two months after their suspension. One disgusted amicus member commented 'this is like being charged with murder but not being told who was killed, when or where'.

General Secretary Simpson suspended the three on the day after the executive met (and he omitted to mention his move at that meeting). Now he is to hold their disciplinary the day before the next scheduled executive meeting, thereby neatly and entirely bypassing the elected executive of the union. One of the first things Simpson did upon gaining office was to make himself responsible for the running of the union between such executive meetings. By fitting the suspension, investigation and disciplinary between meetings he will have managed a fait accompli against the limited democratic structures of the union.

Strange that his disciplinary against former Deputy General Secretary Lucy Kelly took over six months spanning several executive meetings and was never completed. At the other extreme the suspension, investigation and disciplinary into Simpson's mate Les Bayliss took only three weeks before he was exonerated 'with no evidence whatsoever'. Must be why it was so quick then.

Simpson has accused the current three suspendees (not to their face but to the executive) of leaking the Baylissgate documents to this website, something which both they and we deny.
[reinstatethethree] Re-instate the suspended Amicus three
[amicus.cc] Previous story - Baylissgate Day 17
[lesbayliss.com] Bayliss website
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 2nd November 2005

Merger in Trouble
The merger of the amicus, TGWU and GMB unions, a pet project of amicus General Secretary Simpson, seems to be floundering on his insistence that the new union should have strict central control. The TGWU are said to be demanding that Simpson does not lead the new super union or even the amicus section.

Simpson promoted Amicus Assistant General Secretary Les Bayliss to take over the merger negotiations back in July. If the merger fails almost all amicus executive members will be up for election in November next year.
[The Times] Super-union plans under threat
New! [Personnel Today] Unions refute any split in ranks over super union set-up
[lesbayliss.com] Bayliss website
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 17th October 2005, updated 21st October 2005

Baylissgate - Day 49
Baylissgate made this week's Private Eye magazine. Read it here.
[Private Eye] TUC News
[amicus.cc] Baylissgate - start here
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 13th October 2005

Simpsonite Pemberton - In a minority of three

Simpson Slips Up on Grass Roots
We don't normally report on meetings of the 'Gazette', the grass roots Left organisation in amicus. It's not that they're secret, far from it they are open to all Left amicus members. It's just that's any account would be a personal one, and this one surely is.

We were prompted by the fact that the rogue North West region of the Gazette turned up to Saturday's meeting with an extraordinary three page handout. Two pages of which were devoted to a personal attack on this web site. NW also demanded we print their over-long diatribe plus an "unconditional apology". We'll certainly do the former, along with the odd factual correction and comment.

General Secretary Simpson failed to turn up at the meeting in Preston, as it turns out this is probably the most astute decision he's made all year. NW region however turned up in a block, sat in a block and voted in a block. They were roundly defeated by the rest of the Gazette members, who had only travelled from Scotland, Yorkshire, London etc.. compared to the NW's epic trek from.... Preston or thereabouts. An emergency motion condemning Simpson's suspension of the three Gazette officers received massive support with only 3 votes against (one of these being GPFC Simpsonite Brian Pemberton). The NW's dozen or more mandated members abstained. Part of the successful motion quoted Simpson's own election promise back to him:

"You are free to say what you will subject only to the members you represent, you do not have to fear the General Secretary, you will not be bullied or disciplined for having an independent thought"

Seems so long ago we doubt he'll be embarrassed.

The NW's attempt to remove some core principles from the merger talks, like 'election of officers', was also lost. As for their illegal expulsion of 4 members including 2 NEC members, a fudge was agreed whereby NW would propose a change to the Gazette constitution allowing them to expel people, presumably retrospectively. That will be voted on in January.

So the warnings we issued that Simpson might split up the Gazette have failed to materialise and we're glad to say we were wrong. But it only didn't happen because the Gazette members decided they didn't want to be a Simpson fan club or election machine, and instead that they wanted to defend their officers, to determine policy and to demand those with power be accountable.
[NW Gazette] Position Statement "A little annoyed? He’s absolutely hopping mad"
[amicus.cc] Previous Story - Simpson to Split up the 'Gazette'
[Brian Pemberton] Election statement - 'returning the union to the members'
[Gazette] Amicus Unity Gazette
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 11th October 2005

It's Official - No Election of Officers. Ever.
In the latest amicus internal newsletter to staff (note we still get them), General Secretary Simpson makes it clear that he has buried the election of officers for good:

"it is almost certain that there will be no new appointments to the officer force [i.e. elections] for the foreseeable future"

Moreover Simpson told the last NEC meeting that, post merger, post foreseeable future, any vacancies would be filled by the inevitably large pool of spare staff from the GMB and TGWU. And that's assuming election of officers ever gets into the new super union's rule book.

The election of officers was the major issue on which Simpson and the Gazette NEC members stood in the last elections. Simpson himself once told a supporters meeting in Doncaster 'Judge me on this one issue' (rather than all those others things you've been whining to me about, like age discrimination in the rule book or delegation of powers of the NEC or never speaking out against the War etc...).

Bizarrely, Simpsonite NEC & GPFC member Brian Pemberton stoutly declared on Saturday that he expected an election shortly. Maybe Simpson should put him on his newsletter list.
[Derek Simpson] Amicus news from the General Secretary
[Brian Pemberton] Election statement - 'all new Full Time Officers should be subject to election'
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 9th October 2005

Baylissgate - Day 45
Several people seem to have been fed misinformation about the Baylissgate affair, and have been saying to us and others that Bayliss was cleared or found not guilty of the Express link up kickback scam by the Director of Public Prosecutions. Actually this would not be possible since we only passed the Express link up documents to the Serious Fraud Office last week, following General Secretary Simpson's declaration to the NEC meeting: 'I wish it had gone to the police' (although he must have been too busy to get round to it at the time he knew, back in 2003).

The confusion arises because Bayliss was arrested and investigated by the Serious Fraud Office for 2 years on another similar scam, this time to do with theft of landfill tax, rather than any theft from a disabled children's charity. Bayliss certainly has said he was 'cleared' of the landfill tax scam, for which 3 people were jailed recently including his business associate and friend Steve Sampson; the reality is that the Serious Fraud office decided not to press charges, not quite the same thing as being "cleared" or found "not guilty", but close enough we suppose. The key point is that Bayliss and indeed Sampson ('Mr X') have not yet been investigated by the police over the sick children's charity scam, therefore it would be premature of anyone to say that he is either not guilty or guilty, or even cleared unless you count the union's own investigation (still secret), which we wouldn't since apparently they ignored all the Express Linkup stuff. The reason the whole affair stinks is because Simpson has not carried out a proper and open investigation into it.
[amicus.cc] Baylissgate - start here
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 9th October 2005

amicus.cc exclusive!
NEC (GPMU) Election results
Here are the results for the National Executive 'by election' (GPMU section), probably a week before the official union website announces them: Unfortunately for the Left, sitting member Megan Dobney came in the top 6 places BUT has lost out due to a fellow member from the same London Region Branch getting more votes.

The GPM heirarcy only managed to get Roy Taylor elected, so fears of Gerrymandering may have been unfounded.

The Left candidates from Yorkshire and Scotland got elected.

The people elected are:

Ged Dempsey, Yorkshire Humber & Tyne
John Ayling, London
Charlie Screens, Scotland
Dick Barkers, East of England
Roy Taylor, South East of England
Den Haynes, South West

For some reason as yet unknown, the results were only disclosed today, although the counters 'Popularis' should have known them last Friday lunchtime.
[Popularis] Detailed results
[www.amicustheunion.org.uk] Official union site election results page (posted 18th backdated to 5th)
[amicus.cc] Previous Story - Gerrymandered!
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 5th October 2005, updated 18th October 2005

Over 8,000 readers last month

Record Month for amicus.cc
This website received a record 8,311 unique visits last month. And credit where it's due, we have to thank Assistant General Secretary Bayliss. We look set to exceed 60,000 hits this year, compared to 10,000 when we first started measuring in 2002. This is dramatic growth for a non-commercial site; by way of comparison the academically praised sister site rogerlyons.com, dormant since Lyons' enforced departure as General Secretary last year, only received 2,464 visitors in its best year. Times change in the union but who would have thought Baylissgate would outsell Lyons and his bun.
[Webstats4U] Independent statistics
[amicus.cc] Baylissgate - start here
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 3rd October 2005

Steve Sampson - From Paradise to Jail

Baylissgate Day 35 - Linda Lusardi in tears
'Mr X' in the Baylissgate scandal, Steve Sampson, made the front page of two local newspapers earlier this month. Apparently 'Former Page 3 girl Linda Lusardi was in tears..' We've made copies available for amicus members to cry over too. They are quite large, when they eventually appear click on the 'expand' button at bottom right of the image. Read about Assistant General Secretary Les Bayliss's friend and business associate's new home: Pentonville prison.

Meanwhile we've heard that Councillor Bayliss will not be seeking re-election to Harlow Council next year 'for personal reasons'. At Harlow he sat on the ethics and standards committee, his expertise will be sorely missed.
[Hertfordshire Star] Zoo Boss Caged
[Hoddesdon and Broxbourne Mercury] Shock as Zoo Man is Jailed
[amicus.cc] Baylissgate - start here
[Harlow Council] Standards Committee
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 29th September 2005

amicus.cc exclusive!
Simpson to Split up the 'Gazette'
It looks likely that General Secretary Simpson will split up the Broad Left 'Gazette' organisation at its national meeting on 8th October in Preston. This is the organisation that got Simpson and half the current executive elected. Already 4 Gazette supporters (including 2 of the union's executive members Jane Stewart and Ian Allinson) have been expelled from the Simpsonite North West section of the Gazette. North West, unlike the other Gazette regions, have regular private pre-meetings at which they mandate all their supporters; the expelled North West Four's crime was to break mandate at the last national meeting and vote for 'election of full time officials'. Ironically the majority at the national meeting decided to vote for the election of officials too, something which is after all National Gazette policy and was on the election promises of half the current executive and of the General Secretary himself.

Unlike the rest of the Gazette which is open to everyone on the Left, the North West region is run 'Masonic' style in that attendance is by invitation only. It also happens that Simpson's favourite region got it written into the Gazette's constitution that all National Meetings must be held in Preston, which is, guess what, their home town. No doubt many North West people will be making the effort on the 8th October to trudge half a mile and back to support Simpson.

Not content with trying to chuck supporters out of the Gazette, Simpson has now provoked a further crisis by suspending 3 union officials including the Chair of the Gazette, Jimmy Warne, along with the editor Des Heemskerk from their union jobs. It is likely that at the 8th October meeting North West will seek to remove them both from the Gazette board, quite possibly along with any other board members who dissent. Simpson himself is booked to attend the meeting. It looks like being both a lively and an historic one.

What's behind this is that Simpson and the executive will, by law, have to stand for election next year, unless he can pull off a merger agreement with TGWU and/or GMB by the end of 2005 (mergers can delay elections by at least a year). To win the elections, a loyal grass roots organisation is essential, Les Bayliss's attempt to set one up (the 'ATU') has failed miserably, the merger talks are stalling, and time is running out.

Based on past practice the line Simpson will present will be 'Old Labour+Communists v Trotskyists'. This was tried last year when the 4 SWP executive members were expelled from the Gazette NEC caucus. Unfortunately for Simpson, ordinary Gazette supporters are all too aware of the policy issues and broken promises, the biggest of all and the one Simpson told Gazette supporters to judge him by, being election of officials. There are other lines that may be tried, typically 'the North v London' has worked well in the past, or the new one popular with the Right: 'the union v Beaumont's website'. Another one has emerged recently from Simpson's favourite paper; the Sunday Mirror claimed last week that Simpson had suspended the 3 officials because they were supporting the TGWU's General Secretary to be the boss of the new super union. Doesn't tally with Simpson's NEC rant though.

The National Gazette meeting is open to all Left thinking amicus members, if you'd like to come contact amicus.cc for details.
[Sunday Mirror] Brothers' Grim Truth (5th paragraph down)
[ATU - Amicus The Union Network] 'members who support Derek Simpson's vision'
[amicus.cc] Previous Story Simpson Splits The Left
[amicus.cc] Previous Story ATU
[reinstatethethree] Latest bulletin
[Gazette] Amicus Unity Gazette 'For a democratic union controlled by the members'
New! [Socialist Party] Witch-hunt in Amicus as merger nears
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 28th September 2005, updated 30th September 2005

Baylissgate Day 29
According to the financial accounts, under Assistant General Secretary Les Bayliss our union was donating Ł1/4 million a year across 3 charities: VSO (Voluntary Services Overseas), Express-Link-Up a childrens' charity and 'Fauna and Flora International' (FFI) patron HM the Queen, motto: 'Conserving Wildlife since 1903'. This last one seems a bizarre choice for the largest slice of members' subs (Ł87,000 in 2002, Ł50,000 in 2001). Especially when you look at their corporate partners:

BP
British American Tobacco
Vodafone
Rio Tinto Zinc
There is only one connection that we can find between FFI and amicus: In 'Project Life Lion' FFI partnered with Paradise Wildlife Park, director one Steve Sampson (Mr X), an incarcerated criminal, who coincidentally is the business associate, friend and ex-employer of Les Bayliss, head of the amicus charity.
[FFI] Corporate Partnerships
[amicus charity] Accounts of the 'AEEU Learning fund', motto "that'll learn you"
[FFI] Project Life Lion
[amicus.cc] Baylissgate - start here
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 23rd September 2005

'Dear David'... A General Secretary Writes
To mark the inauguration of the domain www.dereksimpson.com (which links directly to amicus.cc) and in response to the union's legal action against amicus.cc, we are publishing Derek Simpson's very friendly emails to us, dating from when he was merely an aspiring General Secretary. We present here the first ten (including the original published last week). There are more to come, where the tone becomes less friendly but is still quite chatty. We'll publish them shortly meanwhile here's a taster of the next batch: Re. David Beaumont's Trade Union Certification Officer challenge to the legitimacy of Spare General Secretary Lyons:

"Regarding action against Lyons I believe you are wasting your time. Whilst I am not a legally qualified person I reckon I am somewhat of an anorak on the 1992 TULRA [Trade Union and Labour Relations Act]....Quite simply you will find there is no case to answer and all that will be achieved is a considerable waste of time"

This shows how wrong Simpson had started to become in late 2003 and early 2004; Right-winger Lyons's hold on office was declared illegal by the Trade Union Certification Officer on 14th May last year.
[Derek Simpson] 'If I can help you in any way you only have to ask..'
[Derek Simpson] 'Keep in touch..'
[Derek Simpson] 'David, You are one up on me..'
[Derek Simpson] 'Brilliant..'
[Derek Simpson] 'I could do with someone giving our site the overhaul it needs..'
[Derek Simpson] 'let's keep in touch..'
[Derek Simpson] 'it will be a real embarrassment for them..'
[Derek Simpson] 'David, Have you seen this..'
[Derek Simpson] 'They are not opening the envelopes till Saturday ..'
[Derek Simpson] 'By all means..'
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 18th September 2005

Legal Action Against amicus.cc
Unable to sue this website for defamation (because our allegations and documents are true), the union has instead started legal proceedings against us for 'infringement of trademark'. Rather a pathetic move, so we'll shortly activate www.dereksimpson.com as an alternative to amicus.cc, both of which we'll fight to keep. We've also uncovered an old email sent to us by General Secretary Simpson back in 2002, when we supported him, which is of interest:

"You are very welcome to take anything you like, because it can only help to spread the word.... Interesting that you discovered that Sir Ken Jackson has registered his own name!! Might have to think about doing that myself should I become General Secretary !! www.dereksimpson.com !!"

Too late now mate, we have it. And how about:

"Keep in touch, especially since the election is now called .. all hands to the pumps and we can sink Jackson and his ilk, moreover there would be no better prospect of being able to retain the MSF local democracy than by having me succeed"

Don't times change..

New! See what the union has registered the 'amicus' trade mark for: Horological and chronometric instruments; clocks and watches; tie pins; items of jewellery; ornamental pins;Organisation, operation and supervision of loyalty and incentive schemes; credit card services; financial management and financing services. Will writing services; medical assistance; funeral assistance; pens and pencils, diaries, year wall planners, note pads, sticky notes, erasers, tape measures, staplers,rulers, desk tidies, mug mats (plastic and cardboard), folders (cardboard and ring binder), clipboards, Leather goods; wallets; briefcases; umbrellas; imitation leather goods; travelling bags; handbags; rucksacks; purses; Glassware, porcelain and earthenware; mugs, cups and crockery; decanters. Sacks and bags, Tea towels. Clothing; headgear; T-shirts; sweatshirts; ties; scarves; sweaters; caps; outerclothing; footwear. Games and playthings. [Derek Simpson] 'Keep in touch..'
[Osbourne Clarke Solicitors] How the union spends our subs...
[Osbourne Clarke Solicitors] Required Undertaking
[amicus.cc] Previous Story - legal Notes
New! [Patent Office] Trade Mark 2282301 - 'Amicus'
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 15th September 2005

Rolls Royce Battle Lost
amicus's Left Executive member Jerry Hicks has lost his battle for re-instatement at Rolls Royce amid recriminations over the lack of official amicus support. Rolls did agree to pay him Ł100,000 and his salary to March 2006 to avoid losing an Employment Tribunal: Hicks was clearly victimised for his union activity. Under the agreement workers who went on strike in his support will also receive compensation of two week's pay.

Hicks said he is now in talks with amicus for a new role in the union. He was removed from amicus's powerful (and secretive) General Purposes and Finance Committee late last year by General Secretary Simpson, following Hick's unhappiness at the union escorting scab labour across the Wembley picket line, so it'll be interesting to see if that happens. Don't count on it, Jerry.
[SWP] Jerry Hicks was denied official support
[Defend Jerry Hicks] Many of you will by now have read..
[BBC] Rolls-Royce strike action is over
[amicus.cc] Previous Story - Rolls Royce Vote Results
[amicus.cc] Previous Story - Simpson kicks Hicks off GPFC
[www.amicustheunion.org.uk] Official amicus site - see if you can find anything..
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 14th September 2005

Baylissgate Day 17
All Hell broke loose at and after the Executive meeting last Wednesday. General Secretary Simpson gave an extraordinary half hour rant about 'former friends out to get him' and about this website. He changed tack very quickly from a report on Baylissgate into an account of a plot to destabilise his leadership and the union as a whole. He attacked union employees, ex-employees, trustees, lay regional secretaries and the editor of this website, everyone except Bayliss, all in terms that might well prove to be defamatory in court.

The very next day he suspended three senior officials who are also leading members of the Left 'Gazette' group that got him and half the Executive elected. The editor of the Gazette publication Des Heemskerk and the union's Head of Purchasing Cathie Willis were escorted off the premises. The chair of the Gazette group, Jimmy Warne, has yet to learn of his suspension as he is on holiday in Greece. All three have still not been informed of why they were suspended but it is obvious that Simpson believes (erroneously as he will discover) that they leaked the Baylissgate documents to this website.

The meeting was confused but it seems the executive voted to approve this extract from the (secret) General Purposes and Finance Committee report:

"The General Secretary be authorised to take the necessary steps to:
Investigate the source of the defamatory allegations and unauthorised disclosure and circulation of internal union documents
Conduct a further investigation into, and consideration of, the legal and rule implications and options [i.e. suing www.amicus.cc and expelling David Beaumont].
A statement should be circulated within the union to make clear that amicus.cc’s false allegations were spurious and incorrect."

So there we have it, a secret investigation into Bayliss where the allegations are never disclosed and the report never published, compared to a kangaroo trial of three leading members of the Left in the union, where their crimes and guilt are read out to the executive before they are even informed, suspended, charged or investigated. So much for the union's conference slogan 'no power without accountability'. All we need now is for the three to 'fess up to their wicked crimes in a show trial and the farce will be complete.

At the same meeting Simpson got the Executive to postpone ALL rule amendments arising from the democratic Rules Conference of May 2005, until January 2006. This includes the election of full time officials and the removal of the ageist ban on older members holding lay office. By January the rule changes may be subsumed by the Mega Union Merger project anyway. Delegates to Rules Conference may wonder why they bothered. This unprecedented deferment of rule changes is almost certainly unlawful and many bed blocking members are considering submitting complaints to the Trade Union Certification Officer, as are the construction sector.

In all this heat some light did actually emerge from Simpson about Baylissgate. Apparently the two did not go to South Africa on a jolly paid for by Fauna and Flora International and we are happy to dispel that allegation. Also the 2005 investigation into Bayliss concerned matters other than original charges, i.e. some new ones to do with bills for 'Medical World'. Therefore it is possible that Deputy General Secretaries Dubbins and Sweeney did indeed find 'no evidence whatsoever' of the new charges if their investigation was limited in scope to just those new allegations. However it's difficult to comment without us (or the Executive) knowing exactly what the charges were or what the investigation concluded. We do know that Simpson admitted to the Executive that the 2005 complaint about Bayliss included the original 'Mr X' allegations. Therefore it is very difficult to exonerate Simpson for his incredible memo claiming there was no evidence whatsoever.
[reinstatethethree] Re-instate the suspended Amicus three
[amicus.cc] Previous story - Mr X Goes to Jail
[amicus.cc] Previous story - Baylissgate
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 11th September 2005

Legal Notes..
Contrary to what the General Secretary told the amicus Executive last Wednesday, this website takes a great deal of care with the stories we publish. We are not an anonymous site and are painfully aware of the English libel laws, the strictest in the world. We check each story with at least one reliable source, we put the stories to the persons concerned to comment on or deny prior to publication, we correct errors and have published apologies on those inevitable occasions where we get it wrong. For 'Baylissgate' we presented the documents and allegations to the union for comment a full three days before publication. In return we only received personal and non-specific threats of expulsion and of High Court action. We also presented the documents to a Executive member close to the General Secretary a full 2 weeks before publication. Their only comment was "don't publish because the documents are marked 'private and confidential'".

This website is run on an entirely voluntary basis, by the editor David Beaumont, a union member for over 20 years, and 3 volunteer assistants with the occasional legal advice from sympathetic professionals. We receive no funding. There is no advertising revenue. The site is not run in the course of a trade.
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 11th September 2005

Do not collect Ł1.3 million

Baylissgate Latest: Mr X Goes to Jail
"Mr X" in the Baylissgate scandal we reported below was jailed last week for 2 1/2 years over a landfill tax scam. Mr X is in fact Steve Sampson of Paradise Wildlife Park ('Company A'). Sampson, a friend, business associate and ex-employer of Assistant General Secretary Bayliss was convicted of conspiracy to steal and conspiracy to falsify accounts documents. Bayliss had described this thief as trust-worthy and honest or in his words, 'straight'.

Bayliss had been arrested and was under investigation for 2 years on similar grounds but the Fraud Squad decided to take no action. Bayliss himself said he 'had now been cleared'. The landfill tax conspiracy is separate from the Baylissgate scandal where Steve Sampson was alleged to be creaming off a 10% 'kick-back' from charity donations arranged by Bayliss. However there are remarkable similarities, in the case for which Sampson was jailed:

"Grants made to environmental projects were conditional upon kick-backs being made to companies controlled by the defendants. The value of these grants was Ł656,000 and the largest was a Ł400,000 for the construction of an environmental centre at Paradise Wildlife Park in Hertfordshire. Mr Sampson was a director of Paradise Wildlife Park."

Regarding Baylissgate a spokeswoman for Amicus said: “The allegations were thoroughly investigated and have proven to be without foundation. Les Bayliss has been completely exonerated by the inquiry.” General Secretary Simpson said "there is no evidence whatsoever of any impropriety". Simpson went on to thank "Ed and Tony [Deputy General Secretaries Sweeney and Dubbins] for their thorough and diligent work" in conducting the inquiry (whose detailed findings remain secret). The union's Senior Legal Advisor wrote to us:

"Your actions in publishing the article on the website potentially renders you liable both to disciplinary action (including expulsion) and High Court litigation."

[Guardian] Three jailed for environmental fraud
[Lets Recycle] Three men jailed over million pound Landfill Tax fraud
[Serious Fraud Office] Three jailed for fraud linked to first green tax fraud
[Financial Times] Three guilty in landfill tax fraud
[amicus.cc] Previous story - Baylissgate
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 6th September 2005

amicus.cc World exclusive!

Simpson: 'not wanting charity's money to go into someone's back pocket'
Bayliss: arrested by Fraud Squad

BAYLISSGATE
(when General Secretaries turn bad)
The investigation into suspended Assistant General Secretary Les Bayliss lasted a mere 3 weeks. From the matey tone of General Secretary Simpson's memo suspending him, we predicted that "unlike Lucy Kelly's, it may be short and 'sweet'" . However the true nature of this cynical whitewash has only just become apparent; amicus.cc have obtained 5 extremely confidential union documents:

The first, a letter from the CEO of the respectable charity 'Express-Link-up' (patron Carol Vorderman), outlines the scam: Amicus' own charity "in the form of Les Bayliss" donated Ł1/4 million over 3 years to 'Express-Link-Up'. Before it was handed over, a friend, business associate and one time employer of Bayliss demanded a 10% Ł24,000 "finder's fee" from Express Link Up. That friend is not a union employee and we have identified him only as 'Mr X' in the documents. Furthermore Express Link Up's CEO says Bayliss then told her she couldn't show this 'fee' in the budget the charity had prepared. Mr X went on to demand a further 10% of a one million pound donation to be obtained from government funds. Although clearly aware this was going on, Bayliss denies that he personally pocketed from any of this 'creaming off', we have no evidence of it, we don't say he did and of course it would be impossible to prove. His friend and business associate Mr X pocketed the first year's 10% - Ł8,000, before Express Link Up blew the whistle.

The union's own charity, under Les Bayliss, was handing out Ł1/4 million every year of members money. It went evenly to just three charities, Express Link Up, Fauna and Flora International (FFI) and VSO. Although we have seen no evidence of 10% being creamed off by Bayliss's friend from the FFI and VSO donations, we do know that FFI has very large admin costs (only 79% of their income gets spent on conservation). We also know that Mr X's own company ('Company A' where Mr X and Les Bayliss first met Express Link Up's CEO) are a partner of FFI in a project to vaccinate 40,000 domestic dogs in Africa. Small World.

This scandal is dynamite and indicates that if the union was corrupt under the Jackson leadership, it hasn't changed. As in all such scandals the real disgrace is not so much the crime, it is the determined cover-up. The second document is the confidential record of a meeting between the union's Senior Lawyer Georgina Hirsch and Bayliss. In this Bayliss admits that he had previously been arrested by the Fraud Squad and was under investigation by them for 2 years on another matter, an alleged Land Fill Tax scam with the same friend, Mr X. Bayliss reveals that he has now been cleared and that no action is going to be taken, although he says Mr X 'may be prosecuted'. He also mentions he still has "one project ongoing with his company but ... it is legitimate" . This second document was buried in the union's "Internal Issues folder" in June 2003, over two years ago.

The third document is dated 17th June 2003 and is from General Secretary Simpson to the CEO of the offended charity. Simpson writes

"Until your letter, I knew nothing of [Mr X] and certainly would not have wanted any of the charity's money to go undeservedly into the back pocket of an individual, as appeared to be the possible implication of your letter."

Simpson concludes: "you may be interested to know that Mr Bayliss has decided not to hold a position as a trustee of our [union] charity".

The fourth document is a record of a call from the CEO of Express Link Up to Georgina Hirsch. In it the CEO clearly states that Mr X had not done any work for her, he had just taken his 10%.

So presumably Bayliss would be sacked, disciplined, demoted or at least be the subject of an open investigation back in 2003. But no, back then General Secretary Simpson writes a matey and secret letter to him about a matey and secret meeting they had (document number 5): Bayliss assures Simpson that he had not financially gained from his link with Mr X "in any way whatsoever". Simpson assures Bayliss "I believe you have learned from this experience that you should not agree to enter into any such private arrangements in future which might end up being portrayed or perceived in this way".

"You realise that not only is your future with the union at stake, but the reputation of the Union, and in particular my reputation as General Secretary of the Union (and as someone who has promoted you and relies heavily on you), are at stake."

In this fifth document Simpson pre-justifies the 2003 cover up:

"You are aware that I prefer to keep this matter confidential between you, Robert Gomez, Georgina Hirsch and myself because I believe that it could be misconstrued and deliberately misused by others. We are both aware of individuals within the union who have already taken steps to spread and publicise false information"

(Probably a reference to the Rightwing that time, not amicus.cc .)

Simpson, Hirsch, Gomez and Bayliss managed to keep all this secret for 2 years, until finally forced to carry out this year's 'investigation' (actually a 're-investigation', unbeknown to members). We understand this second 'sham' investigation was prompted by a member's complaint based on the secret documents we have obtained. Simpson's memo announcing the return of Bayliss makes no mention at all of the scandal or the 2003 investigation, it is short and sweet:

"I am happy to announce that there is no evidence whatsoever of any impropriety and [Les] is duly exonerated"

We put the following allegations to the union three days ago:
General Secretary Derek Simpson
a) That he misled in a memo dated 14th July 2005 when he said "there is no evidence whatsoever of any impropriety".
b) That he cynically arranged a second investigation knowing he had already cleared Mr Bayliss on the same charges in 2003.
c) That he arranged two 'whitewash' investigations, one entirely in secret, and one with just the allegations, evidence and findings in secret.

Assistant General Secretary Les Bayliss
a) That he allowed or arranged for a close friend and business associate to cream off 10% of union donations he was involved in making of between Ł80,000 and Ł250,000 a year.

Deputy General Secretaries Ed Sweeney and Tony Dubbins
a) That they knowingly carried out a 'whitewash' investigation OR
b) that they failed to carry out a proper investigation through lack of diligence or through incompetence.

The union have chosen not to respond.

Now Bayliss has been promoted to handle Simpson's pet project, the 'super union' mergers with TGWU and GMB. This website campaigned for Simpson's election, we wanted an open, honest and corruption free union. So it's sad to report that we now believe Simpson should resign. How gullible does he believe amicus members and our NEC representatives are? How can he plead financial crisis when he knew this was going on two years ago?.
[1 Express Link Up] The letter that started it all
[2 union internal file] Interview with Bayliss
[3 Derek Simpson] Letter to Express Link Up
[4 union internal file] Conversation with Pat Ryan
[5 Derek Simpson] 'Dear Les'
[Derek Simpson] Memo 'no evidence whatsoever..'
[amicus.cc] Previous Story: Bayliss Bounces Back
New! [Sunday Times] Union official and charity 'fee' questions
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 25th August 2005, updated 6th and 13th September 2005

Rolls Royce Vote Results
Rolls Royce workers have voted almost two to one to strike in support of their sacked shop steward Jerry Hicks. This follows Jerry's victory at the Employment Tribunal last week where he won 'interim relief' against RR's decision, meaning he had "probably been dismissed on trade union grounds" and must continue to be paid.

Jerry, a member of the amicus Executive, has asked General Secretary Derek Simpson to represent him in negotiations with Rolls Royce. Fat chance.
[amicus.cc] Previous story - Rolls Royce Sack amicus Executive Member
[Defend Jerry Hicks] Their own website
[BBC] Rolls-Royce ballot backs strike
New! [BBC] Benn backs national strike action
New! [PRNewswire] Continuous Strike Action to Begin Next Week
New! [Financial Times] Rolls-Royce plant faces stoppage
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 11th August 2005, updated 20th August 2005

"No evidence whatsoever... - Simpson"

Bayliss Bounces Back
Amicus Assistant General Secretary Les Bayliss is not only back at work after a mere 3 weeks suspension and investigation, he has been promoted by General Secretary Simpson to run the super-union merger talks.

amicus.cc had predicted that the investigation, unlike Deputy General Secretary Lucy Kelly's, would be short and 'sweet'. It seems though that it has been so thorough and exonerating that Bayliss has been given the lead role in Simpson's 'Great Project'. Simpson has relied heavily on Bayliss for well over two years now.

amicus.cc have obtained the internal memos announcing his return and promotion, and publish them here as background info for the whole Bayliss affair, which we hope to cover shortly.
[Derek Simpson] Memo- Creating a New Union
[Derek Simpson] Memo- Les Bayliss
[amicus.cc] Previous story - Bayliss Mystery Remains
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 1st August 2005

amicus executive member Jerry Hicks

Rolls Royce Sack amicus Executive Member
amicus Convenor Jerry Hicks has now been sacked by Rolls Royce, this appears to be due to his trade union activities and could be a case of victimisation. Amicus members walked out when he was suspended. This is not just about Jerry as an individual, it is about the right to be a trade union member and to support other members in the workplace. It has implications for every one of us.

Amicus head office is said to be drafting a letter to the company and organising a ballot for official strike action. Jerry is also a Left member of the Amicus executive and was a member of the powerful General Purposes and Finance Committee, until he was removed by General Secretary Simpson. He was instrumental in the South West in securing votes for Derek Simpson during his election campaign. Hicks is well respected in the region for his political sensibility and hard work on the Left, not just in the old AEEU and now amicus but in many other struggles for working people, the most recent being the fire fighters dispute. He is also currently active in Bristol on the Stop the War campaign and to support asylum seekers.

Ian Waddell, Amicus' national officer for aerospace, said: "We are angry and disappointed but not surprised as clearly this has been Rolls Royce's intention all along. We will vigorously pursue an appeal, but we will also begin the process to ballot for industrial action."
New! [This is Bristol] 'I Will come back to Work'
New! [This is Bristol] R-R Union boss back on pay roll
New! [BBC] Jerry Wins interim relief
New! [Defend Jerry Hicks] Their own website
[Rolls Royce Shop Stewards Committee] Latest update
[BBC] Convenor loses internal appeal
[www.amicustheunion.org] union warns action could spread
[BBC] Ballot threatened over RR sacking
[SWP] Rolls Royce strike over sacking of Jerry Hicks
[BBC] Staff stage Rolls-Royce walk-out
[Rolls Royce Shop Stewards Committee] Defend the union at Rolls Royce Bristol
[Jerry Hicks] Jerry's response to messages of support
[www.amicustheunion.org.uk] Official union site - at last a short statement
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 19th July 2005, updated 20th,21st,28th July 2005, 1st, 4th, 6th, 7th August 2005

"Lay Member Democracy will be the Foundation of the New Union"
A working party set up to create the Super Union from amicus, GMB and TGWU has produced a statement. This working party of six members from each was quietly set up by the three General Secretaries with no reference to amicus's conference or executive.

Our executive did at least get to approve the members (well four of them): General Secretary Simpson, Executive chair and his best mate Steve Davison, and Right wing executive members Allan Cameron and Jane Lewis. Plus Simpson gets to choose two from his senior management team.

The working party boldly declared that "lay member democracy will be the foundation of the new union". However unlike previous mergers they do not plan to consult or get approval from the lay democratic structures of this union (conferences, industrial sectors, regional councils or branches). Instead they will go over our heads directly to a postal ballot of members with a question hand crafted by the working party. No doubt the working party will also be responsible for informing members of what is at stake. Such ballots are notorious for delivering a small turnout and massive majority in favour.

Credit to the GMB for making the statement public. Shame on amicus and TGWU for not.

Meanwhile some on the Left have pulled their fingers out and demanded:

Any merger agreement be approved by a recall Conference before being submitted to a ballot of the membership.
Only lay members not employees be allowed to sit on the new Executive.
Full time officers should be elected.
Full time officers should be responsible to the relevant lay committee.
The new rule book should be drawn up by people elected from Conference.

[GMB] Statement on creating a new union
[amicus.cc] Listing of Left and Right Executive members (pre GPMU and UNIFI)
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 14th July 2005

The Memo Meister

Simpson Shoots at Messenger
An extraordinary memo has come into the hands of amicus.cc. From General Secretary Simpson, it begins by publicising this website to all amicus staff and then concludes by accusing amicus.cc of "a completely fabricated story" and of trying "to create a reaction out with the procedures of the union".

Firstly then, concerning our completely fabricated story: Apparently Deputy General Secretary Kelly has not been given Voluntary redundancy (yet) and her car remains with the union. This is despite it being common knowledge at Head Office that she has gone and is not coming back. So to summarise then, Kelly remains on the amicus payroll at Ł80,000 a year but has been enjoying her garden (and car) and doing no work for the union since January 2005. Assuming this is true it is certainly nothing to be proud of. The fact that it takes over 6 months to conduct an investigation reflects very badly on either Deputy General Secretary Ed Sweeney who carried it out or General Secretary Simpson for sitting on it.

Secondly Simpson's reference to us creating "a reaction out with the procedures of the union": This is a criticism of our publication of the construction sector's complaint re. the non-election of the National Construction Officer. Read all about that issue below, suffice to say here that it's a bit rich for a General Secretary who is knowingly breaching a rule of the union to accuse us of working "out with" the procedures of the union.

So don't shoot the messenger Derek and here's the message: A bit less secrecy and a bit more openness wouldn't go amiss and then we wouldn't need a website to tell members what's really going on in our union. And a General Secretary who abides by democratically decided union rules might be a good place to start.
[Simpson] Memo to all staff
[amicus.cc] Previous Story Democracy or Dictatorship (Election or Appointment)
[amicus.cc] Previous Story Deputy General Secretary Paid Off, Ł100,000+?
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 4th July 2005

Les Bayliss

Bayliss Mystery Remains
It remains unclear why Deputy General Secretary Bayliss is suspended, but looking at the matey tone of Simpson's memo, the investigation, unlike Lucy Kelly's, may be short and 'sweet'. Bayliss was in charge of the AEEU Education Charity under Sir Ken Jackson. The much respected Robert Gomez had taken over but unexpectedly accepted Voluntary Redundancy 2 weeks ago.

Meanwhile there are rumours that another senior official has been suspended in the unrelated Kelly affair.
[Simpson] Memo to all staff
[amicus.cc] Previous Story Assistant General Secretary Suspended!
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 4th July 2005

Democracy or Dictatorship (Election or Appointment)
General Secretary Simpson called an emergency meeting of the construction sector last Tuesday and pressed the 16 reps for 2 hours to get them to withdraw their complaint, which demanded that the important post of Full Time Officer for construction be elected not appointed, as per the rule change passed at conference last month.

The result on Tuesday was a important victory for the democratic structure of the union: the reps unanimously rejected Simpson's plea and stuck to their principles. Next Tuesday there will be similar arm-twisting of the Left organisation's ruling body, when they meet the Left's Executive members (at least those not suspended from the Left for actually being Left).

Last Tuesday Simpson's main argument for evading election of the construction officer post (and for breaking union rules - Simpson actually admitted that any complaint to the Trade Union Certification Officer would succeed) was that the union can't afford to elect new officers while we have old ones wanting Voluntary Redundancy.

If accepted this would, in reality, mean that union officials would never be elected as there is a endless supply of redundant officials to be appointed. Even more so when amicus merges with the GMB and TGWU unions.

Simpson also maintained that the cost and planning required for a sectoral election was prohibitive. He was unable to answer reps' queries about why he or the Executive had not mentioned these 'problems' when the rule change motion requiring election was debated at conference last month. Or why they had failed to cost and plan a motion that they themselves had written and submitted.

For those on the Left always in favour of democracy rather than appointment, pieces are beginning to fit together. Despite Simpson's avowedly strong support for elections, there were always some nagging queries:

* Why did Simpson's tame area Yorkshire, tasked by the Left with proposing the motion for elections, mysteriously fail to do it?
* Why were the number of motions to conference so restricted by Simpson? (The motion to elect almost didn't make it).
* Why did Simpson (who intervened at conference in favour of many motions) decline to speak in favour of this one?
* Why did Simpson's right hand man and appointed¹ chair of conference, Steve Davison, fail to call the many female and minority members wanting to speak in favour of the motion? (The disingenuous argument of the Right had been that elections would discriminate.)
* Why was the vote was so close - passed by 50.8% to 49.3%? (Most motions supported by the Left AND the Executive got 95%+ support.)
* Why did Simpson let slip to an Executive member after the conference vote that there would be no actual elections under this Rule?

It's beginning to look like the dream scenario for Simpson may have been

1) Propose elections of officers but make sure the Left fail to get it on the agenda.
2) If the Left got it on, replace it with a NEC supported motion but get conference to vote it down.
3) If conference voted for it, fail to implement it on grounds of incompetence or finance.
4) If all else fails, delay any election and meanwhile merge with another union. Then lose the principle of election in the new rulebook (Simpson had already signalled in a public meeting that he would give it up if necessary for the greater glory of The Big Union).

These are very serious charges against a supposedly Left General Secretary; not least proposing to contravene a democratically decided rule of the union.
1 Davison was ironically appointed immediately after a rule change to avoid the required election of conference chair. Simpson had no trouble implementing that rule change immediately.
[amicus.cc] Previous story: Construction Members to Boycott Appointed Officer
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 30th June 2005

CMA Calls Special Conference
The rebel leadership of the CMA (Post Office Managers) section of amicus have called a conference next month to endorse their actions and permit a ballot the CMA members on leaving amicus. Possibly this will counter the threat by General Secretary Simpson to hold them personally liable for massive legal costs. amicus.cc have obtained a copy of Simpson's rather long letter containing the threat, which in addition makes the recipient "aware [of] the potential to bring about the possibility of disciplinary action against you under the rules of the union".
[CMA2005] Special Conference called for CMA ballot to quit
[Derek Simpson] Dear Colleague..
[amicus.cc] Previous story: NEC indemnify themselves, CMA executive threatened with costs
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 28th June 2005

A Fast Getaway

Another Assistant General Secretary Goes
The expensive cull at amicus continues. We have learnt that Assistant General Secretary Rory Murphy has taken Voluntary Redundancy from the union. The news may come as a surprise to those members who did not know that this "top UK Unionist" worked for the union or who thought he had left years ago.

Rory's VR package would be about Ł150,000, double his annual salary. But don't worry for his welfare, he has landed a prestigious job as Human Resources Director for Morgan Chambers, a leading firm of management consultants which specialises in outsourcing.

Personnel Today magazine was gushing in its praise of Morgan Chambers' "bold and imaginative" decision to hire Murphy.

"This is some catch for a company that is at the sharp end of employer/employee relations, and represents bold and imaginative recruitment. As HR director, Murphy will also be advising clients on how best to manage the outsourcing process from the employee perspective, having already acquired a wealth of understanding and experience in this area."

It is not known if Murphy took his car with him. It's become very difficult of late to find out about cars at amicus but we do know that his previous union car, a Volvo C70 convertible, automatic, was replaced in 2003 at a cost of Ł33,000.

We leave the final word to Rory:

“Trade unionists will be the consultants of the coming age,” he said. “Maybe I’m the first, but I’m sure there will be more.”

[Personnel Today] Unionist outsourcing recruit shows imaginative thinking
[Personnel Today] Top UK unionist moves to HR outsourcing role
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 21st June 2005

Assistant General Secretary Suspended!
Les Bayliss, once tipped to be next General Secretary of amicus, was suspended today and is the subject of new internal investigation within the union. Les had initiated the investigation into amicus's already suspended (and now possibly retired) Deputy General Secretary, Lucy Kelly, which is being carried out by the two remaining Deputy General Secretaries Ed Sweeney and Tony Dubbins. We don't know what the allegations are yet, it is known that Kelly had complained about Bayliss but this in itself is unlikely to have resulted in his suspension.

Annoucing this by email, General Secretary Simpson asked staff 'not to speculate on the reasons'.
[amicus.cc] Previous story - Deputy General Secretary Paid Off, Ł100,000+?
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 20th June 2005, updated 21st June 2005

Construction Members to Boycott Appointed Officer
The first union post to come up since conference agreed to elect officials has been advertised. To the fury of the construction section it is up for appointment not election. The post is National Officer for Construction.

Some NEC members had been led to believe the construction section wanted appointment, but in fact the section had put in an emergency motion at conference specifically to ensure the post was elected. That was ruled out of order by Conference Arrangements Committee and most delegates never saw it.

amicus.cc have obtained a copy of the internal job ad. Don't bother to apply though, we hear the best person for the job is one Tom Hardacre. To paraphrase Stalin 'those who cast the votes decide nothing, those who cancel the vote decide everything.'

This election evasion may well be illegal and have to be reversed if anyone makes a complaint about it:

"3. A complaint can be made to the Certification Officer that a trade union has (i) either itself or one of its sections or branches has breached, or threatened to breach, the rules of the union in relation to certain matters (section 108A of the 1992 Act). The matters are: (a) the appointment or election of a person to, or the removal of a person from, any office;"

New! The construction sector have written to General Secretary Simpson, read their letter in full below but here's a couple of snippets:

"The Construction NSC wish to place on record their utter dismay and disgust at the blatant disregard of members wishes who voted clearly in favour of the election of all Full Time Officers at our recent conference in Brighton."
"candidates who apply for an appointed post ... will receive no support from members within the Construction and Contracting industries thus rendering the position untenable"

[amicus] Internal Job Advert
[amicus.cc] Conference report
New! [amicus construction sector] Formal complaint to General Secretary Simpson
[Trade Union Certification Officer] Making a complaint
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 14th June 2005, updated 15th June 2005

Censored! (again)
amicus.cc were caught by surprise at this week's biennual conference. This website was banned from the conference's free internet cafe, just as it was 4 years ago under the Roger Lyons leadership. This time though the decision was not made by an over zealous official, it was from the top and it was not rescinded.

The outsourced company providing the cut-down service (only 4 screens and zero seats this year) had been specifically instructed to ban amicus.cc and the dormant rogerlyons.com. Surprisingly the rebel CMA site was left alone. In fact General Secretary Simpson actually told delegates to look at it during one of his frequent interventions. Delegates were still able to view amicus.cc using Googles cache and via sites normally used to bypass employer censorship like anonymouse.

If it happens again in 2007 we'll resort to paper copies handed out to delegates again. Please pass on the amicus.cc address to other members who may not know of the site. Full conference report below.
[amicus.cc] Historys repeats, first time as farce - Censored in 2001
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 19th May 2005

Judy Box - 'Bed Blockers'

Policy and Rules Conference 2005 - Brief Report
The conference finished yesterday with a rousing speech by Gordon Brown. At least he and the 6 out of 650 delegates who gave him a standing ovation thought so. His rather long monologue included a emotional bit, where Gordon reminisced about meeting a brother and sister in a war torn poverty stricken part of the planet. The brother was dying of AIDS and the sister would never receive the education she needed for her dream of becoming a doctor. Brown castigated the West for denying them medicine and assistance. Maybe we'd blown the resources on depleted uranium for the children of Iraq.

Conference began badly on Saturday; in a move that the previous General Secretary (and nuclear waste expert) Sir Ken Jackson would have been proud of, a statement supporting nuclear power was cleverly inserted, almost completely out of context, into one on rebuilding manufacturing. Not enough delegates spotted it and it was passed. amicus is now formally in favour of nuclear power.

On Sunday the conference narrowly voted to dis-affiliate from Stop the War coalition. General Secretary Simpson had by this stage perfected a habit of personal interventions between delegate's speeches, on one occasion having the strict 3 minute timing light switched off. He intervened to say that people don't know enough about Stop the War (the most popular movement in Britain ever) and that the union shouldn't affiliate. This leaves Stop the War with just the T&G, GMB, ASLEF, CWU, FBU, NAPO, NATFHE, NUJ, PCS, RMT, TSSA and UNISON unions. Note that we are supposed to be merging with the first two in 4 month time.

So that's where we are now, the official conference theme is 'Changing the World' but we're pro nuclear power and we're refusing to engage in the anti-war movement. Just the thing to encourage young members, hopefully they will tell Derek Simpson so when he next helicopters in to Glastonbury.

Undoubtedly the star of conference this year was Executive member and veteran right winger Judy Box. On Monday Conference was stuck into a debate on the removal of the ageist ban on older members holding office, introduced in the Jackson rule book. Derek Simpson had just made one of his personal interventions to keep the ban, and he did it very well: calm, reasonable, classic stuff. Unfortunately for him up stepped Judy Box in support. The content and argument of her speech was almost identical to Derek's. Luckily but insultingly for retired members her delivery and the words she used were not. To gasps of outrage from delegates she castigated the older members of amicus, called them white and middle class (pots and kettles come to mind here - caucasian school governor Box was on the MSF Arts National Advisory Committee) and topped it off by calling them 'bed blockers', an extremely offensive term which many delegates took to mean the longest serving members of amicus should piss off and die. She was forced to apologise and withdraw the remark.

Simpson and Box narrowly lost the vote and amicus can no longer discriminate against older members. Delegates broke for lunch and to a member they left discussing Box's speech. Simpson's fury was evident and he carried it over to a fringe meeting where he chastised delegates' behaviour as if they were little children. He also used the word 'stupid' in reference to some elected people in amicus, we have to say it was not clear to whom he was referring.

The Executive-imposed chair Steve Davison, after a slow start on Saturday, developed himself into one of the most competent and amiable chairs seen at such a conference. He was assisted by the electronic voting system which speeded up everything and eliminated disputes and calls for tellers. However pressing buttons rather than raising arms does take away some of the spirit of conference. In the glossy literature on the electronic system no assurances whatsoever were given on security and data protection. Only the total votes 'for', 'against' and 'abstaining' were displayed on a large screen along with their percentages.

At times when an otherwise 100% vote was spoilt by 1 or 2 abstentions, Chair Davison made a point of jokingly asking those odd one or two delegates to identify themselves. The message was clear - 'I have no record of how people voted, honest'. On delegates wishing to speak though, things were different. Normally the whole conference can see who has their hand up to speak and the Chair has to take care to keep a balance and to call speakers he may not agree with. With the electronic button pressing only Davison had this information. He let slip a couple of times that his personal screen also identified to him the delegates' sections. Really that information should be on the big screen for all delegates to see. Electronic systems have the potential to replicate the old AEEU tradition of officials standing over delegates to force compliance, and in a much more efficient way. On balance it was an effective yet disturbing system and it is amazing that no assurances were given or asked for, e.g. an audit by elected delegates or trustees.

The best and the narrowest result of conference was the election of full time officials in the union. This is clearly a pet subject of Derek Simpson's and he spoke in favour of it, albeit not in the conference hall but at a fringe meeting. Credit to him for getting it through, no doubt the official web site will tell you more. The vote was 49%-51%. Once implemented, all new officials of the union will be elected. Sadly Simpson did indicate at a fringe meeting that he would sacrifice this if needed to fulfil his ultimate pet project, 'Merger Merger Merger'.

Another good result was the executive's capitualtion on a motion against privatisation. Just prior to the vote Simpson was persuaded by a vociferous Health Sector to support it. This win was marred only by the left 'Gazette' group's leadership's bizarre decision the night before to oppose it.

Delegate attendance at the sessions was good, even on the morning after the night of the free drinks social at the Grand Hotel (home of the Executive for the duration). Only about 20 delegates entirely failed to turn up at Brighton, including right wingers Bob Braddock (NEC serial expense claimer) and Michelle Evans (ex vice president). No doubt they will be returning the Ł125 subsistence cheques sent to delegates the week before.
[www.amicustheunion.org.uk] The official conference web page
New! [amicus.cc] Report in detail
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 19th May 2005

Conference Staff Contracts Breached
At least 10 amicus staff have refused to work this weekend at the biennial conference in Brighton, in response to this email:

"To all Staff Reps
For staff attending the Amicus Conference, the following allowances/provisions will apply:
* Ł13 (non-taxable) for each day of attendance between 14th and 18th May
* in addition, Ł30 (taxable) for each of Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th May if worked
* a day off in lieu for weekend days worked (excluding Directors and Heads of Department).
No other allowances or additional pay will apply. All accommodation and meal costs will be covered and travel expenses can be reclaimed in the usual way.
This notice overrides any previous contractual arrangements. If any of your members planning to attend Conference are likely to have issues with regard to the above, they should talk to their Regional Secretary/Head of Department/appropriate manager immediately.
Tony Ayres"

The email tears up the existing more generous arrangements MSF employees had. Apparently during the harmonisation of AEEU and MSF contracts, amicus are consistently imposing the least beneficial clauses. Luckily there are no plans for a picket of conference which would have been very embarrassing. However the fat cat senior officials of the union are going to have to watch carefully what they claim this weekend.

The employee's reps (from the GMB union) issued a bulletin in response, including the comment:

"We understand management is seeking to get staff attending conference to sign a disclaimer regarding their contractual rights. We expect such tactics from a bad employer but not from a trade union employer."

In fact even a bad employer would have sorted it out well before conference, not with just a few days to spare.
[GMB] Expenses for attending conference
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 13th May 2005

Simpson Tells Blair to Go
The amicus General Secretary is the first Labour-affiliated union leader to break the pre-election vow of silence and call for Blair to go. Quoted in today's Guardian and Independent he said of Blair:

"comments from him like 'I will serve a full term' are not helpful."

Simpson also revealed that amicus gave Labour Ł2 million for the election campaign. As an aside Simpson revealed that a ballot for amicus to merge with the T&G and GMB unions could be held as early as September.
[Guardian] Union leader tells Blair to prepare for successor
[Independent] A full term would be ludicrous, says union
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 13th May 2005

True amicus Membership Figures Revealed
The union's internal membership figures for April 2005 have been passed to amicus.cc. Union statistics on this subject have always been a joke, the old MSF union in particular had tens of thousands of homeless non-paying members. Despite promises to clean up the figures it is apparent that the abuse continues. The official amicus website proclaims:

"Amicus is the UK's largest manufacturing, technical & skilled persons' union. With over 1.2m members in the private & public sectors, we are a major industrial force."

Prior to the acquisition of the GPMU and UNIFI, it was regularly claimed we had 1 million members. If fact amicus.cc can now reveal we had 637,659 then. As of April, including the 2 unions' membership, we have 880,090. A minor discrepancy of over 320,000.
[amicus.cc] Membership by region
[amicus.cc] Membership by sector
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 12th May 2005

NEC indemnify themselves, CMA executive threatened with costs
amicus General Secretary Simpson has written to all CMA members to explain the current dispute. Of the CMA executive and their High Court case he says "they may come to regret that the costs fall on themselves as individuals". Legal costs involved may well run into 6 figures.

At the amicus National Executive meeting in February, Simpson had informed members that the CMA was planning to sue them personally; the NEC members promptly voted for the union to indemnify them against any such claims. This means of course that if the CMA succeed in holding NEC members personally liable, amicus members will stump up the cash. However if the CMA lose, their executive members will likely be made personally bankrupt.
[amicus] Letter to members
[amicus] February minutes
[amicus.cc] Previous Story: CMA Goes to Court
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 14th April 2005

CMA Goes to Court
The CMA (Communication Managers Association) yesterday issued legal proceedings in the High Court against amicus, of which the CMA is a section. The CMA is attempting to recover approximately Ł 3.4 million of members funds which they claim amicus unlawfully removed from its bank accounts.
[CMA2005] CMA Sues amicus
[amicus.cc] Previous Story: CMA Executive Stages Lock-in
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 17th March 2005

amicus.cc exclusive!

National Executive Election Results
Read them here, now, or read them next month on the official amicus website:
Margaret Lawson 48,981 votes- ELECTED
Jane Stewart 45,696 votes- ELECTED
Anne Trafford 37,769 votes
Lorene Fabian 33,439 votes
A mixed result with the two Left candidates coming second and last. The turnout is about 8%, if you believe the official membership figure of one million but actually it is 11.8%.
[amicus.cc] Previous Story: NEC Women's Seat Election
New! [amicustheunion.org.uk] Official Independent scrutineer's report
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 15th March 2005

CMA Executive Stages Lock-in
amicus may be talking about getting bigger but it is at serious risk of losing its Post Office managers section, the CMA. Yesterday the rebel CMA executive launched www.cma2005.org.uk and announced that the CMA office, closed abruptly by amicus on Friday, would be staffed by volunteers, effectively a lock-in. According to Jim Buckley, chair of CMA's executive:

"Last Friday, February 25 2005, Mr D Collins an Assistant General Secretary of Amicus arrived at CMA Headquarters and convened two meetings, one with the staff and the other with the two Officers of the Section. The staff were told they could go home. They were assured they would have jobs with Amicus as long as they wanted them, that they would remain on full pay. The Officers were told much the same in that they could in future work from Amicus HQ or remotely. Despite the actions taken by Amicus to withdraw staff and official support from the Headquarters Building, CMA House, I can assure you that we will remain open. It will be staffed by members of your Executive Committee and other volunteers Monday to Friday as usual. "

The CMA executive have also launched legal action against amicus and Unity Trust bank.
[CMA2005] Renegade website
[amicus.cc] Previous Story: CMA Set to Split
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 28th February 2005

Beyond Super Union: Euro Union
amicus General Secretary Simpson's plans evidently go beyond just merging with the TGWU and GMB unions. In an interview in yesterday's Financial Times, he said 'We need to develop the idea of a European trade union'.
[Financial Times] Unions must join forces in Europe, says Amicus chief
[EU Observer] Call for a European trade union
[Personnel Today] Call for unions to join forces across EU borders
[amicus.cc] Previous Story: More Super Union Stuff
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 23rd February 2005

NEC Women's Seat Election
Every union member should receive a ballot paper this week for the two vacant women's seats on the National Executive Committee. The Left are fielding Jane Stewart and Lorene Fabian. The disarray on the Right seems to have been resolved, with ballot rigging beneficiary Leonie Cooper pulling out to leave the Right-wing candidates Margaret Lawson and Anne Trafford. Lawson is ex-AEEU and came a poor 6th last time. Trafford is an old Roger Lyons supporter from the MSF union. The new Right organisation 'ATU' don't seem to have either candidates or a website.

If you do not receive a ballot paper by Friday 25 February contact the union Head Office on 0845 850 4242. Below we list which branches nominated which candidates.
[amicus] Stewart v Lawson nominations
[amicus] Fabian v Trafford nominations
[amicus Unity Gazette] The Left's official website
New! [amicus members first] The Right's website
New! [amicus-first] The Right's other website
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 20th February 2005

Kelly: Suspended from her Ł80,000 a year post

Amicus Theft Scandal Gets Dirty
Suspended Deputy General Secretary Lucy Kelly has retaliated against her boss Derek Simpson with allegations of antisemitism. Both Kelly and the other suspended official, John Gardner, are Jewish. Kelly alleges in the Mail on Sunday that Simpson said 'Wherever there's a rip off there's a Jew'. Simpson denies this.

New! amicus.cc tip on how to tell if it's true or not: See how much money Kelly gets paid off with. For good measure Kelly is also alleging sex discrimination and claims to be suffering from multiple sclerosis.

The 'friend of Mrs Kelly' mentioned in the Mail on Sunday article is thought to be none other than ex-General Secretary Roger Lyons himself. Kelly was a well known Lyons lover. Lyons, also Jewish, is no stranger to false allegations of antisemitism, once provoking prominent Jewish members in the union to write an open letter of complaint:

"We believe that the cynical misuse of this charge [antisemitism] undermines both our union's policy against racism, and the fight against all forms of racism, including anti-Jewish racism."

Roger had objected to the use of the song 'If I were a rich man' on the anti corruption site www.rogerlyons.com.

The Mail on Sunday also revealed that the union have located Ł130,000 of siphoned off funds, in false branch accounts which Lyons denied ever existed.
[Mail on Sunday] Union Boss Accused of Jibe at Jews
[amicus.cc] Previous Story: Theft Scandal: Another Suspension
[Labournet] Previous Story: MSF members rebut antisemitism claim
[amicus.cc] Previous Story: Antisemitism Charge Rebutted
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 11th February 2005

Amicus Member Charged with Damaging Ł20 of Flowers
Martin Gleeson, an active amicus member in the North West region, has been arrested by Chief Superintendent Keith Bentley, the most senior police officer in Oldham. After being held for 7 hours he was charged under the Criminal Damage Act 1971 with injuring flowers valued at Ł20.

Two notorious British National Party activists, in a calculated insult, had turned up at the town’s official Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony and laid a wreath. Martin's crime was to lay another one on top to cover it up. The BNP complained that this had damaged their flowers.
New! [Guardian] BNP wreath charge for union man
[Guardian] Diary
[Oldham Trades Council] Oldham TUC Secretary Arrested
[Oldham Trades Council] Press Release
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 8th February 2005, updated 23rd February 2005

Theft Scandal: Another Suspension
amicus.cc have learnt that another senior union official has been suspended as part of the investigation into theft by ex-head of Finance Nelson Mendes. Failed businessman and enthusiastic litigant John Gardner has been suspended. Gardner promptly resigned his West Midlands organiser post; this is likely to make an investigation more difficult.

Gardner was a key member of Lyons' clique that ran the union while Mendes' thieving was going on, heading up the General Purposes and Finance Committee. He frustrated aspects of the original enquiry according to the union's auditors at the time.

Related to the original investigations, the Trade Union Certification Officer observed that his failed company 'Causeway Travel'

"received a considerable amount of business from MSF [the union] and Mr Gardner was on its board".

The litigious Gardner once forced an apology from the respected Trade Union Review over matters involving Causeway Travel.

Meanwhile Private Eye have covered the story, seemingly their lawyers are less wary than we were, read for yourself:
[Private Eye] TUC News
[Certification Office] Original CO report
[HW Fisher] Original Auditor's report
[Trade Union Review] John Gardner
[amicus.cc] Previous Story: Amicus Deputy General Secretary Suspended!
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 6th February 2005

More Super Merger Stuff
Apparently the subject didn't make it to Wednesday's amicus NEC agenda but nontheless was discussed extensively. The more powerful and recently purged General Purposes and Finance Committee was officially told at 8am the day before, and unanimously endorsed the merger. General Secretary Simpson put it to the NEC that this was the dawn of a new day in the history of the labour movement . Almost no content was disclosed (e.g. a timetable?). The theme seems to be 'leave it to us' (Simpson and Woodley).

The TGWU and Amicus will now both write to Kevin Curran of the GMB inviting him to join merger talks. He is formally under instruction from his own Executive not to discuss merger with anyone, but he seems to have been central to the talks that have already taken place. Apparently it's already been agreed that Woodley and Simpson will be Joint General Secretaries of the new super union and Curran will go.

The latest headlines on the subject:
[Socialist Workers Party] Union mergers
[Interactive Investor] T&G, Amicus, GMB agree to start talks on forming 'super union'
[GMB] Press Release
[amicus] Amicus agrees merger talks
[TGWU] T&G agrees talks for new union
[The Scotsman] TGWU joins 'super union' talks
[IT News] Amicus Agree Merger Talks
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 2nd February 2005

TGWU and amicus in merger talks
Updated! The following story seems to have been comprehensively fed to all major news media this week, although rumours of a take-over of TGWU have been around for a while. There is a simple test to see if it is a Left move or just another attempt to muzzle members in greater numbers: Will a new rule book be drawn up? If the current amicus book (written by Sir Ken Jackson with resources provided by Blair) is to be used you can be sure it's a plan to make bosses (union leaders included) more powerful and members less. In any case a new union formed by merging the TGWU with amicus would still have fewer members than the TGWU alone had at the height of its power in the 1970s.

Confidential talks aimed at creating a "super-union" covering huge swathes of the private sector are expected to begin this week. A special meeting of the Transport & General Workers' Union (T&G) on Wednesday will approve a closer working relationship with the giant Amicus union, leading to a merger, according to the Independent.

Amicus general secretary Derek Simpson has consistently argued in favour of one union for the private sector. Although the executive of the GMB, the country's fourth biggest union, has so far rebuffed advances from the nascent organisation, it is thought it might be drawn into a merger. The construction union Ucatt will also be a candidate. That would give the new union a membership of more than 2.7 million and call into question the continued existence of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) which acts as an umbrella organisation for the movement.
[Guardian] T&G and Amicus in merger talks
[Independent] Amicus and T&G try to form 'super union'
[Personnel Today] Two biggest UK unions talk about a merger
[Scotsman] Moves on Forming 'Super Union' to Begin
New! [The Sun] Unions to take on Blair
New! [Financial Times] Biggest private sector unions set for merger talks
New! [BBC] 'Super union' merger plan touted
New! [Guardian] Merger could create biggest union
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 31st January 2005, updated 1st February 2005

amicus MP: 'Sack or Sue Strikers'
The amicus sponsored MP and junior minister John Spellar has provoked fury by instructing government officials to examine whether amicus workers could be sacked or sued for taking part in industrial action.

In a confidential memo the Minister had sought adv