Election of CWU GS - Update: Hayes elected!

[TrueBlueTerrier]

To: All Branches

Dear Colleague

Election of:

CWU General Secretary

CWU Assistant Secretary – Postal (Parcelforce/RM Logistics)

CWU Assistant Secretary – TFS


Please find below important information regarding the above elections.

1. CWU General Secretary, CWU Assistant Secretary – Postal (Parcelforce/RM Logistics) and CWU Assistant Secretary - TFS

The NEC is required to agree and publish the election timetable and regulations for the statutory election of the General Secretary and the election of the Assistant Secretary – Postal (Parcels/RM Logistics) and Assistant Secretary – TFS which are subject to election in accordance with the CWU national rule that requires election every 5 years. The timetable for the elections is as follows:

Nominations Open: 10 January 2011

Nominations Close: 31 January 2011 (14.00)

Accept Nomination: 3 February 2011 (14.00)

Dispatch ballot material from: 8 March 2011

Close of ballot: 29 March 2011 (first post)

Result: 31 March 2011

The Election Regulations stipulate that a copy of the regulations for the elections must be distributed to all branches in advance of the nomination process. A copy of the Election Regulations is therefore enclosed and I would be grateful if you could ensure that these are brought to the attention of the membership.

The regulations will also be published on the CWU website and a copy will be issued to all candidates nominated to stand in the elections.

The relevant nomination forms for the above elections will be distributed to branches prior to the opening date for nominations.



2. Elections Prize Draws

Branches are once again reminded that in order to protect the integrity of these very important national elections and more importantly, ensure that the union is legally compliant with the relevant legislation covering such elections, that election prize draws should not be conducted under any circumstances unless written authorisation has been given by the Senior Deputy General Secretary.

Any enquiries regarding this LTB should be addressed to Senior Deputy General Secretary Department, CWU HQ, for the attention of Peter Metcalfe, Telephone: 0208 971 7368, Email: pmetcalfe@cwu.org.

Yours sincerely



Tony Kearns
Senior Deputy General Secretary

[TrueBlueTerrier]

COMMUNICATION WORKERS UNION

ELECTION OF:

GENERAL SECRETARY
ASSISTANT SECRETARY – POSTAL (Parcelforce, Royal Mail Logistics)
ASSISTANT SECRETARY – TELECOM & FINANCIAL SERVICES

ELECTION REGULATIONS – Winter 2011

1. These regulations have been determined by the National Executive Council in accordance with the Rules of the Union to govern the election for the CWU General Secretary, CWU Assistant Secretary – Postal (Parcelforce, Royal Mail Logistics) and CWU Assistant Secretary – TFS. The election will take place in winter 2011 and the successful candidates will take up office on 1st July 2011 for a period of five years.

2. Nominations open on 10 January 2011. The Senior Deputy General Secretary will provide formal notice of when the election will take place.

3. All eligible Branches shall be sent a nomination form for this election. All branch nominations must be agreed at properly constituted Branch meetings.  Each Branch shall return nomination forms to the Senior Deputy General Secretary, CWU to arrive no later than 14.00 on 31 January 2011.  Nominations received after that date will not be accepted.  Each Branch shall be responsible for the correct completion of the nomination form.  Further copies of the nomination form may be applied for from The Senior Deputy General Secretary.

4. Members who are nominated as a candidate will be sent a letter confirming receipt of a nomination, and the appropriate forms to be completed giving their biographical details and the election address together with a copy of these Regulations. Acceptance of nomination and completed forms for biographical details and the election address, together with a recent photograph must be received by 14.00 on 3 February 2011 by the Senior Deputy General Secretary, CWU, 150 The Broadway, Wimbledon, London SW19 1RX.  Any biographical details or election addresses or photographs received after that date will not be accepted.

5. Each candidate must receive the nomination of five Branches by the close of the nomination period in order to be eligible for election.  The five nominations must include the nomination of the candidate’s own Branch. 

6. Only candidates will be entitled to contact the Senior Deputy General Secretary during the nomination period and ask whether 5 Branches have nominated them.  Candidates will only be entitled to ask about their own nominations.
 
7. The Senior Deputy General Secretary will receive the Branch nominations. Each candidate will be entitled to choose which five nominations are published.  This list of nominations will also be published with the personal statement/biography outlined in Rule 9.7.7

8. The full list of all Branch nominations received will be published in alphabetical order to all the unions Branches via a Letter to Branches (LTB). Candidates shall undertake not to include the full list of their nominating Branches in their election address, and the Senior Deputy General Secretary may delete any list, which is included in the election address.

9. Each candidate shall have the right to prepare an election address of not more than 500 words and to submit a recent photograph.  The Senior Deputy General Secretary shall delete words in excess of 500.  The content of the election address is the responsibility of the individual candidate and the Union will not be held responsible for any defamatory or libellous statements contained in the address.


10. The election addresses and individual photographs for all candidates will be published and distributed with the ballot papers to all members.  Other than Branch publicity restricted to the membership of their individual Branch any other publicity or canvassing such as handouts, posters etc. for any or all candidates will be the responsibility of the individual candidate who shall fund any such publicity. 

11. The method of recommending support for candidates to its own Branch members will be a matter for each Branch.  No Branch officer or other workplace representative shall have any responsibility for the circulation of publicity for any candidate other than the candidate recommended by the Branch.  All material produced by a Branch must include the name of the Branch and the printer’s name and address where appropriate.

12. The Independent Person, in accordance with all legislation, designated as the printer of all ballot material is under instruction to refer any request from a candidate or Branch to undertake printing on their behalf, to the Independent Scrutineer and General Secretary.  Printing for a Branch, or candidate, can only be undertaken by the Independent Person with the written authority of both the Independent Scrutineer and the General Secretary.

13. Candidates may not use information held by the union on its national records for workplace or home addresses for members for the purposes of distributing any publicity material.  Any complaint that a member has used such information may be investigated by the Independent Scrutineer, and if as a result, the complaint is upheld, may take appropriate action in accordance with para.22 of these Regulations.

14. Voting will be by individual member by the marking of a ballot paper by the member entitled to vote.  The ballot will be fully postal in accordance with current legislation.

15. Each member entitled to vote shall be allowed to do so without interference, constraint or undue pressure, in secret, and so far as is reasonably practicable, without incurring any direct cost to the member.

16. So far as is reasonably practicable, all members entitled to vote will receive a ballot paper at the address notified in writing to the CWU.  The ballot papers will be dispatched, so far as is reasonably practicable, from 8 March 2011.  For votes to be valid, members must mark the ballot paper in accordance with the instruction, and return it sealed in the prepaid envelope provided to the address nominated by the Independent Scrutineer and appearing on the envelope.

17. All eligible members included in the Register maintained by the Union as at 4 February 2011 are entitled to vote.  Whilst every effort will be made so far as is reasonably practicable to ensure that each member will receive a ballot paper through the post, the requirement of the security of the ballot prevents the issue of a second ballot paper to a member in any circumstance.

18. The last time for receipt of ballot papers at the address nominated by the Scrutineer will be first post 29 March 2011.  Any ballot papers received after that time will not be counted.

19. Returned ballot papers will remain unopened in their envelopes until the close of ballot. Two lay CWU members (who do not hold any elected or appointed position) will be selected as observers. The Observers together with the Senior Deputy General Secretary will attend the start of the count of the ballot papers. Their sole responsibility will be to ensure that the envelopes are unopened prior to the commencement of the count, after which the Scrutineer shall arrange to count the number of valid votes cast for each candidate. The Scrutineer will declare the results of the election on 31 March 2011 or as soon as possible thereafter. 

20. The CWU is committed to free and democratic elections and will actively oppose racism and sexism and all forms of discrimination based on race, creed, religion, age, disability, sex or sexual orientation in industry, the Union and Society.  Members and candidates must not behave in a discriminatory manner or circulate any material that may be offensive to any other member or candidate.

21. No full time officer of the Union as defined under the rules, shall publicly endorse, at any official Union organised meeting or conference or in writing, any candidate for election.

22. A member, candidate or Branch may make a complaint regarding the ballot on the grounds that there has been a breach of Union Rules or of these Regulations.  The complaint must be submitted in writing to the Independent Scrutineer no later than four weeks of the declaration of the results.  The Scrutineer shall investigate the complaint, and if as a result, the complaint is upheld may declare the election void or the election of any particular person void or any appropriate candidate disqualified.  In addition they may invalidate any vote or any number of votes previously counted, or include any vote or any number of votes not previously counted and thereby re-determine the results of the election.  The decision of the Scrutineer shall be final and binding.

23. These Regulations shall be distributed to all Branches in advance of the nomination process for the purpose of being brought to the attention of the membership.  The Regulations shall be sent to each candidate on receipt of their nomination, and to any other individual member who applies to either the Union or to Electoral Reform Services Limited.

24. Any matter not covered by the Rules of the CWU, or by decision of the NEC prior to the ballot, shall be determined by the Scrutineer.

25. The Scrutineer appointed in accordance with the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1992, as amended, shall be Electoral Reform Services Limited, The Election Centre, 33 Clarendon Road London N8 ONW. In addition to carrying out duties in accordance with the Act, the Scrutineer shall make whatever enquiries or investigations they consider appropriate in order to ensure that, as far as possible, the ballot has been carried out in accordance with these Regulations.  The decision of the Scrutineer on any matter in these Regulations shall be final.

[dvbuk55]

If ever there was a time to show that all is not well in the state of Denmark..........................drop the dead donkeys.

[fishtank]

If ever there was a time to show that all is not well in the state of Denmark..........................drop the dead donkeys.

Indeed....it is perhaps time for all of us who criticise the leadership to stand up and be counted..literally.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

If ever there was a time to show that all is not well in the state of Denmark..........................drop the dead donkeys.

Indeed....it is perhaps time for all of us who criticise the leadership to stand up and be counted..literally.

Thats if there is a contested election unlike the last one which wasn't.

[dvbuk55]

If ever there was a time to show that all is not well in the state of Denmark..........................drop the dead donkeys.

Indeed....it is perhaps time for all of us who criticise the leadership to stand up and be counted..literally.

Thats if there is a contested election unlike the last one which wasn't.

And that is the problem.................the hierarchy don't want to rock the boat and the sycophants don't want to let on that the emperor is nekkid in case their supposed importance is exposed.

Still I suppose we could all become involved........................ho hum.

[Martin Walsh]

Go on lads you only have to recieve the nominations of 5 branch"s in line with the rules and then your in the ring , but you might find you need to actually come out in the open and prove you have the policies to do something different.

[fishtank]

Go on lads you only have to recieve the nominations of 5 branch"s in line with the rules and then your in the ring , but you might find you need to actually come out in the open and prove you have the policies to do something different.

Is there no-one with the experience and credentials willing to stand?
Or.....have alliances and little politics played their part again?

[heston]

there wont be a challange,the reps are happy.release garanteed ,funds backed by the employer,deliver the deal for r/m plc ,wimbledon and the cwu,continue.
the real culprits ,are the div and area reps who reported that there troops would not sustain strikes.delivery would have stayed out forever and a day.mail centres .etc.not as strong,now we have mail centres under threat ,because rm have just about finished booting delivery,the shoes on the other foot,divided and conquered.we had em last year ,politics at the top decided to let them off.to close to labour,to far from the members,..
when u have div reps ,paid for by the employer,then he who pays the piper calls the tune,when the employer gives release time area reps,its recinded when the managers believe its not helping there cause.beware reps on full release .its an easy life IF.....THEY PLAY BALL

[Martin Walsh]

Fishtank I do not believe that Billy will have a challenge , could be wrong but a challenger would have had to be getting Branch support by now and would not have come from Billy"s heartlands. So unless it comes from the BT section i cannot see Billy facing a challenge.

Now Heston as someone who has led disputes simply because Royal Mail pays a reps wages means nothing , after all Royal Mail pay postmans pay but does that stop someone coming on here moaning about the job.

Now where you are wrong is your memory of last years dispute , some had 18 days of strikes before the national dipsute and some in deliveries in some localities were moaning after 2 others did state that in some areas it was not as well supported as in 2007.

The reality is that the strategy was always that there would have to have been an interim agreement which paved the way to resolve the executive action , the discpline cases on pickets lines etc and those taken off pay. But also a platform to allow time for a bigger agreement. The union was quite close to achieving that without any national action and a draft agreement was very close when the newsnight leak appeared exposing Royal Mail"s strategy which led to that Dave Ward press conference naming the strike day.

The problem I think has been is some members still believe that the union could have stopped walk sequencing and door to door being put into workload and that the union could have protected every mail centre . That was never possible , the aim was to reach an agreement rather than allow Royal Mail to impose all of those things , remember they were never options they were absolutes in Royal Mail"s demands remember they had bought the machines , they were losing outward work in the mail centre by DSA and they were demanding the right to grow the door to door business further.

How tell me when your with ACAS and someone the Government and the TUC had appointed Roger Poole to mediate on the negotations how do you say your going to stop the machines , stop DSA work bypassing the outward mail centre opp amd that your opposed to Royal Mail growiing the door to door market by putting it into work load.
.

[dvbuk55]

Well we know who's watching the watchers in the CWU.

[Cut Off King]

The problem I think has been is some members still believe that the union could have stopped walk sequencing and door to door being put into workload and that the union could have protected every mail centre .

Nobody said you could have stopped them all, but I would have liked the CWU to have tried, instead the CWU pulled back the covers and jumped into bed with RM

-- And the members are now paying the price ! --

[Martin Walsh]

The CWU did try and tried dammed hard ! Why do you think it took over months of talks to conclude an agreement ! The delay did not suit royal mail did it ? If the union had rolled over as you suggest then there would have been an agreement within a month !

Let's fact it some on here would have only supported an agreement if the CWU had stopped all the automation which royal mail had already bought with the money they loaned from the government , along with stopping royal mail from attracting more of the door to door Market. !

That is the stuff of dream worlds

[dvbuk55]

Well lets look on the bright side for the New Year, judging from dingos' reply we're in for more of the same self congratulation and expiation. It was such a good deal that more than 12 months after the "interim agreement" there are STILL outstanding issues. Despite the amount spent on modernisation there is hardly any offices which have had the revisions and those that have are paying a price.

Wonder what our new employers will think of the organisation of the CWU.............I'll bet there's a few "full timers" looking for the goodbye kiss with perks

[Big Daz]

dingo

I have zero issues with automation as it can be used to bring to life the the much dreamed of 35 hour week. At the end of the 3 year transformation period I would hope and Im certain that whoever is DGSp at the time will formally request a further reduction in the working week. I would take a SWW over another increase in basic pay,of course I would like both but if it was a straightforward choice between the two I would go for the SWW.