Unite Election - Dirty Tricks and Lies

When radicals look like winning...it usually gets dirty


Latest on http://www.dearunite.com :
Read the full text by following the link above. The plain text below omits graphs, supporting documents and links.

Unite Election - Dirty Tricks and Lies
In an incredible and quite likely illegal move the union's executive have circulated a 'correction' to the election address of candidate Jerry Hicks.
Unlike the blatant electioneering at members' expense which was Simpson's letter to all members last week (estimated cost £250,000), this document was actually included with the ballot papers. Because of this we believe it constitutes an amendment to Hick's election address and an extension to Simpson's, both of which are illegal. If so it would represent a serious cock-up by the union's legal department and may result in a re-run of the election.
To add insult to injury, the Executive statement is untrue and misleading according to the union's own Annual Returns. The statement says "Mr Simpson's salary is currently under £100.000". But according to the last available figures compiled by the union, his basic salary in 2007 was £105,217 and the total cost of his remuneration, including his car and housing benefit was a whopping £194,252. The only possible explanation would be if Simpson has taken a pay cut in his election year, maybe that was his justification for a 17% pay increase in 2007.
We've asked Simpson about this and received no comment.
The Daily Mirror have come out in support of Simpson. This is not at all connected to the fact that the union pays the paper to host the column "The Rights Stuff", written by Unite Legal Director Georgina Hirsch.
Meanwhile Coyne's paper, The Times, has been whinging about Simpson's £250K mailing to all members last week. This is despite being under legal threat from Simpson, although they have published one grovelling apology so far.
[dearunite.com] Simpson's remuneration
[Unite Executive] 'Correction'
[The Times] Apology
www.dearunite.com