Breaking The Union.

Some UCU activists are placing their pet ideology and loathing of Israel before that of their trade union and the members, as Jon Pike, member of UCU’s NEC points out:

“At the NEC last Friday, the UCULeft/SWP voted to withhold legal advice on resolutions advocating a boycott of Israel from the elected members of the NEC.

This means that the advice from a QC, commissioned by the leadership and paid for by members of the union was restricted to a subcommittee of the NEC, elected by, and supposedly accountable to the NEC.

Those who had seen the advice, including Tom Hickey, were instrumental in refusing to disclose its content to elected representatives. A Trustee of the union, who is legally liable for the actions that we take, and whose advice was to conform to the legal advice, was ignored.

As a result, Congress will consider resolutions which may, or may not, threaten serious financial harm to the union. Neither the NEC nor Congress will know anything about the legal risks involved in the courses of action that are presented to it.

It’s likely that Hickey and others have intensified the legal jeopardy – the threat to the union’s finances, and the financial wellbeing of the Trustees – in which the union now finds itself, because the union now has knowingly and consciously decided to flout the law, against its own legal advice.