Sacked Amicus Press Officer and deposed former editor of the Amicus Unity Gazette, Des Heemskerk, has won his tribunal case for unfair dismissal from his job in the union. Almost exactly a year since the sacking of Des Heemskerk, Jimmy Warne and Cathie Willis, the tribunal have unanimously found that Des was unfairly dismissed from his employment. Jimmy Warne and Cathie Willis have yet to have their tribunal hearings, which are scheduled for later this year in August.
Des Heemskerk and Cathie Willis receive a donation to the defence campaign from Amicus construction workers at Heathrow. |
The Tribunal judgement is scathing in it's condemnation of the way in which the Head of the Amicus Legal Department, Georgina Hirsch, conducted the "seriously flawed investigation" into Des Heemskerk during his suspension. It points out that she could "have carried out a fair investigation provided she suppressed her resentment of and antipathy towards the Claimant. Sadly she was unable to do so." She "expected that a disciplinary hearing would be inevitable". "Bias against Mr Heemskerk was evident throughout her dealings with the matter – and all her efforts thereafter consciously or otherwise were devoted to seeking evidence proving her presumption".
The Tribunal Judgement amply demonstrates that the sacking of the former leadership of the Amicus Unity Gazette was part of a political witch-hunt conducted by Derek Simpson and his supporters against those who opposed his abandonment of a left programme. The false charges levelled against the three sacked workers were designed to sow doubts and undermine their credibility in the Gazette. These attacks resulted in a narrow vote to remove them from the leadership of the Gazette, in a coup staged last year with the assistance of right wingers drafted in to take-over the Gazette. The same thing happened this year at the Gazette AGM held in March, where known right wingers, one of whom had stood against a Gazette candidate only a month previously, were allowed to vote at a meeting packed with full-time bureaucrats and right-wing careerists.
NEC meeting
At a meeting of the Amicus NEC held the week after the judgement was announced a motion was moved by Ged Dempsey from the GPMU sector to reinstate the three sacked workers to their jobs. Simpson spoke in the debate for 47 minutes in a tirade of abuse against the three. He accused them of wanting to bankrupt the union by their support of the Wembley workers during their dispute.
He also accused them of wanting to tear the union apart and destroy the consensus of right and left on the union Executive. This same 'consensus' has led to Simpson supporting Gordon Brown for leader of the Labour Party and giving support to Blair's programme for nuclear power. He said that Des Heemskerk was at the heart of a cesspool, of which the last dregs had been removed from the Gazette Editorial Board at the recent AGM.
In the vote that immediately followed there were 29 votes to 9 to refuse re-instatement with some Gazette supporters lining up with right wingers to oppose giving Des his job back. This was also reflected in elections held later in the meeting to the Joint Executive of the newly-merged union where a consensus slate of right wingers and Simpson supporters was voted through, with Gazette supporters being opposed by a combination of the right-wing and Simpson supporters.
The outcome of the election for the Regional Secretary in Yorkshire, where the Gazette candidate Chris Weldon stood on a programme that supported the leadership of Amicus and lost by 3000 votes, shows that the membership are not willing to support 'consensus' politics. The independent candidate who won the vote was seen as the anti-establishment candidate and won as a result.
Unless the Gazette adopts a radical left programme in the elections to the new Executive next year they will be defeated by candidates who can reflect the growing mood of anger and discontent with the leadership amongst the membership. Even the 30% vote in Amicus to oppose the merger with the T&G, without any organised campaign of opposition, is a reflection of the mood of discontent amongst the Amicus membership. A 'consensus' slate with the right wing will be doomed to failure. Unless a democratic structure can arise from a merger of the T&G Broad Left and Amicus Unity Gazette, and so alter the right wing policies of the current Gazette leadership, then socialists must question whether the Gazette will be an effective organisation to advance progressive left policies. To read the judgement in full click here.
