Three Amicus members of staff have been
suspended from their jobs in Amicus. One is still on holiday and knows nothing
of his suspension. The other two were escorted off head office premises without
any explanation as to the reason why. The three people are Des Heemskerk, Jimmy
Warne and Cathie Willis. They were told that a reason would be given in due
course. The Amicus GMB staff representative has submitted a formal grievance with
Amicus to request an explanation.
All three are leading members of the Amicus
Unity Gazette, the broad left organisation that was instrumental in getting
it’s candidate Derek Simpson elected as General Secretary and winning 23 of the
seats on the Amicus Executive. Des Heemskerk is the Editor of the Amicus Unity
Gazette, a position he has held for many years. Des is a former Deputy Convenor
at Fords who gave up his job and took a pay cut at Derek Simpson’s request to
take a job in the union’s campaign department. Jimmy Warne is the Chair of the
Amicus Unity Gazette and is a former shipyard electrician and Shop Steward at
Swan Hunter. He was also a prominent member of the Gazette group on the former
AEEU Executive that led the walkout that prevented Jackson from declaring
Derek’s election void. He gave up his position on the old Executive at Derek’s
request to come and work for Amicus. Cathie Willis has worked for the union for
eight years and suffered years of victimisation under the Jackson regime when
they discovered her husband Phil was a leading Amicus steward in the
Construction industry and a prominent Gazette supporter. She helped in the
campaign to get Derek elected and is probably the single most important person
that enabled the campaign to succeed. All three played a pivotal role in
Derek’s election.
The suspensions follow an attack on the
Gazette leadership by Derek Simpson at an NEC meeting at which he accused
unnamed individuals of being involved in an attempt to destabilise the Amicus
leadership. Nothing could be further from the truth. These people are the one’s
who got him elected to his job and have steadfastly stood by the principles of
the Gazette. He called for an investigation into the publication and
circulation of internal union material but never informed the Executive of his
intension to suspend the three people the following day.
This political attack must end now. These
people are innocent. Amicus must re-instate them to their jobs immediately.
Send a message to Derek Simpson now demanding their re-instatement to Derek.Simpson@amicustheunion.org
with a copy to Phil Willis at reinstatethethree@yahoo.co.uk
or send a message of support to: 4 Stanton Close, Orpington, BR5 4RN.
