This morning over 30 trade unionists turned up bright and early with placards and leaflets to stand outside the plush Marriot Hotel at County Hall in London – former headquarters of the GLC – to picket a meeting of the Amicus executive committee. The reason? To protest at the disgraceful sacking of three union employees – Des Heemskerk, Cathy Willis and Jimmy Warne – by the union leadership.
This follows a six month suspension where, for the first two months, they were not even told what charges were being levelled against them. Despite considerable investigation and many hearings, no evidence of any wrong-doing has been uncovered. The three are innocent of all charges, have nothing to hide and should be allowed to resume their duties. Yet instead of this they have now been sacked. This is what you might expect from a maverick, anti- union, Thatcherite employer, not a supposedly progressive trade union. Justice has not been done. This is a clear political witch-hunt of those who were the stalwarts behind Derek Simpson’s election campaign who have stood behind his election promises.
The campaign to defend the three sacked employees and for democracy in Amicus has been launched and it was made very clear to those executive members going into the meeting that it will not go away. All Amicus stewards and activists will be made very aware of what is going on as well as those in other unions, including those unions considering mergers with Amicus. The union should stop these attacks now, re-instate the three sacked employees and get on with what they are supposed to be doing – fighting for members jobs, wages and conditions and not acting like candidate members of the CBI.
