Thursday 16 May 2013

PCS Group elections, Napo and Hugh Lanning

The PCS Group (or Departmental) election results are being declared today, with results showing a further decline in participation by the membership in the unions internal affairs.

The first results to come my way were for the DWP Group which showed a quite awful turnout of just 8% of the members. In terms of numbers that means just over 6,000 out of 75,000 members taking part. The actual results were virtually "unchanged" from last year with Left Unity winning all but one seat which went to Joe Cox of 4themembers.

Particularly affected were the Independent Left, whose main base is in the DWP who polled under a thousand votes. This was in part due to their fratricidal infighting which led to a split between the mainly London AWL supporters and others resulting in virtually everybody that was ever in their group standing for election.

The only vote of any significance was for Lee Rock, the unfairly dismissed rep in Sheffield who polled higher than any other of his compatriots for Assistant Group Secretary. His profile obviously having been raised during the campaign for his reinstatement.

In the Home Office the Left Unity group polled poorly, with only ten of their supporters being elected (out of 35), helped by the lack of independents standing for the senior posts of President and Assistant Group Secretaries. The biggest surprise was the failure of John Bigger to get elected despite a high profile campaign to keep him from being made redundant. Other notable losses included Paul McGoay unsuccessfully stood for AGS and GEC, Rex Tyrrell & Anne-Louise McKeon-Williams.

In Revenue and Customs Lynda Priestley was re-elected Group President beating off Left Unity challenger Lorna Merry. Jake Wilde who lost his seat on the National Executive Committee can console himself with being elected as one of the two group Vice-Presidents. The other being Hector Wesley the unions cheer-leader for the Stalinist Cuban Government (go figure).

The turnout in the HMRC was low (and unpublished for some reason*) but higher than the DWP, which frankly couldn't be that difficult as this is the second largest group in the union.

* I hope to update this post later tonight or tomorrow.

Hugh Lanning and Napo

The recent posts about Hugh Lanning "retiring" two years and suddenly appearing as a candidate for the post of General Secretary for the National Association of Probation Officers (Napo) attracted some attention on their official forum and the following post appeared:


Prospective General Secretary's

Postby Unionboy » Wed May 15, 2013 9:30 pm
So we're fast approaching the election for General Secretary. Clearly we face the toughest times ever. So I did some research. Have a look at this....(10th and 12th May posts). http://howiescorner.blogspot.co.uk/
So I hear that at the NEC interview the candidate which isn't Ian said he was leaving PCS. Don't think he gave this version of events. Now I don't know what axe "Howie" is grinding, but I'm certainly not taking the risk.

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