Results directly relevant to the Branch are those for the NEC Member for all members in the North East Region, for the three representatives for Health Sector members nationally and for the Women's Seats. These NEC Members have all expressed their personal views on the way forward.
This was a hard fought, two horse race, with the highest
percentage turnout of any of the NEC elections, for
either regional or national seats. 
The Branch nominated John Rhodes, Durham
Health Service Branch, who has helped many MSF members in
the region over the last 20 years and more. Despite
minimal campaigning, and without the support of a
nationally-backed and financed campaign, John managed to
gather over a third of the votes cast. This reflects the
high regard for John within the old MSF sector of the
union.
It can be expected that MSF members would mostly have voted for John and AEEU members mostly for Brian Cole. Given the far greater number of AEEU members in the Region, this suggests that, proportionally, there was a much higher turnout of MSF members. The Branch Committee would like to thank all members who voted for John, would wish him well and hope that he continues his good work within the Region.
Brian Cole (photo to be added when available) is probably not known to many members as he comes from the AEEU manufacturing section. The Branch Committee congratulates Brian on his success and hopes that he will enjoy his time on the NEC. Previous Regional NEC members have attended NHS Rep's Briefing Days, so some members might meet Brian that way. The Branch Committee will also propose that we invite Brian to attend a Branch meeting, to meet members and learn more about the issues that concern us.
The Branch Committee would also like to
thank retiring NEC member Wilf Holt for
all the good work that he has done for members in the Region
over many years. Within the wider union movement Wilf is
better known for his involvement with MSF
DERNAC (Disability & Employment National Advisory
Committee). Wilf has been in the forefront of promoting
"disability champions" in the workplace and his retirement from
DERNAC.
will be a great loss not only to Amicus but to the trade union
and disability rights movements in the UK and Europe.
The Branch did not nominate any of the
six candidates for these seats. Janet Downie (CPHVA, North
East Region), who has contributed a great deal in the
Region was unsuccessful unfortunately. However, Dave Hutchinson who has
represented members on the MSF-NEC in the "cross-boundary"
seat covering the North East and Yorkshire Regions, was
elected.
Speech & Language Therapists in the
Region will be pleased to know that Gill George was
elected, and disappointed that Jenni Kay was not. Gill is
best known for her campaigning around Agenda for Change.
Over the last year, members in Region have had Gill to
thank for keeping us up to date with developments at
national level.
There was some surprise that a relative unknown, Janet Moir, was elected while Dave Houliston was not. Surprising because of the hard work Dave has put in over many years and his national profile thanks to his email lists and his website with Amicus Useful Links. These have been an invaluable source of information for Health Service members.
The reason for the existence of the Women's Seats is in
Rule 25(2):
"... to ensure that the number of female members of
the National Executive Council better reflects the gender
balance of the members of the Union ..."
The Regional and Sectoral seats should not be understood as "men's seats". However, the provision of seats especially for women both reflects and distorts the reality of the electoral process. The reality is that women stand less chance of being nominated for and winning a Regional or Sectoral seat. However, the existence of "Women's Seats" results in these being contested by a large number of candidates, some of whom would have been more successful had they stood for a Regional or Sectoral seat. (The Northern Regional TUC and some Parliaments have got around this problem by using more sophisticated measures).
Sharon Allen has had a high profile in MSF nationally for many years, was President of the Union in 1997/98 and has been an active member of the National Women's Committee.
Pauline Fraser was a member of the AEEU National Executive Committee.
Vi Huddart was active in the AEEU at Regional level.
Judy Box was the MSF NEC member for Yorkshire Region, a member of the MSF Arts National Advisory Committee, the MSF General Purposes & Finance Committee and the Joint MSF/AEEU Executive. As Chair of DERNAC and as part of the Disability Champions at Work project, Judy is making the case for statutory rights for Equality Representatives along the lines of those achieved for industrial and learning representatives. Judy has also attended joint North East/Yorkshire Women's education events so is already well known to some members in the Region.
The National Health Sector elections illustrated the tension between two different political perspectives within Amicus. These different viewpoints are very apparent at MSF Annual Conference and are played out in many unions. Where there are union elections, there are "electoral machines" and committed "activists" promoting alternate "slates." A very small percentage of candidates on any slate are people with personal ambitions or causes to pursue. The vast majority are dedicated to doing the best that they can for members in the way they think will get results - and they work hard at it. The difference lies mainly in how the different factions see trade unions influencing national politics.
The factions are routinely described as "left" and "right" and both claim to be more democratic than the other. As with everything else, most people are in the middle, and in both factions there is just a fraction at the extreme end of political thinking. Most trade union members vote Labour in General Elections, and there are Labour Party members in both factions.
Success in union elections is primarily down to campaigning and the overall outcome of the AMICUS NEC elections is that the balance is finely tipped to the Amicus-First faction rather than the Unity Gazette faction. Our General Secretary, Derek Simpson, will therefore have a hard time on his hands chairing NEC meetings.
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