Hackney TUC meeting: Defend John Page

Submitted by Janine on 3 November, 2003 - 1:06

Hackney Trades Union Council is holding a meeting on Wednesday 12 November at 7.30pm at Marcon Court Community Hall (junction of Amhurst Road and Marcon Place).
John Page will give an update on his case (click here for details and background). There will also be a speaker from Lambeth Unison about their recent successful campaign in a very similar case in defence of a council union rep sacked for campaigning against his employer's racism.

Hackney TUC has invited the Borough's Labour Mayor, Jules Pipe, to attend the meeting to answer for the Council's actions.

All trade unionists are welcome to attend.

Comments

Submitted by Janine on Tue, 04/11/2003 - 21:10

Sadly, Jules Pipe will not be attending the HTUC meeting. Mayor Pipe was invited to address the meeting on 12 November of the Hackney Trades Union Council (which is a fully fledged affiliate to the national TUC and governed by their rules). His response is reproduced below in full;

Dear Ms Holgate

Thank you for your email regarding a meeting of what I am given to understand is an unaffiliated aggregate of various hard-left factions. I am unconvinced by further attempts to dress-up such a gathering as a genuinely representative trade union forum. Was it not the secretary of the local T&G branch who once described the Hackney Unison leadership as "the industrial wing of the SA"?

The issues that you raise are ones that I, my colleagues, and other Labour Party members take seriously. Indeed, Hackney North & Stoke Newington Labour Party discussed the same issues in detail at their last General Committee meeting with councillors and Eddie Coulson, the Unison regional officer invited by the constituency chair.

As part of a continuing programme to eradicate racial discrimination, as Mayor I am committed to ensuring that the Council works closely and constructively with Lincoln Crawford and the chair, commissioners and officers of the CRE. I would suggest that these are the people from whom we should seek guidance or criticism - not self-selecting representatives of the hard left, some with personal interests.

Yours sincerely
Jules Pipe

You might be tempted to think that Jules feels unable to defend his Council's actions and has instead resorted to ignorant ranting. This is just the sort of letter you would expect to get from a Tory politician. The labour movement needs urgently to rid itself of 'representatives' like Mayor Pipe.

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