Jerry
Hicks is standing as general secretary of Unite-Amicus. He has been storming up
and down the country, taking on the establishment within the union in his
campaign to become general secretary. He travels everywhere by coach (because
it’s cheap), stays overnight in supporters’ back rooms, and is currently
nursing a fractured leg kindly donated by the police while he was picketing on
behalf of the workers outside Staythorpe Power Station. His campaign is financed
by voluntary donations of Unite-Amicus activists. He deserves our support.
Jerry: This has been a fantastic campaign.
Only when I sat down to report all this, did I realise how much had been
covered in such a short time. On Tuesday 10th February I was
travelling from Bristol to RBS headquarters in Aldgate in the heart of the City
of London. I was speaking on the election issues and socialist policies to the
branch members at the very same time as the Parliamentary Select Committee were
examining the RBS bosses.
There were two main items on the agenda:
- Me as
guest speaker and the general secretary election. - And the
branch newsletter to the membership. It was brilliant. It was headlined
‘Why should the workers pay for the mistakes of the bosses?’ Union
officials had said they couldn’t put it out because they were involved in
sensitive negotiations. So they stopped the branch putting the
communication out. This is typical of the union under Simpson. What is a
‘can’t do’ union must become a ‘can do’ union.
At the same time as the RBS bosses were
being put through the wringer, I was calling for nationalisation and the
election of officials.
The branch nominated me (Jerry) – 20-30
people. Not everyone agreed with everything. What you see is the politicisation
of different layers. These workers are subjected to extreme performance
reviews. There is absolute alienation. The only thing that glues these people
together is the collectivity of the union.
They wanted to make a donation to the
campaign, but that is against the rules so they had a room collection to cover
expenses. Not only did they take the leaflets, but a rep from another branch
who was sitting in set up another meeting. Unlike Simpson I haven’t spent £1/2m
on my campaign. And I’m committed to live on a worker’s wage if elected.
From there I went to Whipps Cross hospital
in Leytonstone. The Amicus rep was a plumber by trade, which meant he was in
the maintenance dept. I still don’t know his last name. He called me Jerry and
I called him Eddy – that’s how it was between us. We went to the rest room and we
had a fantastic discussion about the union, politics and life in general. Other
people came in and out all the time. Some took part, other just listened while
they were making themselves a cup of tea.
Eddy gave an example. The hospital trust
provided free milk to put in the workers’ tea and coffee. Then the trust
managers decided to get rid of the free milk. Now the maintenance department
work in extreme temperature conditions, such as the boiler room. So they
contacted the union official. He replied that, if the managers were stopping
the milk across the board, he couldn’t do anything. Eddy and the members
disagreed and challenged the decision. They won.
Not only have they got the milk back,
they’ve got a fridge to keep it in, because of the temperatures they often work
in. So ‘why should the workers pay?’ applies to the small things as well as the
big things.
From there I went to a craft branch in
London. The branch had nominated Laurence Faircloth. In the main they were
supporting Simpson to keep Kevin Coyne out. Obviously I disagreed, but the
meeting remained comradely and there were loads of questions and comments. It
was a big success to top the day off. As a result of my campaign the union is
discussing the issues and the solutions and how we direct our resources and
energies. Whatever the criticisms of the branch, without the election they
wouldn’t be discussing them.
That night I was put up in a supporter’s
spare room. Throughout I’ve been fed and watered by volunteers in the campaign.
If elected, I’m committed to running on a worker’s wage.
On the Wednesday I went to leaflet Ford
Dagenham. I met supporters at Dagenham Heathway station. One was Socialist
Appeal supporter Des Heemskerk. The other had come all the way from Feltham
(the other side of London). He was a retired member who had attended a meeting
in November. The meeting was inquorate so they were unable to nominate me, but
he was inspired by the campaign to come all that way to help. We leafleted the
afternoon shift. Security informed us that HR had given them strict
instructions not to let us in the plant. Apparently 3 single socialists made
the mighty multinational Fords quake. What they were afraid of we can only
surmise.
In the evening I went to the Clerkenwell
Branch, which mainly covers not for profit organisations. Most of the workers
in that sector are on poor wages and under the cosh. It was an evening meeting.
Everyone was attending in their own time. It was a brilliant agenda. There were
15 in attendance. It’s an active branch covering all sorts – even someone from
the zoo. They had a guest speaker on ‘handling redundancies’, then they moved
on to the campaign. They nominated me and there was a brilliant discussion.
They really warmed to the development of the campaign. Most people were clearly
political and they took leaflets to distribute.
For the second day running was a
confirmation of the positive benefit of what we were doing. The conclusion of
the London tour was meeting with an individual member working in IT in a pub.
He was a young black member, who was not in an organised workplace. He was
enthused and wanted to know what he could do for the campaign.
On Friday I went to Cambridge in the
morning to meet the joint shop stewards’ committee at Marshall’s aerospace
factory. It was an excellent discussion. We reorganised the agenda for the cut
and thrust of debate. There were plenty of areas of agreement and some of
disagreement, but we all stayed friends. There was unanimous agreement that the
discussion had raised the profile of the union in the workplace.
I went to the local hospital and met a
health visitor on her lunch break. We had so much in common. She had received a
letter for health sector workers from Derek Simpson, using the union machinery
to back his candidature. His letter said “he knows all their problems.” This
just got her back up. She took leaflets to spread the campaign. My campaign is
based entirely on the generous donations of individuals to produce the campaign
materials.
I went back to London to address the
meeting together with a rep from the Lindsey oil refinery. Though it was a
Friday night it was packed. We discussed the national and international
situation, the need for a workers’ fightback and a strong union. It was a
fantastic end to the day. I went back to Cambridge and stayed in a union rep’s
spare room.
On Saturday there was a demonstration in
Cambridge. The issue is that Cambridge University Press, the oldest publishing
house in Britain – 425 years old – is up for outsourcing. They had a downloadable
petition against closure, which I used to collect signatures. Unite organised
the demonstration through our GPMU (print) division. Our members past and
present turned out, family and friends and the people of Cambridge turned out.
There was a march of more than 400 people and a mood that said, ‘this can’t
happen’. The workers had made concessions in the past on pay and pensions, but
the employers still wanted to get shot of them. Other unions and the local
Trades Council were present. The local MP and MEP sent their ‘unstinting
support’, though nobody was quite sure what that meant. The Trades Council
speaker got the biggest cheer of the day when he said, “We’ll ask politely, but
if it falls on deaf ears we’ll fight.” We also had a speaker from the University
who had taken part in an occupation over the Gaza issue, so all the struggles
were coming together.
