Unite [Amicus section] election

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Amicus is one of the two sections of Unite, the biggest union in Britain (the other section is the T&GWU). When the merger was worked out the deal was that there would be (for a while, not forever) two General Secretaries and that neither would face re-election for quite a while unless challenged (actually it was much more complicated than that and involved retirement ages, but this will do...). Well, someone out on the far-left challenged Derek Simpson (General Secretary of Amicus) which may end up backfiring badly; Simpson isn't on fhe far-left but he's a lefty all the same (he ousted right-winger Sir Ken Jackson (for a long time Tony Blair's favourite union leader) a few years back) and he might well lose re-election to a Kevin Coyne, a right-winger in the Jackson mold. There are some far-left candidates running as well, though one just dropped out and endorsed Simpson. While he's not done yet, Simpson is clearly in a lot of trouble (which, given the right-wing history of the AEEU shouldn't be a surprise). Ballot papers will be sent out on the 16th of February and voting will cease on the 6th of March.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

You can find details of nominations and the like here; http://www.amicustheunion.org/Default.aspx?page=9439

Actually quite interesting. If you like that sort of thing.

[afleitch]

Things are so much quieter in the PCS

[Filuwaúrdjan]

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Simpson: 60,048 (elected)
Hicks: 39,307
Coyne: 30,603
Reuter: 28,283

Turnout was like 14%

---

A certain amount of controversy is likely as Simpson sent out a letter (to all members and on union-headed paper) days before the ballots were sent out saying what a good job he'd done. Mind you, it's pretty clear that he'd have won anyway; Hicks pretty much hit his ceiling while neither of the other candidates seem to have had much appeal. Anyway, I think it was that photo that sealed the deal on this one!

Anyway; Coyne did worse and Reuter better than I'd been expecting.

[Rural Radical]

Simpson: 60,048 (elected)
Hicks: 39,307
Coyne: 30,603
Reuter: 28,283

Turnout was like 14%

---

A certain amount of controversy is likely as Simpson sent out a letter (to all members and on union-headed paper) days before the ballots were sent out saying what a good job he'd done. Mind you, it's pretty clear that he'd have won anyway; Hicks pretty much hit his ceiling while neither of the other candidates seem to have had much appeal. Anyway, I think it was that photo that sealed the deal on this one!

Anyway; Coyne did worse and Reuter better than I'd been expecting.

Its nice to see Derek looking so happy in that photo.

[Kevinstat]

Where were Hicks and Reuter on the spectrum.  Were they both far-left candidates?  Faircloth must have been the one who withdrew and endorsed Simpson.  If "progressive" (liberal) Democrat and former State Senator Sean Faircloth in Maine (who subsequently was elected to the State House and ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic caucus's nomination for state Attorney General last year (the AG, Secretary of State, Treasurer of State and State Auditor are elected by joint ballot of the Legislature, and former Democratic Leigslators are almost always elected to fill those positions; three outgoing Democratic State Representatives ran for the open AG seat last year, as the then-incumbent AG, a former State House Speaker who's pretty much announced he's running for Governor next year, was termed out)), ... if Maine's Faircloth had withdrawn and endorsed fellow liberal Democrat Susan Longley in the 2002 Democratic primary, Mike Michaud would probably never have been elected to Congress.  I'm a pro-Life Democrat myself and like Michaud okay (although I live in the other congressional district), but he definitely owed his nomination to the progressive/liberal vote being split and also likely benefited from vote-splitting on the Republican side that helped the less party-unifyinig moderate win a very narrow primary (there was a partial recount before the second-place candidate conceded).

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Where were Hicks and Reuter on the spectrum.  Were they both far-left candidates?

Hicks is far-left, yep. Reuter isn't, as far as I know. He ran a fairly non-political campaign for a union election (he pointed out he's a member of the Labour Party, criticised Hicks for having a "narrow political agenda" and that's more-or-less it) which might be why he did relatively well despite his campaign also being the least professional of the lot (it was a minor surprise that he got onto the ballot in the first place).

[Filuwaúrdjan]

If rumours are correct...

*Simpson lost left votes to Hicks from last time, but picked up votes from elsewhere.
*Coyne's support mostly came from former members of the old MSF.
*Reuter's support mostly came from the old AEEU right-wing block (Jackson's powerbase, back in the day).

[afleitch]

If rumours are correct...

*Simpson lost left votes to Hicks from last time, but picked up votes from elsewhere.
*Coyne's support mostly came from former members of the old MSF.
*Reuter's support mostly came from the old AEEU right-wing block (Jackson's powerbase, back in the day).

*Turnout was less than 15%.  Which led to the nickname of Mr 5 percent at our latest union meeting. The vitriol was saved for Mark Serwotka however...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

*Turnout was less than 15%.

Noted earlier

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You shock me.

lol

[afleitch]

'Union members see David Cameron as better prime minister'

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5950443.ece

Cutting out the blurb here are the voting intentions for fun. Change on 2005 preference in brackets

LAB 34 (-14)
CON 31 (9)
LIB 19 (1)