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National Officers’ group complains to exec and legal about ‘anti-trade union’ actions, intimidation by union management and breach of collective agreement

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham and her management team have been accused of contempt for Unite staff’s collective agreement on grievances – and of a string of other abuses, including the use of legal action to silence and intimidate workers and avoid transparency, banning workers from their workplace under an implied threat of dismissal – and putting people into ‘special measures’ to control the union’s internal democracy.

A damning letter from Unite’s ‘Officers’ National Committee’ (ONC) explains that the group has been forced to take the ‘unprecedented’ step of going outside the usual collective agreement to notify the union’s elected executive and its legal director of their grievance, in the hope of getting some action to resolve the grim situation. It then goes on to outline the serious abuses they say they are facing – and to imply that if they are not resolved, staff will be balloted for strike action:

ONC Collective Grievance over Unite management’s interpretation of the Unite Grievance Collective Agreement and the Dignity At Work Collective Agreement.

A Collective Grievance under section 5 of the Unite Grievance Collective Agreement is required to be presented to the Director of Human Resources however because our Collective Grievance is about the way Procedures are being interpreted and changed and how the content of the employees’ grievances necessitates additionally an unprecedented involvement of the Legal Director and the senior lay officials of the Executive Council.

The ONC feels justified in making this decision because repeated representations are getting us nowhere. If employees cannot feel that the Grievance Collective Agreement is to be respected by the Union then as trade unionists we know how to respond. But out of respect for our members and to provide the Executive Council, as the ultimate employing body, with the opportunity to hear our concerns that the rights and protections of Unite workers are being undermined and denied we want to avoid a dispute.

The length of time that grievances and investigations are taking to reach a conclusion is not acceptable in a modern workplace. When employees are waiting months after submitting a grievance due to a refusal of some to participate in the process, being banned from your workplace when not even suspended, and an application of “special measures” to distort democratic structures – none of these are acceptable or are in the traditions of Unite.

The use of suspension powers should only be used with clear justification and always with a review to evaluate the impact of suspension on an individual’s mental health before the suspension stretches to weeks and months.

Using legal privilege to justify enforcing a refusal to allow an employee to present their grievance is disgraceful and anti-trade union. If we believe that part of our role is to challenge power in the workplace where that power is used to suppress workers seeking transparency, expressing their genuinely held views or seeking protection from abuse.

Threats of legal action for raising a grievance cannot be ignored or endorsed. It is contrary to ACAS guidance, a breach of our collective agreement on grievance and Dignity At Work and a denial of natural justice. For any worker to exhibit the courage to voice their concerns about their opinions of inappropriate behaviour against them or others is a right not to be denied. If it is to be crushed or swept away simply because the employer is more powerful and we do nothing about such unfairness in the workplace then who are we standing up for?
In seeking to declare a grievance invalid the employer has cited the issues of trust and confidence. This, in our view, is a further matter of deep and unprecedented concern. Loss of trust and confidence is a legitimate reason for dismissal by an employer so to reference it is to further intimidate the worker. Its use by our management is nonsensical since by definition any grievance is reliant upon trusting your employer to investigate and adjudicate on the matters raised.

These concerns raised by the ONC are based on the senior management team of the union having agreed them which is why in our view the Executive Council is the only body that can hold a special meeting to restore the integrity of the Collective Agreements entered into with the Bargaining Units of the Unite workforce.

We want the following as the resolution to our Collective Grievance. 1) All grievances raised by employees in the union should be investigated, with Unite as our employer honouring its’ obligations by following collective agreements with the bargaining units. 2) The senior management team should work constructively with the ONC to establish a new protocol to ensure grievance and disciplinary investigations should be carried out in an appropriate and timely manner to balancing the right to be heard and natural justice alongside resolving issues that lead to investigations.

Emphases added by Skwawkbox

The explosive allegations compound the long list of alleged issues with Graham’s running of Unite. Her tenure as Unite boss has also been marked by a string of other allegations – which neither she nor the union has denied – including destruction of evidence against her husband in threat, misogyny and bullying complaints brought by union employees. She is also embroiled in a defamation lawsuit, and a tribunal case for discrimination, brought by Irish union legend Brendan Ogle for the union’s treatment of him and comments made about him by Graham and her close ally Tony Woodhouse.

She has also been alleged by insiders to have:

• banned Unite officials and national banners from pro-Gaza protests
• banned and smeared films and books exposing the ‘Labour antisemitism’ scam
• placed an official under investigation who refused to cancel a Palestine solidarity fringe event at Labour’s 2023 annual conference
• told her chief of staff to threaten a soon-to-retire official with the loss of a pension bonus if he did not soften his support for Palestinians

Her supporters also prevented debate and votes on Gaza at a meeting of the union’s elected executive earlier this month. She campaigned for the general secretary position on the basis of a focus on protecting workers and disavowing political interference.

A senior union insider told Skwawkbox:

The Exec would never normally get involved in employee management matters. They would never usually get involved in employee grievances. The officers have emailed them directly to basically say we are getting nowhere with this general secretary, she is out of control using the worst of employer tactics against union employees, we know you don’t deal with our grievances but you are the union’s ultimate body and we are saying to you – do something or we will ballot.

Unite was contacted for comment:

1. It’s clear from this that ONC feels trust has broken down between Unite staff and its management – how has Ms Graham allowed things to fall apart so badly?
2. Unite would never – I hope – tolerate another employer treating staff in this manner, so why is Unite doing so?
3. What is Ms Graham’s explanation for trying to declare grievances invalid rather than resolving them – especially (and ironically) on grounds that ‘trust and confidence’ in the person(s) making the grievance(s) are the issue, which employees are regarding as attempted intimidation?
4. The ONC says that Unite is using legal privilege as an excuse for preventing workers from presenting grievances. Is this true?

The union did not respond by the deadline for publication.

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While the world focuses on the spectacle of India carrying out its biggest national election – with 960 million Indian citizens eligible to vote out of a population of 1.4 billion – serious unrest continues to haunt the state of Manipur. 

For the last five months, Byline Times has continued to receive detailed weekly updates from frontline activists in the northeastern state.  These catalogue ongoing communal violence between different ethnic and religious groups that is subverting social and political life in the remote region.  Building on the conflict recounted in a previous Byline Times report, this unrest has now been taking place for a year.

The situation highlights a distinct disconnect between the apparent virtues of India as the world’s largest democracy and the ongoing restriction of human rights in the country.

December 2023 witnessed the suspension of 146 members of the Indian Parliament (100 from the Lower House and 46 from the Upper House).  The suspensions were denounced as the “murder of democracy”  by the main opposition party – the Indian National Congress (INC) – and as a way to pass draconian legislation across India.  One of the excluded members, Mahua Moitra, who represents Manipur, has vocally criticised the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) policies as generating a “civil war” in the state.

The size of the population and the accompanying security issues that this raises, mean that voting in the 2024 Indian general election takes place over seven phases from 19 April to 1 June, with counting and the overall result being announced on 4 June.  Voting in Manipur’s two constituencies is to take place in Phases 1 and 2 on 19 April and 26 April.

Meitei Violence

Unrest and violence among different tribal groups started in May 2023, pitting Hindu Meitei tribals against mainly Christian tribal groups.  These non-Hindu tribal groups include the Kuki, Zomi, Mizo and Chin, which are more widely termed as the Zo people.  Activists maintain that, courtesy of their links to the ruling state ministers and sympathetic police groupings, the Meitei are being aided by official connivance in their carrying out of “ethnic pogroms”.  Zo leaders note their discrimination by state officials and processes of “selective justice”, whereby Zo are presented as “anti-nationals” and are much more likely to be prosecuted.  The Supreme Court’s assertion that Manipur has witnessed a “total breakdown of law and order”, even with 40,000 security personnel on the ground, compounds this favouritism.

Such accusations come in the midst of continuing violence perpetrated by Meitei tribals and well-armed militias, such as the Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun.  Such violence includes lynchings, beheadings, torture, abductions, gang rapes, bomb attacks, mob violence, booby traps, public executions, mutilations, house and bank robberies, vandalism, illegal tax collections, people being burned alive, and the looting and torching of houses and shops.  Villages have also faced attacks by Meitei militias using automatic weapons and mortars.  Often these incidents have been photographed and filmed, before being shared on social media platforms to incite violence and intimidate targeted tribals. 

This unrest has been intensive and systematic over the last 12 months and by October 2023 more than 70,000 people (including 12,000 children) had been displaced.  It has been heightened by periodic internet bans and the use of fake news by Meitei media groups, as well as utilising large protest mobs to demand the removal of non-Meitei public officials.  Meitei militias also continue to steal weapons from both police stations and other militias.  It was alleged in December 2023 that the Meitei had used a drone to drop a looted mortar bomb on a village, and that the Manipur Government had provided drone training.

Activists also note that the “othering” of the Kuki-Zomi tribals and other groups by the Meitei has persisted.  This process has included being labelled as refugees, illegal immigrants or “narco-terrorists”, or having links with Myanmar or Bangladesh.  Related to these phenomena is the continued religious persecution of the Christian-majority Zo by the Hindu-majority Meitei, which has included the burning of 357 churches since May.  Evidence has also surfaced of Zo graves being desecrated.  Such claims come despite the existence of regional Meitei drug gangs and the increased interception by Indian security forces of armed Meitei militia members infiltrating India across the Myanmar border. 

This discrimination has raised fears that the communal violence aims to force non-Meitei tribals from their land, in order to monopolise oil, gas and mineral reserves (such as uranium and platinum).  The normalization of violence and population displacement accentuates such a threat.  State complicity also plays a role, with Meitei leaders having linkages to big mining corporations eager to exploit such valuable natural commodities.  In some areas, power supplies to non-Meitei villages have been sabotaged, leaving them without power or telecommunications for days.  Elsewhere, non-Meitei villages have been blockaded by militias, preventing the delivery of essential food and commodities. 

Signalling a further escalation, in January 2024, the central Manipur government conceded security control of Imphal to the Arambai Tenggol.  This gave the Meitei militia dominance over security arrangements in Manipur’s capital and – given the militia’s ongoing violence – is an ugly portent for the local non-Meitei population. 

Meitei legislators were reportedly forced to declare allegiance to the Arambai Tenggol.  In the months since the Arambai Tenggol took over, Imphal has seen a rise in armed intimidation, extortion, the illegal occupation of property, and even the use of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. 

A Hindu Majoritarian Program

In response to this mounting and persistent instability and violence, Zo activists have carried out total shutdowns in protest at their discrimination by state authorities.  Other groups are also recasting the anniversary of the day that Manipur joined the Indian Union on 21 September 1949 as now being a “Black Day” of protest.  Additional groups have protested calling for an end to gender-based violence and violence against students.

  Further collectives are demanding the setting up of an independent Zo administration in Manipur.  Coupled with these movements are increasing calls for the Zo areas of Manipur to merge with those in the neighbouring state of Mizoram, especially given the ongoing displacement of the Zo. 

Within this context, the response by the central government in New Delhi continues to be seen as lax and insufficient.  Although the troubles in Manipur are receiving greater national coverage, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has resisted calls to visit the region.  This comes despite the severe economic and social damage being wrought upon its people, as well as the slow Meitei domination of Manipur’s state bureaucracies. 

The 2024 general election may be a factor here, with the BJP seeking to hold the Inner Manipur constituency (that includes the regional capital Imphal) and possibly gain the Outer Manipur constituency, which it lost to the Naga People’s Front by 73,782 votes in 2019.

Moreover, such a blind eye can also potentially be explained by the BJP’s deeper aim to actively assimilate all India’s minorities towards its Hindu majoritarian outlook.  Escalating Meitei-instigated violence against Manipur’s tribal groups certainly – and usefully – fits with such a dynamic and appears to be increasingly successful.  It also strengthens narratives of India’s Hindu population being threatened by non-Hindus.  A BJP victory in the 2024 national elections will only hasten such a forced “harmonisation”, with negative consequences for other non-Hindu groups, regions, and states across India.