Unite elections - candidates expenses
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expenses of the three union employee candidates in the General Secretary
election. All rank remarkably closely. One candidate (Len McCluskey)
claimed £9,441 in expenses in one year. Another candidate, Les Bayliss,
costs members £142,144 a year in salary, perks, expenses, pension pot and
NI. Even the outsider Gail Cartmail cost members £132,623 in the tax year
2009/10.
All three are Assistant General Secretaries. Yet their current salaries
match the pay of General Secretaries of many other major unions. Unite has 9
Assistant General Secretaries, all on similar pay and expense schemes.
If one of them is elected they are likely to cost members the £199,229 a
year that the existing General Secretary Simpson costs us. The losers will
keep their jobs or will receive a huge payoff. Ask yourself how can the
leader of our union even think that he or she represents ordinary members
let alone stay in touch with them and their problems when they're paid
nearly 8 times the average workers salary and 40% more than the UK's Prime
Minister!
The one other candidate in the election, Jerry Hicks, is not a union
employee. Despite that handicap he came second (against 3 union employees,
one the incumbent General Secretary) in the General Secretary Election last
year. Jerry, if elected, has promised to take UK average salary (male and
female), currently £26,470 plus £3,000 London Weighting (2009 figures).
Full story on http://www.dearunite.com