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A UNISON steward and trade union convenor has seen her post axed by thelocal Lib-Dem/Tory council and banned from speaking to any of her union members. Demetrios Matheou reports
Out on a limb
Imagine a footballer who is stuck on the subs bench, a filmmaker banned
from his movie set, a nurse who is refused entry to her ward.
Now think of a dedicated trade union representative who, after years spent
representing 900 people across four unions, is banned from speaking to
a single one of them.
Christina Huxtable is in exactly that position, suffering what she likens
to “house arrest” as a result of being suspended from her job
as the most senior union official at Harlow town council.
After nearly two weeks, there is no end in sight to Christina’s suspension,
an act that UNISON regards as being worryingly like union victimisation.
Moreover, this is merely a prelude to her losing her job altogether.
Christina, UNISON’s branch secretary at the council, is also the
joint union convener - acting as the single point of contact between the
employers and all four unions: UNISON, amicus, UCATT and the GMB.
She’s had this role since 1997, negotiating and taking part in consultations
on behalf of her colleagues, on such issues as department reorganisations,
redundancies, pay disputes, national and regional agreements, disciplinary
procedures and health and safety.
Harlow, traditionally a Labour stronghold but currently run by a LibDem/Conservative
joint administration, has cut the funding for Christina’s 100 per
cent facility time, as part of its latest budget.
Read
more about that in this news story
Ironically, she had just been involved in consultations with the council
on two separate rounds of redundancies, when she was informed of the planned
termination of her own job – without any consultation at all.
“This is a unilateral decision made in secret, with no consultation,
no dialogue, made just two days before I was told,” she says.
“The council believes that it doesn’t need one main person to
be the lead negotiator and lead trade union representative. The role was
deemed not to be necessary. But there has been no reduction in trade union
membership. There are 900 members – 80% of the council workforce
– with 40 shop stewards.
“The work has not disappeared. There is no less need for this job
to be done. It’s not a redundancy in that sense. It feels like a
malicious act to get rid of me and to weaken the trade unions in Harlow.”
Her view is strengthened by the fact that even though the council’s
agreement with the unions is that if the joint convenor’s job is
lost it should offer "a comparable job" to the one held before
– Christina had been working in day centres for the elderly - it
has flatly refused to do so in this case.
The decision to cut the facility time funding was rubber-stamped at a
full council meeting on 24 February, despite the presence of a substantial
lobby against the move and the presentation of an alternative budget by
the Labour group, one which earmarked continued funding for the role.
“The leader of the council ordered that there was to be no discussion
of the post or me by name,” Christina recalls. “So when the
deputy leader of the Labour group made a reference to the attack on trade
union rights, he was told he was in breach of the council rules and was
expelled from the council meeting.”
While insisting that it cannot afford to fund the role, the authority
has made it known “that if UNISON wants to pay for it, that’s
fine by them,” she adds.
To add insult to injury, when Christina spoke to local media about a UNISON
press release condemning the move, she was immediately suspended for,
apparently, gross misconduct and breach of confidentiality. She was escorted
off the premises and the computer in her union office disconnected.
She is banned from speaking to council employees, to any councillor, to
the media and - despite still being the branch secretary – any UNISON
member. “It feels like I’m under house arrest,” she says,
“what they are doing is totally unfair. I’ve not done anything
wrong and I want my job back.”
Christina, 49, is also vice-chair of UNISON’s local government services
group executive, and is the chair of the trade union side of the East
of England Joint Council (a regional negotiating body between local government
employers and trade unions).
Her role at Harlow included chairing the all-stewards committee and liaising
between that and the employer. The council has not suggested how employer-union
negotiations are to be carried out without her.
“We are treating this suspension very seriously,” says John
Clinch, the legal officer in UNISON’s employment rights unit, “because
it’s the suspension of a branch secretary on what appears to be the
flimsiest of grounds.
“Christina totally rejects the idea that she’s been responsible
for any misconduct. We are exploring the legal remedies open to her, which
could include an application to a tribunal for trade union victimisation.”
Meanwhile, Clinch is trying to establish the real reasons behind her
proposed dismissal.
Allan Kerr, UNISON’s head of organising and recruitment, says that
Harlow’s apparent refusal to offer Christina an alternative job is
“unprecedented in the public sector. It seems to be that she has
been sacked for her trade union activities”.
But Kerr dismisses the idea that Harlow’s actions could lead to a spate of councils terminating their facilities agreements. “It’s far too stupid,” he says.
Contact the article's author Demetrios Matheou
WHAT DOES A STEWARD DO?Trade union stewards would be expected to operate
within their specific workplaces, working with their members on
an individual, personal level, often liasing between an employee
and his or her immediate boss.
Despite their efforts, nearly a quarter of stewards receive no facility time at all from their employers, according to last year’s stewards’ survey.
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