Litebulbs
Ah, "my Union right or wrong". The thing that amuses me most about the traditional Left is the way it slags off everyone else for unquestioning loyalty to its particular tribe, but elevates the same behaviour amongst its own to quasi-religious status. I say that as a member (yes, fully paid up and everything before I moved to Ireland) of what is now itself the defunct New Labour project (Blairite Wing - until he committed the UK back to imperial expansion in Iraq).
WW is doing your Union a favour by getting rid of the BASSA reps. Without wishing to be provacative, I think Walsh comes out of this whole episode as the biggest supporter for responsible Trade Unionism. He could have acted far tougher, but still clearly remains committed to Union involvement. Where he deals with normal human beings, eg resolving the pension issue, he strongly supports a collectivist approach (I don't incidentally).
In BASSA he has a group of self perpetuating reps. See the seniority requirements for progression in their ranks to see what I mean. And don't forget the show of hands at some London racecourse agreeing not to bother with elections whilst "the war was on". So he's set about doing what the members cannot do and, disgracefully, your Union's paid officers will not do, namely remove them. I say Unite is a disgrace for several reasons. Firstly, it's obvious that the reps are hugely conflicted. Why is suspension of the disciplinaries such a big issue, other than the fact a high proportion of them involve BASSA reps, to give but one example. Secondly, during the election campaign, one of Woodley or Simpson spoke at a Unite4Labour rally and said that BASSA had no chance of winning its dispute with BA and that the branch leadership was deluded. So what have they actually done to provide proper leadership to their several thousand members affected? Nothing is the short answer.