Can anybody explain to me why an organisation with 10,000 (??) , members paying £15 per month each does not employ professional staff to look after membership records, ballot organising etc. These tasks require no special sector industry knowledge. Surely, sensible convention would be that the reps represent members interest rather than undertaking the time consuming administrative minutiae ? Nor is it reasonable that an employer is compelled to release an individual rep to undertake such duties, whilst being paid by the employer ?
I can understand a union branch of say 50 people needing to do the admin voluntarily, but for a group with membership fees exceeding £1.8m pa it beggars belief. Or is there some ulterior reason for the union branch to organise this way ?
I and many others have questioned this for many years. Where does all the money go, where are the audited figures for the membership to see, how much exactly goes to Unite, who is on the payroll of Bassa ( I recently found out that 2 of Bassa's biggest crew supporters ( CSD's)) were in fact auditors for Bassa. How much are they paid etc? It only came to light in the last 6 months that the reps were paid £100/day for 'office' duties, because DH tried to explain where his money was earnt from after an expose from the Daily Mail.. There are SO many unanswered questions still to this day. All I have ever wanted is a professional union run by professional people and Bassa have for years falied on both counts. With £1.8 million/year one could have EXPECTED better but alas no.
On a lighter note I was in my local supermarket yesterday selecting some tomatoes ( Oh my, how my days just fly by!! ) There were some grown in Hants, Sussex and Kent. Thought I'd better not take a chance on the Hants variety. Just 2 mins later a call was put out for a Mr. Holley to come to the desk!!. I kid you not. I was half expecting Mr Tomorite to be seen carrying his best cherry variety to the veg dept.