I have been a UNISON member for just under 10 years. I ended up being disciplined and even though the process is still ongoing I believe and has been so for nearly two years, the rep clearly has not read any of the papers. When I put this to him in Jan 2016 and expressed my frustration that despite me explaining verbally to him and providing him with all the information he has requested he still doesn't understand. I am in a bullying situation and UNISION say that I have not followed advice so have refused representation...
Anonymous
UCU is not much better...
3 comments:
I can really relate to this...
I lodged a grievance about bullying regarding discrimination at my university and after I was retaliated against with a vexatious disciplinary, the Unison rep advised that *I* apologise at the hearing, even though the rep agreed I'd done nothing wrong. Had no support whatsoever and the rep ended up siding with management in the end. I pursued it with Unison but got the same denial and obfuscation. When I subsequently was made redundant and asked for their help, I was met with total silence. I've heard many similar stories about Unison.
I used to teach at a certain Canadian post-secondary institution.
The staff association president who was in office when I started was useless. He went along with whatever the senior administration put before him. I don't remember him ever challenging it on any issue whatsoever.
For several years, though, I was frequently bullied and harassed by my department administrators.
I brought the matter to the attention to that president's successor. He hemmed and hawed a lot and liberally quoted association regulations, but, in the end, he took *their* side without ever making a formal investigation.
Just how much that was only became apparent when I looked at my personnel file several years after he vacated that position. I found illicit material, consisting mainly of correspondence, which had been put into that file without my knowledge. That staff association president was on the circulation list but I wasn't. It was after I read it that certain comments he made became clear to me. He alleged that I didn't respond to the allegations made against me in writing, even though I had no knowledge of them or the memos in which they were made. He, on the other hand, knew all about them.
So, in whose interests was he really acting? Certainly not mine.
His successor was much better as she supported the individual staff member, but, due to internal association politics, she was hounded out of office.
The next staff association president was so shiftless that calling him lazy would be paying him a compliment that he didn't deserve. He was clearly the institutional administration's lapdog and, like the first president I mentioned, went along with whatever it told him.
And for that I paid my monthly staff association dues. What a waste of money.
While UNISON seem not to have done the necessary work to support you well in this case i.e. by not reading up your case....and if your rep. is not up to speed, believe me the college's disciplinary team will be (!!!!) UNISON do have a good case work reputation
iF i was in a pickle with management the figures show UNISON have a better track record of winning cases than UCU who are little more than management stool-pidgeons with FAT CAT SALLY HUNT and PAUL COTTREL taking pays-offs from colleges for doing deals with management!
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