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On
Monday, 29th April 02, Mick O’Reilly and Eugene
Mc Glone, top ATGWU officers in region 3 (Ireland)
learnt via the media that Bill Morris General Secretary
ATGWU had sent each a letter informing them of their
summary dismissal.
Mick
O’Reilly Regional Secretary and Eugene Mc Glone
Regional Organiser were leading officers for the ATGWU’s
Region 3 (Ire) until their suspension, by letter from
the General Secretary, in June last year.
The
General Secretary’s handling of the disciplinary
proceedings has been criticised internally, not least
by the Broad Left grouping on the unions General Executive
Council.
Firstly
the two officers were suspended without any notification
of possible charges (only 4 weeks later were they
presented with a dossier of minor complaints and squabbles
among members and officers in the Region, none of
which directly bore on any decisions made by either
of them).
At
the ATGWU Biennial conference in Bournemouth in July
last year there was uproar among the lay delegates
as news of suspensions filtered out.
So much so that a challenge to BDC standing orders
from the floor was averted by only a handful of votes.
GEC
members have tried in vain to raise their concerns
at subsequent meetings, particularly ay the extraordinarily
long drawn out disciplinary procedure, but also at
the refusal of the General Secretary to allow any
discussions or comment at GEC about the two officers,
their alleged misdemeanours or indeed any issue arising
in Region 3, which might have a possible bearing on
the case.
Martin
Mayer, GEC member for passenger services, said he
was appalled and saddened by the decision which he
did not believe was justified.
He
said there is concern within the union at the disciplinary
process used by the General Secretary, which effectively
kept the GEC - the ATGWU’s governing body - in
the dark, even though the union’s Rules give
the council express authority to appoint, suspend
and dismiss officers, not the General Secretary.
He
criticised too the manner in which the dismissal had
been carried out, by rumour and press speculation.
Their
last disciplinary hearing in London was as long ago
as February and the two officers were not even summoned
back to London to receive the decision in person from
the General Secretary.
Martin
Mayer said that this decision by the General Secretary
will be seriously challenged not just by the two senior
officers themselves but by a wide range of activists
and officers across the whole union. At the officers
annual meeting in Eastbourne on 23rd May only nine
from more than two hundred officers refused to support
a motion of support for Mick and Eugene. Not only
did they support the two sacked colleagues but have
invited them both to address a specially convened
meeting to be held in Birmingham on June 23td where
the two will be given the chance to tell their colleagues
and the newly elected Deputy General Secretary Tony
Woodley the facts about there case.
Mick
O’Reilly and Eugene McGlone had justly earned
respect for their diligence and enthusiasm and for
their progressive trade union views, which led them
to speak out at times for the working class against
established views.
From
what has leaked out about the charges and the highly
politicised climate in which these officers were suspended,
there will be astonishment and disbelief at the dismissals
from the wider ATGWU membership when the details are
finally publicised".
Especially
now that 24 ATGWU members have been sacked at the
international airport because their incompetent full-time
official Bro Joe Mc Cusker f*****-up there strike
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