EXCLUSIVE Unite is accused of grandstanding after upcoming conference agenda fails to mention Birmingham bin strikes once... while mentioning Gaza 16 times
Unite has been accused of grandstanding after the agenda for its upcoming conference failed to mention the bin strikes in Birmingham - but featured 16 motions about Gaza.
Unite has been accused of grandstanding after the agenda for its upcoming conference failed to mention the bin strikes in Birmingham - but featured 16 motions about Gaza.
The union is spearheading the strikes which have left rubbish pilling up in the streets of Englands second city.
It has been accused of prolonging the action, now in its sixth week, to the anger of local residents.
But the issue does not make the preliminary agenda detailing the motions up for discussion at its Policy Conference in Brighton in July.
Areas of interest include workers rights, economy and industry as well as Global Solidarity and International motions.
There are 16 for Israel-Palestine and just seven for all other countries and peoples in the world.
Out of 176 motions, Israel-Palestine accounts for one in ten.
The Unite union is behind the all-out strike in Birmingham which has brought chaos to the citys streets for the past six weeks
More than 20,000 tonnes of litter has been dumped on pavements since binmen walked out over proposed reforms from the council
But despite the dispute making headlines internationally and striking binmen carrying the unions flag, it is not mentioned once in an agenda for a forthcoming conference
Saqib Bhatti, MP for Meriden and Solihull East said: Unites priorities are all wrong. While Birminghams bins overflow, they would rather grandstand on Gaza.
The people of Birmingham deserve better than a union distracted by international affairs and a Labour run council in their back pocket.
Unite should clean up its own mess before meddling in foreign affairs.
Kevin Hollinrake MP, Shadow Local Government Secretary, said: Its no surprise that grandstanding unions have zero interest in delivering for people.
It goes to show unions are more interested in the West Bank than the West Midlands.
Clearly they wont stop holding Birmingham to ransom, but Labour are too weak to do the right thing and break the strike at once.
One resolution 75 includes a call for the seizure of UK held or traded assets including housing and corporate holdings, of targeted supporters of the Netanyahu regime and immediate sanctions to be placed on the Israeli economy including the seizure of Israeli state assets held in the UK.
Saqib Bhatti, MP for Meriden and Solihull East said: Unites priorities are all wrong. While Birminghams bins overflow, they would rather grandstand on Gaza.
Resolution 78 is from the West Midlands Young Members Committee and states a peoples arms embargo necessitates organising those workers to resist their own exploitation, alongside corporate complicity in the genocide, recognising that workers liberation is intrinsically linked to Palestinian liberation.
Resolution 127 from the Birmingham Area Activists Committee - call on the union and the TUC to open consultation with the Labour Government to bring in legislation to make redundancy legislation much more robust and more expensive thus taking the incentive away from big corporations whose only interest in investing in the UK is to strip the assets and move the work abroad because it is easy and cheap to sack UK workers.
A Unite spokesman said: Saqib Bhattis and Kevin Hollinrakes constituents will be asking themselves if their MPs really have nothing better to do but to comb through prospective motions for a Unite conference.
Unite is a democratic organisation. And as they know, it is Unite members who decide what motions will be debated at conference.
It goes without saying, that what will or wont be debated at a policy conference in July, has no influence whatsoever on the current Birmingham bin dispute.
The union is engaged in intensive negotiations with Birmingham council and has put forward fair and reasonable solutions to bring the strikes to an end.
Unite makes no apologies for standing up for workers and will continue to do so wherever necessary.