Saturday, April 01, 2006

'Union Branch Chief Facing Suspension' ... Councillor Dave Allen in the news

Councillor Dave Allen after his 'Herron is finished' outburst on Wednesday seems to have gone quiet.
Nomination papers are due in by Monday one has to wonder if he will stand in the election with such a black cloud hanging over him?
Herron is still here...can't seem to find Mr. Allen.

Union Branch Chief Facing Suspension
Newcastle Journal
April 1st 2006
Ross Smith

A Senior North councillor faces suspension from his role in charge of a trade union branch, it emerged last night.

Regional bosses at Amicus are asking the union's national executive committee to remove Sunderland Cabinet member Dave Allen from his post as Sunderland West branch secretary.

Amicus North East secretary Davey Hall said the resolution had been passed after "allegations" were made against Cllr Allen.

Mr. Hall insists these were spurious but they would need to be investigated.
Councillor Allen has not turned up at recent branch meetings, and the union says it hasn't been able to contact him.

However, he has been present at recent city council meetings, with one source in the authority claiming Amicus officers 'can't have tried very hard.'

Minutes of an Amicus regional council meeting held on February 24th at Gateshead's Springfield Hotel say: 'the regional secretary advised that the general office and regional office, together with numerous members of the Sunderland West Branch, have been encountering various problems with the Sunderland West branch secretary.
" In the early part of November 2005, the regional secretary had corresponded with the Sunderland West branch secretary seeking an explanation about complaints from members, but has not received any form of response to date.

" A regional official was requested to attend the 2005 and 2006 branch meetings and establish that no branch officers had showed on the evening of branch meetings.
"Additional endeavours have also been made to contact the branch secretary, all of which have been to no avail. It was unanimously agreed that an officer be appointed to take provisional responsibility for future branch affairs."

However, Mr. Hall said that Cllr. Allen would remain in post until a decision to suspend or remove him was taken nationally. The regional resolution is likely to be put to the Amicus NEC in May.

Councillor Allen, who is cabinet member for resources at Sunderland and represents Sandhill ward, could not be contacted last night.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Allen is a former member of the Workers' Revolutionary party and a current member of the extremist Tyne & Wear Anti-fascist Association, which receives over twenty thousand quid from local authorities in Tyne & Wear, including Sunderland.

The unions in the North East seemed to be wracked with this sort of thing. The GMB regional secretary, Tom Brennan, who strongly backed the YES campaign during the North East Assembly referendum, is currently embroiled in an unfair dismissal case inolving one of the union's former political officers.

Does anyone know what Allen, allegedly, has done?

Anonymous said...

I'm sure these groups see the North East as their own personal Fiefdom and are desperate to keep the un elected assembly in place.
In Wales the unions asked their membership if they could use union funds to support a YES vote for an assembly. In England they did not bother to ask.

Anonymous said...

It'll be interesting to see whether Cllr. Allen's name is still on the ballot come Wednesday.

Anonymous said...

He still is on the ballot, while the allegations are of a financial nature, according to the usually well-informed website, www.dadsplace.co.uk

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