MNHQ - I hope you are going to release your own statement on GMB Union

@MNHQ I was wondering if you had any comment on the issue I touched on earlier in the thread. There seem to be a cohort of 'regular' posters intent on doing the TRAs work for them and calling out any trans related discussion as "transphobic" even when its patently clear that it's no such thing.

I'm copying and pasting this from a post I made on an AIBU thread (slightly tangential to the main thread, but worth thinking about). The thread was started by a woman whose employer is now insisting everyone go back into the office, even though she's successfully worked-from-home up till now - and because she's not a keyworker, she can't send her children to school.

I think there's a wider issue here, and I bloody well hope some of the trade unions are keeping stats on this. All companies' turnover will have taken a hell of a hit. A lot of them will be wanting to lay off staff, but wondering how to do it without having to pay huge redundancies payments. If they can make it impossible for staff to continue to do the job by insisting they work in the office (knowing they have children) they can push a proportion of their employees into resigning.

I think it could (in some instances) be a form of constructive dismissal, and it will undoubtedly hit women disproportionately. But in the general chaos of the post-covid economic crash, I worry that there will be so much shit hitting the fan that no-one will have either the will or the necessary stats to join up the dots.

This is exactly the sort of thing the GMB should be following up on. But the GMB have decided they hate women.

Excellent letter.

The GMB is corrupt as hell. ime.

The internal payoffs are staggering, voting each other a financial package.

They re elected Tim Roache for Gen Sec, after stitching up a woman officer of 25 years who was to stand against him.

Then Roache suddenly retired with that whacking big pay out citing health grounds. ( See up thread). Although there was that investigation going on into his sexist and inappropriate behaviour.

Now " Dear John" is running the show.

That's what the membership fees of women cleaners who are union members goes on. Big pay offs for the menz.

Having a pop at MN, is their best chance at a smoke screen for all their internal shabby shennanigans.

( former Apex /GMB member)

@RowanMumsnet thank you for bringing us up to date. Also @JustineMumsnet - very good letter in response.

Can these people at GMB really not see the misogyny here? We face an unprecedented crisis, the worst economic downturn in over 100 years, already it's apparent that women are hugely disproportionately likely to be hit by this. The GMB had a chance to reach out to the women they could help, on the single biggest female-dominated website in the country. But they withdrew from this on the basis of a few tweets. While still continuing to use Twitter and Facebook which are absolute cess-pits of sexism, racism and vile views.

(I'm a single mum, currently negotiating a period of leave with work so I can home-school my son adequately, because he has special educational needs and so I need to be there to support him, not point him at the school's website and say get on with it. Negotiating what the terms and conditions of this leave could be are exactly the sort of things I could do with expert help on... but no, because I believe in biological reality and women's rights, apparently I'm not allowed expert help.)

Thank you MNHQ

Women in the C21 deserve better than this.

And workers do, too.

This is why so many of us are so angry: institutions that are supposed to represent us, act in our interests, derive power from acting in our name, are funded by us, are, in fact, staffed by people who really do despise us.

And I'll bet the average pay of GMB staff is higher than the average pay of the workers they are supposed to represent (and who are paying the salaries of the staff).

S, we're good enough to pay the wages - but actually too contemptible to actually talk to?

What an utter farce 2020 politics is.

Utterly disgraceful.

Ignoring the actual women workers on MN because of the fear of the wrath of Twitter Wokeists - most of whom won't be members of the GMB.

That's what happens when your employed staff are graduates and radically different from those you pretend to represent.

Fuck me, that 'statement' from GMB is absolutely woeful. There is no information being directly communicated there.

"The intention of the sessions was to reach out to working parents at a time of great insecurity - the last thing we would ever want is to cause harm or upset to our LGBT+ members, many of whom may be parents themselves. We of course apologise for any offence this may have caused."

Is the '-' meant to indicate that the second part of the sentence logically follows the first? There's no reasoning there at all. Just saying

1. We wanted to reach out to working parents
2. We don't want to harm LGBTQ people
3. Sorry to ?? for any offence

1. Profit)

So they can't explain why they didn't do it. Presumably they don't know why people voted 'no' and don't care.

Good response from Justine. The one up-side of me wading into the absolutely revolting tweets I found on Twitter at least meant I went on a reporting spree.

I couldn't work out what the GMB were going on about, but Justine gave a good response.

(FO would have been a nice enhancement, but I am looking at a series of e-mails IRL with PA 'Best Regards' and grinning)

She should have signed off with fuck off' if you ask me...

Good response from Justine there, I thought.

Except she should have signed off with "Go well"

Well thats a longer response than I would have written.

"Oi weasels
FUCK OFF"

Allowing myself a wry laugh at the pay off.

The person who made my life a misery for years left with a pat on the back, a generous settlement and goodness knows what else with thanks to the same rep who took my case forward.

My case was swept under the carpet thanks to less than truthful management (cosy with same rep).

With the benefit of hindsight I would have gone straight to the police and stopped in by a lawyer on my way home.

Still. As long as the menz are ok eh?

It was on twitter - must be a recent PE as he refined in April .

Interesting ... from the FT “ Mr Roache wielded formidable power within the union movement, given that the GMB is one of the biggest donors to the Labour party. It has given more than £12m to the party over the past five years, according to Electoral Commission records.”

Mumsnet I’m disappointed in you - inviting this crowd in to speak.

Can I post this? Reportedly from private eye (on twitter).

I do hope its members and potential members are aware. Without members they are nothing.

Frankly I would not be terribly interested in reading what that union have to say now.

To discount so many people/potential members on the say so of the few - without actually really checking facts - is a worry.

Any update MNHQ?

Are the questions to (the spineless) GMB going to be transferred to the new thread?

Did GMB get back to you? Do i now need find a new union (can anyone recommend one)