We have received the following message from our regional office – concerning events being held for the Labour Leadership battle:

Our Ref:      LL/JPC/WW/TCS                                                                                12 July 2010

To:               Branch Labour Link Officers

Copy to:      Branch Secretaries

Regional Labour Link Committee

Dear Colleague

LABOUR LEADERSHIP HUSTINGS AND BALLOT ARRANGEMENTS

You will be aware that the Labour Party are currently in the process of selecting a new Leader.  UNISON Members, who are affiliated Political Fund Levy Payers, are entitled to participate in the selection of the new Leader.

The process which UNISON is using is to ballot each Labour Link Levy Paying Member in order that they can make their individual choice.  To assist them in making an informed choice, the recent Labour Leadership Hustings, held during the UNISON National Labour Link Forum, have been put onto the UNISON website, which is available for viewing by individual Members (http://www.unison.org.uk/labourlink/video.asp).  You will see from this that a number of questions were asked of each of the Candidates, covering many of the key issues affecting UNISON Members.  Unfortunately, due to time constraints, it was not possible to ask all of the questions which had been prepared.  However, the Hustings should provide some information to assist Members in making their choice.

As an alternative to viewing the Hustings Session individually, three sessions have been arranged for later this week, where individual UNISON Members, who are Labour Link APF Levy Payers, can attend to view the Hustings Session with colleagues.  These are:

• Wednesday, 14 July 2010 at UNISON Sheffield Met Branch, (Branch Office Meeting Room), Arundel Gate Court, 175 Arundel Gate, Sheffield S1 2LQ between 5.30pm-7.30pm
• Thursday, 15 July 2010 at UNISON Regional Office, (Conference Suite), Wade Lane, Leeds LS2 8NJ from 5.30pm-7.30pm
• Friday, 16 July 2010 at UNISON Hull City Branch, (Downstairs Conference Room), Town Hall Chambers, 39 Alfred Gelder Street, Hull HU1 2AF from 5.00pm-7.00pm

I apologise for the short notice involved in publicising these sessions, but this was unavoidable.

At these sessions, a DVD of the full Hustings Event will be shown and Members will obviously be able to discuss views with colleagues.

We have been able to obtain a limited number of copies of the DVD and if Branch Labour Link Sections wish to organise their own viewing sessions, copies can be made available to them.  If Labour Link Officers are intending to arrange such sessions, they must contact Wendy Walton at the above office address, (DD: 0113 2182342) to obtain a copy of the DVD.  Systems must be put in place to ensure that only UNISON Members who are Labour Link/APF Levy Payers are involved.  Where the intent is to hold these sessions in conjunction with another Branch, then systems must again be put in place to ensure that only Labour Link/APF Levy Paying Members of these Branches are involved in the process and participate in the meeting.

No vote will be held to determine which Candidate, if any, the UNISON Labour Link would support for the Leadership, this decision will be taken by the Labour Link National Committee.  However, Branch Labour Link Officers can indicate the views of their Membership to the Regional delegates to the National Labour Link Committee.  Given the voting process as described below, it would seem sensible to give an indication to the National Committee Members of the support for each of the five Candidates arising from your local event.

What Next?

The UNISON National Labour Link Committee will meet on Wednesday, 21 July 2010 to decide which, if any, of the Candidates UNISON would be prepared to support for Labour Leadership.  If a decision is made to support a particular candidate, Members will be advised of this as part of the ballot process.

During the course of August ballot papers will be sent to individual Labour Link Levy Paying Members, enclosed with the Autumn Edition of ‘U’ Magazine.  Members will be able to vote for a Labour Leadership candidate of their choice and if UNISON National Labour Link Committee have decided to support any particular candidate, they will also be informed of this.  Full instructions of the voting process will be included with the ballot papers.

Once the ballot period has closed, the individual Members’ votes will be counted for each Candidate and UNISON Labour Link will then cast its share of the votes at the Labour Party Leadership Electoral College, directly in proportion to the votes cast by individual Members for each of the Candidates.