Latest News - FEBRUARY 2009

Unite Amicus Section General Secretary Election 2009

There are four candidates standing in the election and all have been nominated by the requisite number of branches and representatives (see table below). Three of the candidates are currently full time officials of the union including the current GS Derek Simpson. Jerry Hicks is the lay activist who made the legal challenge which triggered the election process.

Name	Current Position	Number of Nominations
		Branch	Reps	Total
Derek Simpson	Joint General Secretary	160	195	355
Kevin Coyne	Regional Secretary	98	154	252
Paul Reuter	National Officer	28	50	78
Jerry Hicks		60	55	115

The number of nominations each candidate has received is a broad indication of the amount of support they have across the union though it is not conclusive. Obviously a vote for an 'outsider' is likely to be less effective than one for a 'front runner'.

UKAPE's affiliation with Unite is via its membership of the Federation of Professional Associations (FPA). Representatives of this organisation (including a UKAPE officer) arranged a meeting with the current General Secretary, Derek Simpson to explore his position on representation of professional employees. This meeting was reported in detail in the December 2008 edition of Engineer Today.

There will be an election address from each candidate (max 600 words) with the ballot paperwork.

Each candidate also has a campaign web site where you can find additional information on their position with respect to the FPA and the professional dimension.

The addresses of each of the web sites are:

Derek Simpson - www.re-electdereksimpson.com

Kevin Coyne - www.coynecampaign.co.uk

Paul Reuter - amicusgselection.wordpress.com

Jerry Hicks - jerryhicks.wordpress.com

PLEASE USE YOUR VOTE

back to news index