Prospect Investigates Member for Questioning Disciplinary Process

28th October

Letter from a Prospect member

I am a member of Prospect. I have recently been informed that I'm facing an internal union investigation arising from an online reps' Q&A with our union general secretary Mike Clancy.

A number of reps submitted questions to this call about the disciplinary proceedings which Prospect rep Risa Tan is facing, and the risk of disciplinary processes being used for factional purposes. 

Weeks have passed since I've been informed of this supposed investigation and it's still not clear what the allegations against me are (or even if there are any). Nor has any timescale for the supposed investigation been communicated. 

We wouldn't tolerate an employer treating one of our members like this, yet the union appears to consider this an acceptable way to treat its own members. 

Given the lack of any further information from the union I'm led to conclude this is a blunt attempt at intimidation by a leadership that appears incapable of tolerating any open opposition. 

Confidentiality rules around disciplinary procedures are meant to ensure due process for all parties. They are not there to gag people. Even in formal legal proceedings, people are allowed to publicly say what charges they are facing and their legal representatives are allowed to give their responses to them. Other people are allowed to ask questions about them. It seems the Prospect bureaucracy has a more illiberal and restrictive attitude to free speech than the judiciary of the British state. 

Effective trade union organisation requires democracy. Unions run on the basis of top-down command by senior officials will ultimately alienate members. Full democracy requires transparency and a robust atmosphere of free speech. 

Prospect members need to organise to ensure the structures of our union, including our full-time officials, work to empower us and our struggles, rather than clamping down on people for merely asking questions.