NOMINATE SEÀN MCGOVERN FOR UNITE ECFOR DISABLED MEMBERS’ COUNCILOR

FOR FIGHTING BACK AND ACCOUNTABILITY

NOMINATE SEÀN MCGOVERN 

FOR DISABLED MEMBERS’ COUNCILOR ON UNITE’S 

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL.

BRANCH LE/785

MEMBERSHIP No 14171043

SEÀN MCGOVERN 

Hello, I’m Seàn McGovern a Socialist trade unionist. I’m also a disabled person who has campaigned within the workplace and outside in the community for disability rights for the past 25-years. I’m employed as a Direct Payments Advisor for a Disabled Peoples’ Organization. I am a workplace rep and a branch rep, and the current elected National Disabled Members’ Councilor on Unite’s Executive Council.  

DISABILITY

Disability comes in all shapes, sizes and guises. Disability can be very visible; or it can be invisible, all too often silent, and sadly voiceless. Disability can be me today and you, my sister or brother, tomorrow. Disability is not a life style choice; it isn’t something that people make a conscious decision to adopt.

Yet over the past seven-years disabled people have been at the receiving end of vicious cuts to their benefits and services, as if somehow we have chosen to erect the very barriers that disable us.  These years have been difficult for working people, with a Conservative government driving forward an ideologically motivated programme of cuts to the public sector. These austerity cuts have had a disproportionate impact on disabled people inside and outside the workplace. Further cuts to disability benefits and services are looming, along with the uncertainty of Brexit.

UNITE’S FIGHT BACK

But, we are fighting back and over the past three years I am proud to have represented Unite’s Disabled Members on the EC ensuring Unite continues to fight back against the austerity-led discrimination met by too many of our disabled members.

·      Unite has been a part of the fight-back that has forced the Tory government to continue paying the Independent Living Fund to severely disabled people until 2020. 

·      Unite fought alongside groups such as DPAC exposing ATOS’s criminal mishandling of the WCA.

·      Unite has campaigned with the rail unions against the cuts to guards on trains who ensure our rail network is accessible to disabled people.

·      Unite is leading the way in educating its workplace and equality reps on workplace stress and mental illness and in negotiating reasonable adjustments 

·      I have worked closely with the Access to Work campaign fighting against government’s continual cut backs and capping of Access to Work.

·      Unite has lobbied MPs and ministers to ensure that they reach out to us as disabled people and ensure our voice is heard in parliament. *

The immediate future will throw up challenges, but we as a Union must, and can rise to these. We can support our disabled members by:

·       Battling against unfair redundancies

·       Defending members against draconian sickness/absence policies

·       Assisting members with Access to Work claims

·       Fighting for Reasonable Adjustments against increasingly hostile employers

·       Educating our reps to identify stress in the workplace

·       Supporting members at PIP and WCA assessments and appeals

·       Closing the unemployment gap

·       Making our union accessible to disabled people at all levels of Unite’s decision making processes

·       Promoting the Social Model of Disability.

Please nominate me for the National Disabled Members’ Seat on the Unite EC. If re-elected I will continue the fight back within the trade union and labour movement.

Please Nominate the Equalities Candidates Below:

Woman's Seat- Jane Stewart, Branch NW/9704m, membership number 30269599

LGBT seat – Jenny Douglas, Branch number SC/79/1, membership number 13326312

BAEM seat – Susan Matthews, Branch number LE/163, membership number 15107714

Young members seat – Jack Youd, Branch number NW/389, membership number 20314814

Nomination period opens on 16^th January and ends on 17^th February. 

Vote for General Secretary Len McCluskey

Branch NW/567 Membership # 1121