Some members have previously mentioned about an article posted by ‘Hope Not Hate’ about our union, so far as the article is concerned, the General Secretary of the Workers of England Union, Mr Stephen Morris, has said it is not only inaccurate, but it also gives clearly false information:-
1. The Trade Union Congress (TUC) does not regulate trade unions or oversee how they are run, this comment is false, Trade Unions are regulated by the UK Government’s Certification Officer with whom the Workers of England Union is registered.
2. Trade Unions and Staff Associations do not have to affiliate themselves to the British TUC. Out of approximately 160 regulated Trade Unions and Staff Associations only 48 associate themselves with the British TUC.
3. To state the Workers of England is not a real trade union is false, we must comply with the rules and regulations set down by the Government’s Certification Office which applies to all certified trade unions.
4. The Union has members and representatives who also hold positions in many other organisations, just like many other trade unions, the WEU does not affiliate itself to any political party and we do not have a ‘political fund’ which is a requirement for trade unions to hold if they work with, fund, or donate to a political organisation.
5. We represent members on their own employment related issue, we do not impose our political views, nor do we ask for theirs, our role is to represent members in employment related issues.
6. Whilst Hope Not Hate criticises the Workers of England Union’s position on the advice being given to our members on Covid, their comment that we relied on ‘conspiracy theories and/or unguaranteed legal opinions’ is again false, all the information we gave was from the Governments own websites, government press briefings, yellow card reporting system, legislations, and including the Health and Safety Executive websites.
7. Why did the Workers of England criticise Unison, this is very simple, not only were they putting out false information about the Workers of England Union, which they had to apologise for and retract, they were openly stating “The vaccine is Safe” even though it was under clinical trials and no data to support their comment, this was putting their members lives at risk.
8. Hope not Hate criticise the Workers of England for representing employees with certain views, views which we may not support, however we operate very much like a legal law firm but under trade union regulations, a member who is an employee will come to us and ask to be represented and we will do our best for them, whereas, it now appears that the unions affiliated to the British TUC impose a political view and you have to adhere to it to get representation.
9. Hope Not Hate is funded by many of the British TUC affiliated trade unions, unions who have lost members to the Workers of England Trade Union, it comes as no surprise that false allegations from those unions and their affiliates are published about us.