Britain: Suspended with no reason - Re-instate the suspended Amicus three

Three Amicus members of staff have been suspended from their jobs in Amicus. One is still on holiday and knows nothing of his suspension. The other two were escorted off head office premises without any explanation as to the reason why. The three people are Des Heemskerk, Jimmy Warne and Cathie Willis. They were told that a reason would be given in due course. The Amicus GMB staff representative has submitted a formal grievance with Amicus to request an explanation.

All three are leading members of the Amicus Unity Gazette, the broad left organisation that was instrumental in getting it’s candidate Derek Simpson elected as General Secretary and winning 23 of the seats on the Amicus Executive. Des Heemskerk is the Editor of the Amicus Unity Gazette, a position he has held for many years. Des is a former Deputy Convenor at Fords who gave up his job and took a pay cut at Derek Simpson’s request to take a job in the union’s campaign department. Jimmy Warne is the Chair of the Amicus Unity Gazette and is a former shipyard electrician and Shop Steward at Swan Hunter. He was also a prominent member of the Gazette group on the former AEEU Executive that led the walkout that prevented Jackson from declaring Derek’s election void. He gave up his position on the old Executive at Derek’s request to come and work for Amicus. Cathie Willis has worked for the union for eight years and suffered years of victimisation under the Jackson regime when they discovered her husband Phil was a leading Amicus steward in the Construction industry and a prominent Gazette supporter. She helped in the campaign to get Derek elected and is probably the single most important person that enabled the campaign to succeed. All three played a pivotal role in Derek’s election.

The suspensions follow an attack on the Gazette leadership by Derek Simpson at an NEC meeting at which he accused unnamed individuals of being involved in an attempt to destabilise the Amicus leadership. Nothing could be further from the truth. These people are the one’s who got him elected to his job and have steadfastly stood by the principles of the Gazette. He called for an investigation into the publication and circulation of internal union material but never informed the Executive of his intension to suspend the three people the following day.

This political attack must end now. These people are innocent. Amicus must re-instate them to their jobs immediately. Send a message to Derek Simpson now demanding their re-instatement to Derek.Simpson@amicustheunion.org with a copy to Phil Willis at reinstatethethree@yahoo.co.uk or send a message of support to: 4 Stanton Close, Orpington, BR5 4RN.