Union chief Eddie Roberts cleared after 14-year battle

May 23 2008 By Ben Schofield

MERSEYSIDE’S former top union official was unjustly and unfairly purged from his post.

Eddie Roberts has fought for more than a decade to clear his name after he was wrongly accused of financial impropriety by his then general secretary.

Now he has received an apology from his union and will get higher pension payments as compensation.

Roberts was responsible for organising more than 115,000 workers on Merseyside as divisional organiser at the Transport and General Workers Union (T&G). At the time of his removal he was locked in negotia- tions with employers at Liverpool docks months ahead of their landmark strike.

But he believes he was targeted by the T&G’s then general secretary, Bill – now Lord – Morris because trade unionism had become embarrassing to New Labour.

Morris refutes the claim, describing Roberts’s exoneration as "historical fabrication".

Ahead of Labour’s 1997 land- slide election victory, Morris was elected joint chair with Tony Blair of the Labour Party Trade Union liaison committee.

He is widely credited with deliv- ering the unions for Blair and was given a life peerage in 2006.

Morris asked the T&G’s legal director Albert Blyghton to start a probe into the union’s Merseyside operation at the end of 1993.

In a series of disciplinary hearings conducted by Morris, Roberts and three colleagues were charged with misconduct.

After the hearings, T&G recruit- ment chief John Farrell was sack- ed, Steve Broadhead, the automo- tive district secretary, was put on a final warning, as was Tom Hart, the education secretary.

Morris sent Roberts a letter at the end of July, 1994, outlining allegations of financial misman- agement and maladministration and unilaterally suspended him.

By mid-August, Roberts had been demoted two ranks to district organiser and moved shunted across the region to work in Wigan.

Roberts, now 66, said last night: "You work with employers all your life but you never expect your own to turn on you.

"Morris and his cohorts knew exactly who to take out of the North West region to denude us and take out our fire power. We had become unfashionable and embarrassing for New Labour."

Roberts now works as a crimin- al litigation assistant helping claimants in personal injury claims and employment tribunals.

He claims the disciplinary process brought on bouts of stress-induced depression and illnesses. He spent much of 1995 in hospital receiving treatment for ulcerated abscesses.

Fellow Merseysider Tony Wood- ley, joint-general secretary of the Unite super-union has sent a writ- ten apology to Roberts saying "the decision to relieve you of your Divisional Officer responsibilities was neither fair nor justified".

He added: "When the action was taken against you in 1994, you had an unblemished record in the union and were regarded by your peers and lay activists as an officer of the highest principles and integrity. I am happy to put the record straight in relation to your service as both a valued member and an officer whose ability, passion and commitment to our Union was a beacon to those who worked with you."

Unite, formed by the merger of the T&G and Amicus in 2007, has paid Mr Roberts £5,000 to bridge a shortfall in his pension and boosted his pension to what it would have been had he retired as a divisional officer.

Roberts’s case was referred to Unite’s head office by the North West regional committee. The union’s personnel and development director, Ray Fletcher, then sifted through pap- ers that went before Morris’s dis- ciplinary panel. Fletcher wrote to Woodley in December, 2007, advis- ing him the decision to relieve Roberts of his duties was unjust.

Lord Morris said reopening the file was an attempt to re-write history, adding: "The process was totally exhausted. Any attempt to re-write history will not change the facts. I have not got the time to respond to the historical fabrica- tion that’s been attempted."

Unite confirmed there are no plans to re-open the cases of the other T&G officers disciplined in 1994.

A union spokesperson saidtheir investigation looked at "the degree to which Roberts should be held responsible for the actions of those that were reporting to him".

He added: "There was no sugges- tion Roberts was directly involved in the problems that were put to him at the time. This was a response to concerns rais- ed by the North West region- al committee who believed an injustice had been done."

The rise and fall of Eddie Roberts

December 1962 – Joins Ford’s Halewood

March 1963 – Becomes T&G’s youngest shop steward

February 1969 – Aged 27, he is appointed convener for the Ford workers. Within two weeks he threatens to take the workforce out on a wildcat strike

February 1970 – Roberts takes 3,500 workers on strike in solidarity with workers at a Swansea plant

July 1970 – He is made a full time T&G official

1977 – Appointed T&G district secretary.

September 1986 – Appointed Merseyside divisional organiser

March 1994 – Investigation into Merseyside T&G

July 1994 – Suspended by T&G for financial mismanagement and maladministration

August 1994 – Demoted from head of Liverpool’s Transport House and removed from the city

October 1994 - Starts work as a District Organiser in Wigan, a job he had done in Liverpool more than 20 years previously.

1995 - Struck down with stress-related illnesses.

November 2007 - Unite’s personnel and development director re-opens Bill Morris’s file on Roberts.

April 2008 – Exonerated and receives apology

‘I’m not here to regurgitate history’ says Bill Morris

WHAT Morris said in 1994 during the investigation into Merseyside’s unionists:

‘‘TOUGH times often call for tough decisions.

And times have seldom been tougher for the trade union movement in Merseyside or Britain.

But we have still kept our integrity and dignity as democratic working class organisations.

That is the guarantee of our future. And that is why my union took the tough decision last week to investigate a number of issues in the T&G’s North West region.

The decision of the T&G’s executive was not taken on a basis of left and right, but of wrong and right.

I am not going to prejudice the outcome of the investigation, but if wrong is found to have been done it must be dealt with. The choice is clear – anarchy or order.’’

LORD Morris talking to the Daily Post last night:

‘‘ANY attempt to re-write history will not change the facts.

I’m not here to regurgitate history. Any decision that was taken, was taken in light of the facts and procedures and the letter of the law.

What happens in the organisation today is of no interest or consequence to me. I abided by the constitution and in the interests of the members.

I have not got the time to respond to the historical fabrication that’s been attempted. I’m quite content for people to do what they think they need to do.’’