Executive Council has set in hand the election of a new General Secretary

The Executive Council has set in hand the election of a new General Secretary of Unite the union. The current General Secretary, Len McCluskey will step down from office and the successful candidate will assume office as at the conclusion of the election on the 26^th August upon the ratification of the Executive Council. The new General Secretary will hold office for five years.

The General Secretary is responsible for the administration of the Union, their powers and responsibilities are set out in Rule 15. The election for the General Secretary is conducted by the Executive Council in accordance with Rule 16. The Executive Council has drawn up guidelines for this election which are intended to ensure it conforms to law and the union's rule book, and to indicate what candidates and their supporters can and cannot do. It is aimed to ensure an open, fair and democratic process. These guidelines can be downloaded from the election website HTTP://www.cesvotes.com/unitegensec21
. A paper copy of the guidelines will be sent to branches along with the communication inviting nominations from 30^th April.

To ensure that all members wishing to stand for election as General Secretary have equal access to branches in Unite the administration of the union will send, by e-mail, an election statement on behalf of members who wish to seek nomination when the mailing inviting nominations is sent.

If any of your members would like us to circulate such a statement please advise them that they should send it by e-mail to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The deadline for receipt of these statements is noon on 26^th April. Members eligible to stand in the election may circulate a statement. Only members who have five or more years of membership of Unite are eligible to stand in the election.

The statement seeking nominations must comply with the following:

1. It should be 150 words or less. This word limit does not include the personal information requested below.
2. Personal information to be provided:
   1. The name of the member seeking nomination
   2. The postal address (including post code) and/or membership number of the member (this information is requested so that we can identify a member on the membership database. The membership number will be published with the statement, but postal addresses will not)
   3. An e-mail address and other contact details the member seeking nominations wishes to convey to members so that they can directly contact the member who is seeking nomination. This may include one link to a campaign website or social media account.
3. It must not contain, photographs, illustrations or other such visual material
4. It must not defame Unite or any of its fulltime employees or any other member of Unite. The Union reserves the right to edit a statement to ensure that it conforms to the guidelines for the election.

The mailing inviting nominations will been sent to branches from 30^th April 2021.

The timetable for this election is as follows: