Apology For Our Mistake

There is never a good time to make a mistake, but to do so in the middle of a major campaign, and thereby hand to your opponents a significant advantage, is by far and away the worst time.

Those of you who have been following the blog will know that earlier this week we posted a story regarding the statements made by wannabe Gen Sec - Paul Holmes – that the Kirklees Local Government Branch has recorded a trade union membership density somewhere above 85%. Holmes says that the Kirklees density is “the best” in the union and attributable to his own "radical" style of leadership as Kirklees Branch Secretary.
Holmes ultra left supporters are understandably awestruck by such density claims, given their own rather lacklustre performance, and seem to have been caught in the headlights without adequately challenging the validity of the information given to them by Holmes.
It came as a major shock earlier in the week to read our story that density in Kirklees was in fact just 58%. As good as this is, it is not the 85% claimed by Holmes and is considerably less than the best density in the union, even falling short of the density achieved by neighbouring branches to Kirklees.
Even the most loyal supporters must have had cause to raise an eyebrow at the news, no doubt thinking that Holmes was playing fast and loose with their obedient and unquestioning loyalty.
In our article we invited Holmes and his supporters to explain if the claim of 85% density was made in error or a deliberate attempt to mislead members into supporting Holmes in the Gen Sec election.
Big Cheese for Team Holmes has today written his response - in what can only be described as unrestrained vitriol – he argues that our story is fundamentally misconceived in that we have a limited grasp of basic mathematics, coupled with an ignorant knowledge of Kirklees Council, and have counted workers not eligible to join UNISON as a means of depressing the density levels. He concludes with the modest suggestion that we undertake further study in GCSE Maths.
We recognise that a mistake was made in our article and we apologise for misleading readers of this blog. In our earlier story we stated that the information leaked to us by a “concerned” member of the Kirklees Branch was “absolute and unquestionable”. Whereas what we should have said was that it was “irrefutable” as it is in fact a report dated 7th Feb 2010 taken from the Councils Delphie Payroll System. The full report will appear on this blog later.
But we can reveal that, seemingly unbeknown to Holmes, Kirklees Council employ 14689 NJC staff all of whom are eligible to join UNISON. The Council also employs 4653 others that are made up of Teachers (4101), Craft (469) and others (solbury etc). The Branch has 8550 members and the density is therefore, at best, 58% and not the 85% claimed by Holmes.
Had we been more specific in the nature and quality of our information Team Holmes would not have continued digging and at least attempted to extract themselves from the considerable hole in which they now reside.
We will respectfully decline the invitation from Big Cheese to undertake more study in Mathematics. Now will you tell us – was the 85% claim a lie intended to gain an advantage in the election?