The totalitarian union

David Fisher reports:

A drawn-out internal fight at the union for Corrections’ officers has seen the organisation lose repeatedly in the Employment Court after trying and failing to push two members off its executive.

One of those members is the union’s vice-president Glen Jenner who was elected to the role in June on a platform for change.

But his electioneering call for “overdue and positive change” was among reasons given during an attempt to drop him as vice-president of the Corrections Association of New Zealand (CANZ).

How dare he suggest the union change for the better. No wonder he had to be thwarted.

Voted in by union members at their prisons, Jenner (26 years working in prisons) and Al-Bustanji (seven years working in prisons) were members of a national executive made up of delegates from other prisons across the country.

Four of those people are then selected for office-holder slots – president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer.

Back in early 2024, Jenner and Al-Bustanji had been raising their concerns about the direction of CANZ, its spending and governance.

It led to complaints about the pair, resulting in the scheduling of a two-day disciplinary process to hear claims against them.

So they raised concerns over spending and governance, and the response was to discipline them for doing so. And this is from a union that would have a fit if an employer acted as they do.

Beck’s judgment stopped CANZ from dropping Jenner from his role, saying its argument that it could do so because he was involved in suing the union was “unsustainable”. She also warned the approach risked allowing union leadership to oust “legitimate opponents, despite fair and free elections”.

So CANZ thinks people should be able to be sacked if they take legal action to defend their rights. Where is the CTU decrying this?

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