Amnesty International UK members have voted against the organisation’s restructure plans which placed local staff's jobs at risk, prompting the union fighting the cuts to declare a “moral victory”.
More than three-quarters of members attending an extraordinary general meeting on the weekend voted against reorganisation, which Amnesty International had devised in order to invest more in staff and facilities nearer where the organisation works against human rights abuses. The issue will now be taken to a vote at Amnesty’s AGM, where only 50 per cent of members need to be opposed to the measure in order to block it.
Following the vote, management said it would not accept voluntary redundancy requests nor take any other action to implement the proposed new structure at present.
The member action at the weekend follows a high-profile campaign by Amnesty’s staff and Unite the union against the changes, which led to two separate strike actions in the autumn and calls for the director to resign.
Opponents of Amnesty’s new structure and approach were not successful on all issues, however. Just shy of the 75 per cent majority of members needed to reject the proposal that AIUK increase its monetary contribution to the International Secretariat voted against it, meaning the increase is likely to go ahead.
Alan Scott, Unite regional officer, welcomed the union's partial success and praised the management reaction.
“This is a moral victory for all who opposed the management’s position and we think the board should be considering their position in view of the strength of feeling of the Amnesty membership,” he said.
But Amnesty International declared that, while it respects the strength of feeling of members at the EGM, “the movement’s vision remains intact”.
A spokesman said: “This vision is of Amnesty International as a powerful organisation adapting to a changing world by building on Amnesty’s 50 years of groundbreaking achievements for justice and freedom, shifting significant resources to the global South and East, with greatly increased impact in our work for the rights of all people. It has been repeatedly backed by the movement’s highest democratic decision-making body, the International Council Meeting.
“While the EGM also allows Amnesty UK to proceed with the redundancy process, this will not happen immediately. In line with a separate resolution a new budget will be prepared that meets our international obligations and advises the board on an approach to redundancies. The board will then decide how to proceed at its meeting on 2 February.”
