Union will not represent manager along with other workers

So, here's the situation.

A manager is a paying member of the union, along with other workers. A meeting has been organised for next week as redundancies are being discussed. The person from the union has said that the manager cannot attend this meeting as there would be a 'conflict of interest', but that someone else with the union will deal with the manager by himself.

Is this allowed? What is the point of being in a union if you are being basically made to stand alone from the other group of workers that are in the same union. It seems confusing and I was hoping someone could enlighten me on the situation so I can tell the manager why.

Unless the manager is involved in the redundancy process from a company point of view, I don't see what the conflict of interest is.

No, he's not involved in it at all. That's what was confusing me. He's just trying to protect his job, like the other workers. He pays his dues, should he not be represented along with the other members.

The crux of the matter seems to be the perceived " conflict of interest "

The manager should contact the union for an explanation & based on the response consider his next move.

PaddyW said:

A meeting has been organised for next week as redundancies are being discussed.

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Is this a meeting of union members with their union officials, or a meeting with management?

Hi Complainer, it's a meeting of union members with the officials.

Deiseblue, no explanation has been forthcoming as yet from the union. Manager was meant to be called this afternoon, but no one has contacted him yet.

I'm guessing that it is possible that other members may feel that they are not able to speak freely with their manager in the room. If he is going to get an equivalent (or perhaps even better, an individual) service from the union himself, I don't see that he is losing out?

I think exclusion of managers is relatively common - I think the banking union used to require managers to resign their membership (but this may not be the case anymore), to my recollection it was a combination of feeling that "ordinary" staff had different issues and as complainer mentions that staff might not feel fairly represented or free to express their opinions if managers were also in the union.

the solution of a seperate briefing sounds reasonable

The way he sees it, is that he is in a union. A union should all be together. Other members have told him they feel it is unfair that he is being somewhat excluded from the group. Almost like he is being made to stand alone?