Ex-NZNO presidents seek board election

Three former presidents of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation want fresh elections of the whole board.

But the remaining union head says the call to dissolve the board is a personal campaign deliberately targeting her and other democratically-elected members.

The move is likely to cause more chaos for the union, which has been marred recently with the abrupt resignations of NZNO ex-president Grant Brookes, and board members Anne Daniels, Sela Ikavuka and Katrina Hopkinson; who alleged division within NZNO’s top ranks.

Yesterday, former NZNO presidents Nano Tunnicliff, Diane Stutchbury and Marion Guy released a statement saying a new group, NZNO Democracy Now, had launched a petition asking for a Special General Meeting (SGM) to be held, calling for dissolution of the current board and a new election for all 11 positions.

Stutchbury — who was president of NZNO from 2000-2001 — claimed things had become increasingly worse since her time in the role. She alleged ‘‘bullying behaviour’’ at the executive level.

‘‘When I see things on Facebook and in the news about the president resigning and three board members ... These people aren’t shrinking violets.

‘‘They are assertive people who speak out and speak up and challenge you. When I saw what was happening with these people, I knew we had to act. I was really quite distressed to hear their stories.

‘‘I believe this sorting this out.’’

Guy said it was not fair to expect four out of six remaining board members who had been in the role for less than 18 months to govern the ‘‘venerable’’ union of more than 50,000.

Tunnicliff said any SGM held on the matter should make the motion an allof-membership is our one shot at decision, conducted via an all member ballot.

The NZNO Democracy Now group said if the petition received signatures from 1 per cent of members, or about 500 people, the matter was ‘‘constitutionally required’’ to go to a SGM. Yesterday afternoon it had already received 270 signatures.

NZNO kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku said the comments made by the group were incredibly disrespectful to the remaining board members.

‘‘Grant Brookes chose to resign as president, followed by three board members. It’s now turned into a nasty personal campaign targeting not only me, but democratically elected members of our board.’’

In a statement yesterday, Nuku said the petition was also a personal attack against her and the role of the kaiwhakahaere itself.

‘‘It’s also an attempt to undermine our bicultural foundation, our democratic process and our union and professional values.’’