Barnet UNISON received notice today that one of our dedicated reps has died. Nicky Mahn worked as an Assessment and Enablement Officer (AEO), formerly titled Community Care Officer. She never hesitated in her support for the union and other workers or hesitated in her support for workers in dispute. She had the biggest heart which meant rather than protect herself, she would want to protect others first. She was a rep for over 20 years.
There is a strong and understandable inclination for colleagues in trouble at work to want to keep it private and deal with it with minimum fuss and attention. However, sometimes a case can highlight a larger injustice and if a colleague agrees then we can turn their issue into a campaign to expose the injustice at hand and improve matters such that no other colleague has to go through the same. Nicky understood this and in 2017 agreed, along with her colleagues, that what she was being targeted for, needed to be campaigned about. In essence her case was the way in which colleagues generally were being told to pump out the work and accept allocations with scant regard for whether it was realistic to complete all the necessary recording of actions.
Nicky avoided being dismissed thanks to this campaign and her part in it.
There is an echo in this issue within the Mental Health strike today and of course Nicky supported this dispute as much as she could before she went off sick.
Much more could be said about Nicky but hopefully this conveys a snapshot of the essence of her and what her loss means to our movement.
Our condolences to her family and colleagues. Nicky Mahn RIP.