By Steve McKenzie, Unite Community member
At this precise moment in time Unite the union does not have a functioning National Executive Council, which is the highest elected, and governing body in the union.
The role of NEC members is to ensure that the union is functioning effectively, in accordance with the policies of the union, which are decided at the sovereign body of Unite, the bi-annual policy conference. Instead, what we have is a civil war between two officer-led bureaucratic factions, a fight that has now reached new heights.
One faction is supported mainly by one group of unelected officials, and the other by another group unelected officials, but in support of the general secretary. It is incredible in such a large union, but the only national officer elected is the general secretary.
The faction fighting has engulfed the Executive Council and has paralysed the democratic processes and functioning of the union at its highest level. ‘Which faction has the most Executive Council members under its control’, is the level to which things have degenerated in our union.
Membership-led nonsense exposed
The farcical claim that Unite is a membership-led union, (often made by unelected officers loyal to one or other of the bureaucratic factions), is here displayed for the absolute nonsense that it is.
The fact that the executive council has become a battleground for these two factions, and in the process has become dysfunctional, is a reflection of the fact that we are not a membership-led union. In reality, Unite is not even a membership-centred union, as most members who need representation will confirm.
This factional civil war, for control of the union’s apparatus, has been intensifying ever since Sharon Graham won the General Secretary election in 2021. One faction, (the organisers) is supportive of her. The other, the mis-named ‘United Left’, it is closely linked to the previous leadership.
There are claims of fraud and extortion against the old regime that are currently under investigation by the Serious Fraud office. There are allegations against the current leadership of bullying and intimidation of Unite staff. So bad has this situation become, that some employees are on the verge of taking industrial action. The claims and counter-claims are too numerous to list in a short article.
Majority of Executive Council walk out
Most recently, the factional fighting led to a majority vote by the United Left supporters on the Executive Council to remove the chair, but he refused to stand down, claiming that a two thirds majority was necessary. Those who had voted for his removal (the majority) then left the meeting, stating that they were going to seek legal advice. They are refusing to participate in NEC meetings until the chair vacates the position, meaning that the Executive Council is inquorate and is unable to meet.
Events are developing rapidly and what happens next will have a profound effect on the union. But one thing is blindingly clear and that is that there is a need for rank and file members to democratize Unite if it is to become a truly membership led union.
We need to build a genuine democratic broad left in Unite, an open and transparent voice, with a mass membership rooted in the rank and file. It would meet regularly by region and industrial sector, and be able to make a significant on elections as well as plan rule changes to make the union genuinely democratic.
The union ended up in a terrible position under the previous UL regime. One third of branches not meeting, one third just about functioning but with only two officers and/or all officers over retirement age and only one third working as they should; ridiculously low turnouts in the EC elections and 99% of members frozen out of the structures. But the UL did not care about that so long as they could control the structure and therefore decide who got the best paid jobs. Not to mention that a few million pounds went missing building the hotel. Also the UL regime made one rotten compromise after another with the right wing of the Labour Party, and spectacularly messed up on Open Selection, which would have defeated the Blairites (who became the Starmeroids) and the PLP. Industrially the union was not working with too many members going unrepresented as there was no real effort to recruit and retain shop stewards, leaving the officers running around doing basic individual cases for £65,000 a year.
Sharon got elected on a ticket of change – her nominations came from the industrially active parts of Unite whereas Turner’s nominations came from empty branches staffed by retired Morning Star supporters, and she followed through by backing the strike wave, winning many valuable disputes. She has not “cosied up to Starmer”; on the contrary she led a walk out at Nottingham NPF against the massive dilution of New Deal for Working People, and refused to endorse Starmer’s manifesto at the Clause V meeting just before the election. Also Unite forced a vote on Winter Fuel Allowance. But…she has taken bad advice on Palestine, she has got in a needless battle with the staff at HQ, she has not created a democratic grouping to support her ideas instead preferring a small group of advisers, and above all she has not democratised Unite or its structures. Where are the combines promised? Where is the Democracy Review? Where are the EC minutes ? None published since March 2023, so us mere reps cannot even know properly what has gone on at the EC.
Steve W. I have to say I do not find Steve M. article a misread at all. As you well know I read Skwawkbox and whilst I find all the articles engaging I do find those on UNITE somewhat posed as an opposition to Sharon Graham’s tenure and conduct.
I am a member of a UNITE branch that was “paused” (they decided to use semantics as suspended was too political I suspect!!) for over two years whilst an investigation was conducted into a Branch officers behaviours that don’t need re iterating here. The outcome, from Unite FTO’s who probably secured their posts during the United Left ascendency, in my view took a massively over long time to reach a view which I can only describe as “a fudge “, they bottled any potential decision.
As to Sharon Graham, industrially I think she has been a breath of fresh air and managed to secure quite a few victories for UNITE members. Some of them may have had an over egging of the success for PR terms. Where SG has failed in my view has been on the lack of political engagement, and of course the complete ignoring of UNITE Policy on Palestine. An area of serious concern where much much more could and should have been done.
My experience of UNITE, therefore, is that I find the UL faction more interested in securing their own positions and frankly not being at all concerned about UNITE members, as I have pointed to one brief but seriously failing issue above. And that SG is spending too much time trying to cosy up to Starmer instead of realising the power of UNITE politically plus the failures on Palestine as mentioned.
Consequently, having seen the behaviours of the EC members and the outcome of the last NEC I would suggest that the attack on the former UL NEC chair, now in the SG camp, the UL EC members should have known there would be a disagreement on the basis of the rules and so should have shown up with evidence to support their argument. But it appears that they want to make sufficient noise to be able to move next to calling for a suspension of the General Secretary for this, and conduct surrounding the NEC chair, and then place their own “temporary” UL person in the Gen.Secretary position. Given the ineptitude I felt was implicit in our branch investigation conducted by officers appointed during the previous UL era, I think I am more inclined to agree with Steve M’s assessment than yours on this occasion Steve W.
What a complete misreading of the situation. Do more research – Skwawkbox would be a good starting point, particularly about Unite’s now-admitted destruction of evidence against Graham’s husband, which will shed a lot of light on everything that’s going on.