By Solidarity members in Unite
The nominations period has closed for Unite the Union’s General Secretary election. Two candidates, outgoing General Secretary Sharon Graham and Simon Dubbins from Unite’s international department are the two candidates. Sharon Graham has received 695 branch/workplace nominations to Simon Dubbins’ 342.
Unite, with 1.1 million members in Ireland and Britain, is by far the largest general union on these islands.
Sharon Graham’s campaign in large measure will be resting on her record for the last five years. Her election in 2021, something of an upset, was based on an insurgent campaign, the backbone of which were hundreds of ordinary reps positively impacted by the work of the union’s organising department which she headed up over the prior years.
Her ending the union’s focus on the internal politics of the British Labour Party, by then under the leadership of Keir Starmer, and instead placing an emphasis on organising to arrest the decline in membership under the previous administration and, in particular, giving local reps freer rein to lodge inflation -busting pay claims backed up with ballots for industrial action lends some credibility to one of her campaign slogans “promises made – promises delivered”.
In the context of the cost-of-living spike in the aftermath of the Covid lockdown this turn was very timely. The headline statistics speak for themselves, with 1,800 disputes covering 280,000 members resulting in £0.7 billion/€0.8 billion in additional wages being won. Tens of millions have been spent on strike pay, sustaining high -profile disputes such as with the Birmingham bin workers. Further resources have been spent on leverage campaigns in defence of victimised reps including in Ireland.
Sharon Graham’s election has further represented a positive break with the corruption that marked the previous administration as evidenced by the grossly overpriced construction of a hotel in Birmingham with union funds, the collusion of some officials in the construction sector with the blacklisting of members and serious graft on the part of some senior officials administering member benefits. Some of these matters are the subject of ongoing police investigations so much of the detail remains to come to light.
Supporters of the previous administration among the union’s officers and elements of the lay executive leadership have remained hostile and unreconciled to the regime change brought about by Sharon Graham and have thrown their lot in behind Simon Dubbins’ campaign.
Up until the most recent International Executive Committee elections the executive was barely functional due to it being split evenly between the old regime (formerly the ‘United Left’ platform but now re-named ‘re-Unite the Union’) and the pro-Sharon Graham platform (Workers Unite – Back to the Workplace). The most recent elections, however, saw the Workers Unite platform win twice as many seats as re-Unite the Union, laying the basis for the fulfilment of Sharon Graham’s election platform should she be returned.
The opposition to her leadership was also demonstrated by one day’s strike action organised by a cohort of officers who joined the right-wing trade union Community. This was not a bona fide trade dispute. Unite’s officers are handsomely paid to a point that makes their material conditions very remote from the perspective of the significant majority of members – an issue that needs to be addressed as an anti-bureaucratic measure. Rather, it was a factional initiative designed to destabilise the union in the run-up to this year’s Executive and General Secretary elections.
Simon Dubbins is the candidate for the re-Unite the Union platform. He cannot point to a record of organising and struggle that matches Sharon Graham’s. His platform is one of innuendo and negativity. His is a platform that represents a greater focus on British Labour Party politics and greater restraint on workplace struggle. He incredibly views the union’s spend on strike pay as a weakness and not a strength in Sharon Graham’s record.
Equally concerning are suggestions from his campaign of greater central oversight of industrial disputes. Unite should be moving towards greater democratic control by members in dispute, with elected strike committees and workplace representatives shaping strategy, not towards a more bureaucratic model where officials exercise tighter control over action from above.
From the point of view of Solidarity members in Unite the Union, Sharon Graham’s record and platform are not without their weaknesses. The union, in general, has nowhere near sufficiently aligned itself with the Palestine solidarity movement and has lacked a progressive policy for the repurposing of Britain’s massive arms industry where tens of thousands of Unite members are employed.
However, socialists should approach these questions from the standpoint of how we strengthen our movement rather than simply catalogue disagreements. Sharon Graham’s first term has fundamentally shifted the centre of gravity within Unite back towards workplace organisation, industrial struggle and confidence in collective action. That creates opportunities which simply did not exist five years ago.
A second term should not be about managing what has already been achieved. With a supportive Executive Council now in place there is far greater scope to implement the broader programme members voted for. The factional paralysis that has held the union back should be significantly reduced. That creates the space not simply to implement Graham’s full manifesto, but to develop Unite politically.
The type of trade union socialists seek is not one that confines itself to industrial struggle only. We need a militant, democratic union that not only helps workers organise collectively to challenge employers and governments alike but one that can increasingly give workers sight of being capable of shaping society.
That means opening up discussion throughout the union on the major political questions facing our class. There should be no no-go areas in Unite. The growth of Reform, racism and the far right across the UK and Ireland , war and militarism, genocide, public ownership, decarbonisation and the future of manufacturing all directly affect Unite members. These questions cannot simply be left to governments or employers. Trade unionists have both the right and responsibility to develop independent workers’ positions.
On climate and industry in particular, socialists reject the false choice between jobs and the environment. Workers should never be treated as collateral damage in the transition to a low-carbon economy. The answer is neither to defend every existing industry regardless of its future nor to abandon communities in the name of decarbonisation.
Unite should instead lead the fight for a worker-led just transition based on public ownership, democratic planning, investment, retraining, job guarantees and the repurposing of skills and industries where necessary. Rather than reacting to the agenda set by employers and coming across as not being concerned about the reality of climate catastrophe, the union should confidently advance its own alternative industrial strategy.
Likewise, on militarism and international questions, the labour movement must reject the idea that workers’ interests are served by endless increases in military spending or by tying the future of skilled manufacturing to permanent war production. Defending jobs and opposing war are not contradictory. A confident trade union movement should be capable of arguing for alternative production that protects both employment and human life.
The gains made over the last five years will only become permanent if they are embedded in stronger organisation from below. Unite should actively encourage the development of permanent shop stewards’ networks, combines (which gather shop stewards from particular industries and sectors together) and rank-and-file organisation across industries and regions so that activists can coordinate campaigns, learn from one another and hold every level of the union accountable.
Electing Sharon Graham to a second term offers far better conditions in which to build and will see far superior conditions for members to engage in struggle than anything offered by Simon Dubbins.
The broader question raised by this election is what kind of trade union we need. Socialists do not simply want a better resourced negotiating machine or a better service provider. We need a militant, democratic fighting union that gives workers the confidence to organise collectively, challenge not only employers but governments. Every successful dispute creates new workplace leaders, demonstrates the power of collective action and lays the foundations for broader struggles.
Unite should actively encourage the development of shop stewards’ networks, combines and rank-and-file organisation across industries and regions so that activists can coordinate campaigns, share experience and support one another independently of the bureaucracy. The strength of Unite will never ultimately rest on one General Secretary but on thousands of confident workplace leaders capable of leading struggles themselves.
With a supportive Executive Council now in place, there is less excuse for failing to deliver on that broader vision. Supporters of Sharon Graham should both campaign energetically for her re-election and continue to apply constructive pressure on the leadership to deepen workplace democracy, strengthen rank-and-file organisation and develop a more rounded political strategy for the union.
