An election of huge importance for whole trade union movement

Socialist Party members in Unite

The Unite general secretary election has been announced, and it comes at a pivotal moment for members of Unite and the whole union movement. Socialist Party members will be campaigning to re-elect Sharon Graham.

Given the political and industrial importance of Unite, with 1.2 million members and one of the largest Labour-affiliated unions, the outcome of this election will have huge importance as workers struggle against the brutal cost-of-living crisis, and as Starmer’s Labour government implodes.

The general secretary election follows on from that for the union’s Executive Council (EC), where the left ‘Workers’ Unite/Back to the Workplace’ slate of candidates won a convincing victory. The result reflected the mood of reps and activists that wanted to defend and extend the militant industrial approach that the union has taken under Sharon Graham’s leadership.

We supported Sharon Graham in the 2021 general secretary election because of her militant industrial approach, and under her leadership Unite has strengthened its industrial action strategy, calling over 1,500 disputes, winning 83%. Those disputes have won £605 million for members.

Nominations will now open, but Simon Dubbins Unite Director of International & Research had already announced his candidature last year. He is supported by the United Left (UL) group who were part of the ‘Members United’ bloc that were defeated in the EC election. Previously, the UL used their narrow majority on the Unite Executive to obstruct Sharon’s fighting position, arguing for a more pro-Labour approach.

Consolidate the gains

It is essential that the gains of the EC election are consolidated, that Unite continues to develop its industrial militancy and faces up to the political challenge posed by Labour’s meltdown.

Faced by this weak and divided Labour government, Unite can take the lead in calling for coordinated action to fight for the above-inflation pay rises that workers need in both the public and private sectors as the cost of living spirals.

Socialist Party members stood on our programme on this left slate – with four being elected – along with fellow supporters of the Unite Broad Left (UBL). It included fighting shop stewards such as Danny Taylor, one of the lead reps in the heroic Birmingham bin strike, where workers have been on indefinite strike since March 2025 against the Labour council’s vicious £8,000 a year fire and rehire.

That Labour council was thrown out of office on 7 May, with the cutting councillors sharing the same fate as so many other Labour representatives around England, Scotland and Wales, as the working class vented its visceral anger at this New Labour Mark II government continuing the Tory road of austerity and pro-big business policies. Despite being elected with a 170+ majority, two years in, the cuts continue, privatisation remains, and still the promise to scrap the Tory undemocratic 50% strike ballot threshold has not been carried out.

Unite’s relationship with Labour

The lesson of the May elections is clear for Labour and all other political parties – if you represent this big business system and the capitalist establishment, you will end up in crisis.

The Birmingham bin dispute has been a lightning rod in Unite and posed what is needed in the union, both politically and industrially. For a Labour council to look to try to smash its workforce and its union, to use the worst Tory strike-breaking measures, including getting Unite fined £265,000, it has inevitably raised where now for Unite?

At last year’s Unite Policy Conference, this clash came to a head. During the conference itself, Birmingham City Council announced its intention to fire and rehire the bin workers. Socialist Party members and close allies, who were all conference delegates, put together an emergency motion to build support for the bin workers and to suspend from Unite membership the councillors and the then-Labour deputy prime minister Angela Rayner. This motion was passed virtually unanimously, apart from a handful of delegates who support United Left.

The motion also agreed to open up a discussion in Unite about its relationship with Labour. That debate must now begin, which is why it is important that a statement agreed by the newly elected Executive Council on 15 May says: “Our members will be given the opportunity to vote on whether they want to retain our link to the Labour Party. This will inform the Rules Conference next year, which takes the ultimate decision.”

Rules conference urgent

The scheduled 2027 rules conference, however, would be too late for next year’s council elections, where over 7000 seats will be contested, including in Scotland and Wales. Therefore, Socialist Party members in Unite argue that the rules conference should be brought forward so that union reps and members can urgently discuss the political strategy that is needed, as Labour has been exposed and Farage’s poisonous Reform is looking to exploit the political vacuum that has opened up because of Starmer’s pro-business policies.

We agree with Sharon Graham’s conclusion from Labour’s election catastrophe: “The working class have been abandoned and have delivered their verdict… We are stuck in a rigged system where everyday people always, always pay. Only fundamental, irreversible change will stem the tide. If the party does not shift decisively towards the working class it is finished.”

New workers’ party needed

But we don’t think any hope should be put in a Labour resuscitation. When Sharon says “It is change or die. Now or never” it could be seen as putting off further what is sorely needed – not to wait for a new ‘project’ to weigh up hitching a ride with, but for the unions themselves, with their collective authority and their reach across all working-class communities, with Unite to the fore, to launch a political voice for the working-class, a new workers’ party, on a socialist programme.

This is particularly vital for Unite because a socialist approach, based on nationalisation of industry, is the foundation for a ‘Just Workers Transition’ in the defence and fossil fuels industries, as the only way to guarantee jobs, pay and pensions in moving to socially useful production.

This isn’t about the personal traits of individual Labour leadership contenders. Showing her ‘left face’, Angela Rayner recently spoke at the Communication Workers Unions conference, just as Starmer was clinging desperately to No.10. But this is the same Rayner who was suspended by Unite last year for her role in attacking the bin workers in league with the councillors. And all those vying to replace Starmer are signed up to his pro-capitalist agenda at home and abroad, shamefully nodding through his austerity and backing up Trump and Netanyahu’s brutal war-mongering.

Undoubtedly, under Sharon Graham’s leadership, Unite has been prepared to challenge Starmer’s Labour government more than most unions. It played a leading role in successfully campaigning against the winter fuel payment cut and, of course, taking on Labour in Birmingham and Westminster over the bin dispute.

In the 2021 Unite Policy Conference, just weeks after Sharon Graham was elected, a motion was passed to enshrine into Unite’s programme that the union call on Labour councils not to implement cuts, but to pass no-cuts needs budgets, a policy long-campaigned for by the Socialist Party. This March, in response to the year anniversary of the Birmingham bin strike, the Unite EC voted to cut its Labour affiliation fee by £580,000 to £900,000.

Workers’ manifesto

Socialist Party members argue that the union needs to go further, not down the road of non-political trade unionism, but to launch a political alternative for workers. Sharon Graham has reiterated the need for Unite to launch a Workers’ Manifesto, contained in the new EC statement. We totally agree, and it could start with Unite policy on nationalisation, scrap the Tory anti-union laws, and needs-based no-cuts budgets. But what political party will carry out the manifesto that workers need? 

But all this is on the line in the general secretary election. A victory for Dubbins and the United Left group would be a serious obstacle in maintaining and strengthening the union’s militancy. The left victory in the EC election is the platform for building on the last five years: developing the industrial combines to bring more workplace reps and activists to the fore in the union; and, above all, for Unite to play the leading role in the fight against Labour austerity, the bosses’ offensive and the threat of Reform, which requires facing up to the political and industrial challenges.

Socialist Party members in Unite will be campaigning to re-elect Sharon Graham, arguing for the industrial and political programme we believe is necessary for the union at this stormy time, while continuing to fight to build the Unite Broad Left into a fighting left organisation that can attract and mobilise the militant and socialist reps and activists in the union. We will work alongside other forces that agree that winning this election is essential in building on the victory won in the EC election. It is a vital step in defeating any attempt by those in the union who want to send Unite into retreat. This is what is at stake in the forthcoming general secretary election.