But no shift to the right among membership 

Socialist Party members in Unison

In 2021, the left won a majority on Unison’s National Executive Council (NEC) for the first time in the union’s history, with the ‘Time For Real Change’ (TFRC) grouping in the leadership. They have lost their majority on the NEC just two years later.

Given the strike wave, particularly in the public sector, a growing militancy of Unison members and a willingness to take on the Tories, this will come as a surprise to many. But this electoral setback doesn’t signify a shift to the right amongst members.

As is the case in most trade unions, there continues to be a very low turnout in national executive elections – in this case, 5%. Battling every day with the reality of the cost-of-living crisis, cuts and privatisation, only a small layer of members are engaged in the need to vote in national elections, and many of those who do vote are already supporters of a particular set of candidates, so a small shift in seats can have a big impact.

Right has not won back its majority

While the Labour Starmerite right, fighting under the banner of ‘Unison Unity’, will be celebrating the setback for TFRC and the left, they cannot claim to have won back the majority they had previously. Unison Unity took 29 of the 67 NEC seats, and will be hoping to rely on all five of the so-called independent NEC members to allow them to try to control the NEC by just one vote.

Shocked at their loss of the leadership two years ago, the right were determined to try and take back the control they had for 28 years. In this election, they no doubt worked harder than before. 

With the general secretary and union officialdom still in the hands of the right wing, from the beginning the question had been immediately posed: who runs Unison, the elected left NEC or the paid officials?

The right spent the last two years acting as a disruptive force, trying at every turn, with the backing of the officialdom, to undermine the left leadership.

Mistaken

However they were aided by mistaken tactics and strategy of the leaders of TFRC, who concentrated on what were seen by many as internal matters.

Their refusal to take seriously the Kirklees 15 complaints against the long-standing NEC member and Kirklees branch secretary Paul Holmes, a position they have now been forced into a U-turn on, was used by the right wing to attack all of the left. Despite having done nothing about the complaints themselves for over a year, the right painted the left as anti-democratic and protecting a bully.

The Socialist Party consistently argued that the complaints of mainly women members must be taken seriously and dealt with swiftly, both for the benefit of the complainants and those they complained about.

Socialist Party members have consistently argued that the left leadership needed a clear strategy to fight in the interests of members on pay, jobs, cuts and privatisation, so that members could see the difference a left leadership would make. The TFRC leaders didn’t sufficiently differentiate themselves from the right wing on the key industrial and political issues. Instead they covered over differences with the right with talk of ‘unity’.

Starmer

This included no more than protest statements against Keir Starmer in his ruthless campaign to drive out all remnants of Corbyn’s anti-austerity programme and Corbyn himself from the Labour Party, even when the Labour Party leadership witch-hunted TFRC Unison president Andrea Egan, and when the Unison reps on Labour’s NEC abstained on the vote to bar Corbyn.

This mistaken approach has been a massive lost opportunity and has damaged all of the left in the union, including the Socialist Party. Unfortunately we lost three of the seats held by Socialist Party members on the NEC, although April Ashley was re-elected to an NEC Black members’ seat with over 26,000 votes.

Despite attempts by the Socialist Party to seek a joint slate on all seats, this was rejected by the TFRC leaders. Although they did not oppose the sitting Socialist Party NEC members, they campaigned only for their own candidates.

At this stage it is not clear how the votes will fall at the first new NEC meeting, due to take place on Friday 16 June, which will elect the presidential team. However, no matter how the fight for positions on the NEC pans out, it is clear that none of the issues facing members have gone away on pay, cuts, privatisation and the anti-union laws.

Whoever takes control of union, they will face the wrath of the membership if they fail to offer a clear industrial and political strategy. That is why it is vital for the left on the NEC to draw up a clear fighting programme to take on the Tories, their continued austerity agenda, and their new anti-union laws. This is the best way to expose the right wing to the members and show why the union needs a fighting left leadership.

Fighting strategy needed

The new NEC will be in office at the time of the next general election, with the likely election of a Starmer-led government. Starmer is making it clear on a daily basis that he is a safe pair of hands for British capitalism, and is determined to expunge any vestige of Corbynism and left opposition in the Labour Party.

Both the right and TFRC have unfortunately continued to tie themselves to the Labour Party wagon, including refusing to demand that cutting Labour councils stop passing on Tory cuts.

However, this position will increasingly not hold, as members will rightly demand pay rises from a Labour government, a return of all that has been stolen off them in the last decade or more, and for fully funded, publicly owned services. This will mean an inevitable clash with a Labour government, and any leadership that seeks to cover for them will not be forgiven.  

Members will not only demand a fighting union to take on such a government, but will also demand we use our weight and political funds to defend and speak for Unison members. That should include branches having the right to democratically decide to support candidates that support us, and debating how to build genuine political representation for working-class people.

The Socialist Party in Unison will continue to seek to work with all those who genuinely want to win a fighting and democratic union.