Steve Bell, Unison Health Service Group Executive, personal capacity
This year’s National Delegate Conference (NDC) was held against the backdrop of increasing working-class struggles and strike action against the cost-of-living crisis and austerity. The junior doctors were striking as conference met.
Unison has also seen an increase in strike activity. Delegates from local government, health and other public services, with Socialist Party members prominent, spoke of the ballots and action they have pursued and the hope that they could beat the Tory anti-trade union laws.
However, as a union with over 1.2 million members, Unison continues to punch below its collective weight. The right-wing union bureaucracy over years has preferred to lobby and rely on talking to ‘sympathetic’ politicians to convince them and employers to change their minds. This policy has meant that Unison members have rarely heard of the need for collective action, including strike action, to either increase or defend our terms and conditions.
A fight necessary
Two years ago, a left-led National Executive Council (NEC) was elected, including four Socialist Party members, with the Time for Real Change grouping in the majority. That raised the opportunity to battle the right wing and bureaucracy to develop a different and more fighting strategy. The general secretary, Christina McAnea, elected separately, is part of the old right wing.
However, this battle has only been visible at Unison’s conferences and to activists, without being taken to the membership as a whole. Consequently, to many members the distinction is not always clear between the previous right-wing leadership and the left-led NEC. The TFRC group lost their majority in the recent NEC elections.
This was demonstrated with motion 74 on the need to grow the industrial action fund, which had been proposed by the left-led NEC but was opposed by the right wing. The motion proposed taking surplus funds from branches with excess reserves and putting them towards the industrial action fund; that would be matched with funding from Unison’s reserves, up to £5 million. This would affect 22% of branches. The motion was lost, in part because it was described by the right as a ‘smash and grab’ – even though the branches that would contribute would still be among the wealthiest in the union.
Political strategy
The political strategy of the leadership, both TFRC and the right wing, of waiting for a general election, was also demonstrated in many of the debates. There was joy among the delegates that the Tories are in turmoil and many are hopeful of a Labour government returning soon.
However, it was left to the Socialist Party delegates to take the lead in raising demands on an incoming Labour government – to pay inflation-proof pay rises, fully fund public services, and end privatisation. Socialist Party members warned that, under Starmer, a Labour government would act in the interests of capital and quickly move against workers’ interests. When these points were raised – and that to apply the pressure of workers there needs to be both an industrial and political fightback, including with Jeremy Corbyn and workers standing as candidates – there was always warm applause.
This support was demonstrated in the Socialist Party fringe meeting, which was one of the largest in a number of years. Over 50 people attended and several asked to join. The Socialist Party had the largest presence of all left groups at the conference, selling over 300 papers and raising over £2,200 in fighting fund.
New Unison NEC meets – the left must put forward a bold programme
As explained in the Socialist (see ‘Unison elections: Time for Real Change lose majority control of the NEC’), the TFRC group lost its overall majority in the recent elections. Unfortunately, the Socialist Party now only has one member elected to the NEC, April Ashley, elected to one of the Black members’ seats with over 26,000 votes.
At the end of conference, the new NEC met for the first time. The left won the presidential team by a tiny majority, including April. Socialist Party members will continue to put forward the fighting programme needed. It is essential that the debates about what is needed industrially and politically are not kept within the confines of the leading structures of Unison but are taken out to the members, in order to build a democratic and fighting union.
