Kevin Parslow, Unite branch secretary
Unite the Union sector conferences take place every two years and are a chance for reps to discuss issues pertinent to their industries and services, and decide campaigning priorities. This year, they were the first conferences of the union since the election of the Labour government.
Socialist Party members took part in many of the 19 sector conferences. Len Hockey was a speaker at the health conference on how Unite members won being taken back in-house from privatisers Serco, after winning their strike at Barts Hospital Trust.
Industrial militancy
Delegates were addressed in a plenary session by general secretary Sharon Graham. Since Sharon became general secretary, Unite has called over 1,000 disputes, winning 80%. Those disputes have won £450 million for members. £42 million has been spent on strike pay in the last two years, compared to an average of £1 million in the previous 14 years. Sharon said, if the union cannot support its members on strike, what is the point of the union? The union is currently involved in 192 disputes and is growing for the first time in its 14-year history.
Sharon argued that Unite fought with other unions to get commitments put into Labour’s manifesto for the general election, but the small wins were not enough, and Unite was the only union to vote against the manifesto. Since the general election, it has been engaging with the Labour government, but Sharon said Unite would keep the feet of any government to the fire. “We will not offer unconditional support to Labour if they fail our members.” At Labour’s conference, Unite had tabled and won the motion opposing the cuts to winter fuel payments.
Sharon also called for the energy grid to be put in public hands. This is important but the whole of the energy sector should be nationalised, under democratic workers’ control and management, which could provide cheap energy and fund the workers’ transition to environmentally friendly energy, without loss of jobs and pay.
Unite could not allow the Labour government to create working-class wastelands, Sharon stated, referencing the attacks to the Grangemouth oil refinery and Port Talbot steelworks that would devastate their local communities. Socialist Party members have argued that it was a mistake for Unite not to have called on Labour to nationalise both.
Sharon argued that previously the union’s political fund had given millions of pounds to the Labour Party as well as its affiliation fees. Now, the political fund will be used for the benefit of working-class people to campaign on these issues.
Political strategy
She pointed to the 50 richest families in the UK, worth a combined £500 billion. A wealth tax on these fortunes, she proposed, could wipe off the debts of government and local councils. And she pointed to the re-election of Trump in America and the gains for Reform in Britain as warnings of what could happen if Labour fails and workers look for an alternative. “We are here to hold Labour to account,” she stated.
Sharon has been one of the trade union leaders most critical of Starmer’s Labour. However, it is not a question of ‘if’ Labour fails to deliver. As demonstrated in Rachel Reeves’s budget, leaving council and NHS services grossly underfunded and facing even more privatisation, working-class people will face continued austerity under this pro-capitalist Labour government. Recognising that workers could look elsewhere for political representation puts a responsibility on trade union leaders to take steps to build a working-class political alternative.
Sharon suggested that the next Rules Conference in 2027 might not be as simple a debate as in 2023, when the union’s continued affiliation to Labour was reaffirmed. However, two and a half years is a long time to wait!
Unite’s opposition to attacks from Labour should include putting demands on its sponsored MPs to voice that opposition. Seven Labour MPs were suspended from Labour for voting against the two-child benefit cap, and six of those are Unite-sponsored MPs.
Calling on the sponsored MPs to back Unite’s demands, and similarly approaching Jeremy Corbyn and the independent MPs, would be important steps towards developing a bloc of MPs in parliament that fights in workers’ interests. That would also raise sharply the question of supporting candidates in council elections who back Unite policies, whether in Labour or outside.
Developing the industrial and political strategy of Unite is the best answer to the opponents of Sharon Graham’s leadership organised in the mis-named United Left. Their 2021 general secretary candidate, Steve Turner, said in his campaign that Unite’s general secretary needed to work with a Labour government. If Unite was under their leadership now, they would be seeking ‘partnership’ with Starmer’s Labour government, muting criticism on all issues (including those they hypocritically champion now, such as Gaza), and holding back on industrial action.
The coming period will not be a quiet one for Unite members, and if genuine socialist fighters are elected to important positions in the union in the next two years, and a fighting strategy agreed at Unite’s policy conference next July, then Unite could be at the forefront of important political developments in the next period that would take working-class representation forward.