April Ashley, Unison NEC, personal capacity
The first Unison National Executive Council (NEC) in 2026, on 18 February, welcomed the newly elected left general secretary, Andrea Egan, to her first meeting.
As the first lay member elected to the position, Andrea resoundingly beat the outgoing right-wing general secretary Christina McAnea, after disappointing national pay campaigns that did not lead to national action in local government or health, which have left Unison members with some of the lowest pay in the public sector. She said: “We are the biggest and best-resourced union in the country and we should act like it”.
The NEC began with a discussion on the new trade union political fund rules brought in by the Employment Rights Act (ERA), which now state that all new members automatically pay into the union’s political fund unless they opt out. Unison has two political funds, one of which is the affiliated political fund supporting the Labour Link, and the other a general campaign fund.
Labour link
This immediately began a debate on Unison’s link to the Labour Party, as only 16% of Unison members currently pay into the Labour Link. The NEC agreed to set up a working party on implementation to bring proposals to a future NEC. Socialist Party members argued that we must ensure members are not automatically put into the Labour Link against their wishes.
This will ignite the debate at conference about the role Unison should play in fighting for working class political representation.
The debate flowed into the general secretary report that the repeal of 50% turnout threshold in ballots for industrial action has been pushed back, and the Labour government may only look at this in the third stage of implementation of the ERA.
This will infuriate Unison activists who were only persuaded to vote for Labour because of the ERA and promise to repeal the 2016 Trade Union Act. Now even more activists will question the link to the Labour Party.
When Socialist Party members asked about Andrea’s manifesto commitment to review Unison’s link to the Labour Party because of members’ anger at Labour’s betrayals, there was no real response.
The NEC meeting also discussed the Together Alliance demo on 28 March. Socialist Party members argued that trade unionists must lead the fight against racism and it must be linked to the fight against austerity. The rise of racism, Reform, and far-right groups in the UK and across Europe is driven by the cost-of-living crisis and austerity. The government and the bosses seek to blame migrant workers for austerity. If we don’t fight austerity, the rise of racism and Reform will continue.
The NEC also debated inviting Angela Rayner to speak at Unison’s conference, proposed because of her perceived role in pushing through the ERA. Left NEC members challenged inviting her – we had previously challenged her role against the Birmingham bin strike. I said inviting her to speak could put the union into disrepute.
This first NEC of the new year is the beginning of a stormy period, as members will seek to fight under the new general secretary for national industrial action on pay and cuts in local government, health, higher education, schools and social care – and will seek a political strategy that matches that fight.
- ‘Unison members for a new party’ has launched a petition to campaign among members for a review of the political funds. Sign the petition ‘Labour’s not our party! Let Unison members decide our political choices’ at change.org
- Socialist Party members have been nominated to stand for election for Unison’s Local Government, Health, Community, and Police, Probation and Cafcass Service Group Executives. The elections take place in April.
