There is growing disquiet inside Unite the Union as McCluskey continues to be more interested in defending Corbyn's dreadful record on antisemitism in the Labour Party than campaigning for his members jobs under threat in the pandemic.
McCluskey was elected by just 4% of Unites members with the vast majority of the union abstaining. This is in a large part due to the hard left controlling the distribution of information. This will no doubt help anoint the Broad left's replacement for McCluskey as he retires
There is an alternative that Unite members and especially those who Labour Party members wishing to change the way both are run by supporting the Unite Alliance who have issued the following statement:
McCluskey was elected by just 4% of Unites members with the vast majority of the union abstaining. This is in a large part due to the hard left controlling the distribution of information. This will no doubt help anoint the Broad left's replacement for McCluskey as he retires
There is an alternative that Unite members and especially those who Labour Party members wishing to change the way both are run by supporting the Unite Alliance who have issued the following statement:
Those that are in danger of losing their jobs need help to defend them, those that are having their wages and working conditions threatened need support to protect them, and everyone at work needs the union focused on looking after their health and safety while they are at work in this dangerous time. Every tool at the union’s disposal, including legal, political and industrial means, need to be entirely focused on this.
But what we are currently witnessing is nothing of the sort. Our union’s leadership seems to be far more concerned with who will succeed Len McCluskey as General Secretary of Unite when his term of office comes to an end in 2022, than it is about the battle our members are fighting day in day out against the effects of the corona-virus and the ruthless employers who are using the crisis as a cover to decimate our members lives. Such a diversion of attention would be an insult to our members at the best of times, but when the Unite Executive Council has not even discussed, let alone called, a General Secretary election, it is a disgrace and a betrayal to the promise we’ve made to do everything possible to protect our 1.2 million members.
Against the background of the current unprecedented threat that the corona-virus poses to hundreds of thousands of our members jobs and industries these actions not only beggar belief, they also demonstrate just how completely and utterly out of touch our leadership has become in relation to the real needs and interests of our members.
As the largest and most visible union in the country we have seen virtually nothing of our leadership at all in the media. There has been no calling the government out on its unbelievably bad handling of the crisis, or the publishing of detailed survival plans for the worst affected sectors.
Our members and activists engaged in a bitter fight for the survival and well-being of our union and its members know only too well what the real priorities are, and they are most definitely not external squabbles about the next General Secretary. Nor are they the internal factional fights being waged within the Labour Party for which Unite again appears ready to squander members money to bankroll yet another costly legal battle. Without a laser like focus on today’s battles whenever there is a new General Secretary there may not be much of a union left to lead.
We the lay representatives will carry on fighting and doing the best we can for our members in this terrible period. We will carry on trying to defend jobs, wages and safety and we will carry on fighting in a battle of a scale that none of us have ever experienced before and we will often be doing that without clear battle plans or ways to proceed.
We will continue to stand together as we have always done come what may, and we will continue to work with the thousands of dedicated members, activists and officers that have stepped up to the plate given their very best. We have taken no position at all yet on who we think should lead our union in the future, but rest assured, when the time does come and a real General Secretary election does take place, we will be asking how and why this situation came about and making our judgement on who was really there for us in our members hour of need.
Steve Hibbert – Chair Unite Alliance – Unite Executive Council and Rolls Royce Derby Convenor
Sean Beatty – Vice-Chair Unite Alliance – Chair of Unite BASSA branch
More info:unitealliance.org
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