The Real Unite

You’d think there would be limits. Smears and misogynist shitposts against Unite’s first female general secretary, including briefing stories against her in The Sun? That seems all par for the course these days. (No, we’re not going to post a link to that rag.) But trying to collapse the Birmingham bin dispute?

In Birmingham, Unite members have been holding solid on the picket line since January. We’re talking about 180 of our members refusing to accept a £8,000 pay cut. Refusing to accept that they, the workers, should pay the price for austerity. And for mismanagement by Birmingham City Council and the government’s Cuts Commissioners.

They have had solid backing from our Union and from our General Secretary. The Union makes no excuses for backing striking workers. Not even when it means going up against a Labour council.

But of course they’re under full attack from other quarters. From the usual suspects in the press. From the council, as you’d expect. From the government too, with ministers like Wes Streeting and Angela Rayner weighing in.

Now it looks like another bunch have joined the pile-on: our own “comrades” in the “United Left supporters group”. Otherwise known as the Len and Howard gang. Or the faction rushing round like headless chickens to unseat Unite’s elected chair and block the investigation into “alleged corruption” under the old regime.

So here’s their new attack line. Brief the media against the Union and undermine the workers. The first two articles appeared today in the BBC and Murdoch’s The Times [paywalled]. But the word is that’s just the start of their media campaign. Not just on Birmingham, but on the Union’s strategy of supporting strikes altogether. What’s coming next, another shitpost in The Sun?

In the Times article, a “senior Unite figure” slams our Birmingham strikers as “ridiculous” and “doomed to fail”. A “further source” repeats the media smears that bin workers have been using violent “bully boy tactics” on the picket line (walking slowly in front of lorries?).

The BBC article, in its more “reasoned” tones, states that the West Midlands regional office is “unhappy” with the strike. That regional office, of course, is run by senior officers linked to the United Left, appointed by Len McCluskey and friends. A representative, channelling the Great Orange President, opines:

“Unions traditionally have been about the art of the deal on behalf of their members. Instead, Unite and some others seem to be in the grip of people for whom disruption, disputes and revolution are their priority.”

So it’s the old anti-Union lines, but coming this time from the so-called “United Left” and their “allies”.

No “comrade”. Our priority is supporting our members. Our priority is standing up for workers fighting for our jobs, pay and conditions. And yes, that means we will defend our members in disputes with bosses. It means we won’t just swallow pay cuts or fold at the first HR letter (a bit like Trump when the bond markets turn?). That may be against your “tradition” of recent years. You can even call it “revolutionary” if you like. Or just call it doing what it says on the trade union tin.

In the last three years, since we elected a General Secretary committed to industrial organising rather than hobnobbing with politicians and celebrities (and even questionable friends!), we have fought and won over a thousand disputes. It’s out with the shady backroom deals and back to rebuilding the working class movement.

That’s something to be proud of. But we’ve got a lot of ground to catch up. It’s just a start. And these fakers who jokingly call themselves “Left” want to kill it before it grows.

So we get the attacks. Not just that we should sell out the members and cut a bad deal in Birmingham, but that they’re attacking support for workers across the Union. The big claim is we’re spending too much on strike pay, which is supposedly damaging the union’s finances. Let’s recap the facts on that:

In the last three years we spent £52.6 million on strike pay. That’s £17 million a year.

Compare that to the three years before 2021, under Len McCluskey. We spent £6.4 million on strike pay, just over £2 million a year.

So yes, strike pay has gone up a lot.

Why? Because we’ve had a lot more strikes. We’ve had over 210,000 members out over the last three years in well over 1000 disputes. And we won over 80% of them.

Why so many more strikes? Two big reasons. First, we’ve gone through the cost of living crisis, and people have fought to defend their pay against rampant inflation driven by profiteering.

But also, we now have a leadership that backs workers in dispute. In stark contrast to the “all mouth no trousers”, “fold ’em quick as you can”, “art of the deal” (??) fakers.

Has backing workers bust the union? No, clearly not. As we set out in a previous post, the Union’s finances are more solid than ever. We have £167 million in cash and “liquid assets”, higher than in any year under Len McCluskey.

We believe it’s right to spend our Union’s money on backing workers in dispute. That’s what the money is for. Here’s what it’s not for. Handing tens of millions to your mates in schemes like the Birmingham Hotel.

We will never be ashamed of supporting our members on strike.

But yes, we are ashamed of the scumbag lowlifes who attack working class bin workers while clothing themselves in a fake red flag.