The future of Britain’s largest and most influential union is at stake – a joint candidate for general secretary is essential
In 1970s Britain, there were more than 50 industrial correspondents reporting the day-to-day news of the trade union movement. Today, you can count the number on one hand. Perhaps this explains why a great deal more attention has been paid to the 1 July byelection in Batley and Spen than to another election that could produce a far more dramatic and long-lasting shift in the political landscape: the leadership contest of Unite, Britain’s largest union and the Labour party’s largest single source of funding.
When Unite does appear in the British media – almost always accompanied by criticism of its role in the Labour party – it tends to be under siege by the country’s political and business establishment. That’s no surprise: as well as a membership in excess of one million, it is also one of the most combative trade unions in the country. In recent weeks, its bus drivers in Greater Manchester secured a landmark victory against “fire and rehire” by defeating corporate giant Go-Ahead after 80 days of industrial action. Not long afterwards, Unite bin workers in Thurrock won a six-week strike against a Tory council planning to slash their pay and conditions.