Tagged with Len McCluskey

Have the trade unions given up on Labour?

francesogradycongressA slimmed down Trades Union Congress meeting this week on the banks of the Mersey has an air of unreality about it. It’s not quite that no-one cares what the TUC says – trade union leaders care enough about speaking with one voice that there is even less public debate and dissent here than there is at Labour’s conference. But there is simply no mechanism to make the very good policies agreed here translate into a political reality.

It is 115 years since the TUC decided to initiate what became the Labour Party, “to establish a voice for working people within parliament“. If the trade unions affiliated to Labour, who still have almost half the votes at its conference, could propose the policies agreed here in Liverpool at Labour’s conference in Manchester the week after next, they would be carried  with little dissent. There is no need for trade unions to dictate to Labour; the party membership would welcome them just giving voice and their votes to what they believe.

But that isn’t what happens. Continue reading →

Len McCluskey warns now is not the time for heated arguments about Labour policy

len mccluskeyOpening Unite’s policy conference in Liverpool today, Len McCluskey’s planned speech ranged across issues from the severity of Tory attacks on working people and their families (as well as on Unite itself) to the importance of electing a Labour government and the menace posed by UKIP.

But for Labour and union activists keen to use Labour’s policy process to ensure Labour presents a bold and radical programme to defeat austerity and provide new hope, there will be some disappointment. Such activists warn that ‘austerity lite’ has not been enough for PASOK in Greece and the French socialists to avoid decimation in their recent polls. But Len McCluskey warns that now is not the time to have heated arguments within the Labour Party about policy. Continue reading →

PCS conference defeats its executive motion on merger with Unite

Dave Owens from DWP Liverpool moving motion A463 setting out conditions on any merger talksThe annual conference of civil service union PCS, after a lengthy debate described both as ‘heated‘ and ‘balanced‘, voted this morning to reject the motion from its executive on a merger between PCS and Unite, by 109,326 to 73,212 on a card vote. The conference did pass an emergency motion which, based on reports on Left Futures and elsewhere, criticised the apparent inconsistencies between information provided to PCS members and that to the Unite executive about the talks which have taken place, but approved continuing talks. These would, however, be subject to explicit conditions, including “ensuring a political fund independent of the Labour Party.”

The PCS leadership insists that the talks will go on but since the Unite EC agreed only that “the transfer of engagements will be on the basis of our existing rule book“, and the PCS motion proposing initial talks with Unite passed only by a slim margin at last year’s conference, today’s decision must surely make the Unite takeover less likely. Continue reading →

Is a Unite takeover of PCS desirable? Not if it divides the Labour movement

TUC day of actionDiscussions are, we hear, proceeding apace between Unite and civil service union, PCS, about what has until now been described within PCS as a merger but at the recent Unite executive (at which Len McCluskey got its backing for formal talks) was described as a “transfer of engagements“, aka “a takeover“. Many details remain to be discussed, but what has already been agreed is that, if it happens, PCS would in January 2015 become part of Unite, under the existing Unite rulebook, with its current Labour Party affiliation arrangements.

It is clear that both Len McCluskey and Mark Serwotka are personally very committed to it. As an active Unite member, I’ve been a strong supporter of Len McCluskey in both elections he has fought for General Secretary. I also admire Mark Serwotka, who is an excellent communicator, with progressive and non-sectarian politics, and who is clearly popular with a very large section of his members. But I’m unconvinced of the case for bringing the two unions together, for which there seems to be little industrial logic. Continue reading →

Left likely to consolidate its influence on Unite executive – but will it remain a United Left?

unite rosetteNominations closed last week for the elections to the executive of Unite, Britain’s biggest union, and, based on an analysis of the nominations received, it seems likely that the United Left which backed Len McCluskey for General Secretary and currently has a large majority on the executive is likely to consolidate its position.

The executive has been slightly reduced in size to 63 and there are now 24 territorial seats for the Union’s ten regions (including 10 reserved for women and 2 for BAME candidates), 35 industrial seats for 20 sectors (including 5 reserved for women and 2 for BAME candidates), and four equalities seats. Continue reading →