Gerard Coyne for Unite General Secretary

 

Gerard Coyne, Candidate for Unite General Secretary 

I believe Unite the Union needs to change. Our culture must change and our Union must modernise in order to be successful, effective and relevant.

If I am elected as your General Secretary, I will do far more to:

• protect our members’ jobs and pay
• support our reps and branches
• respond to the changing world of work
• organise in growing sectors of the economy

Gerard grew up in a trade union household and has been a trade unionist all his life. His dad was a firefighter and union rep, and his mum was the caretaker at a local school.

Gerard has always stood up to bullies. His first job was at Sainsbury’s, where the store manager was a bully.

Gerard joined the Union, recruited the other workers at his store, organised a new branch and stopped the bullying. That was over 35 years ago.

Gerard has been fighting for workers’ rights ever since.

Gerard served 28 years as an officer of Unite and its predecessor unions. He has deep industrial experience, supporting reps to win better pay and conditions for members across every sector of our Union, and fighting for equality and against discrimination in the workplace.

He has played a leading role in major industrial disputes, in company rescue deals, and in investment and regeneration projects.

Gerard was Regional Secretary for sixteen years until he was sacked by the Union after standing to be General Secretary in 2017.

He has continued to campaign for members and now he will stand to be the next General Secretary of Unite the Union in the 2021 election.

Gerard will focus Unite on its most important job: defending our members, standing up to bad employers, recruiting more workers into the Union, supporting our reps and branches so we can improve pay and conditions.

He is sick and tired of Unite messing about with Westminster politics and trying to be a backseat driver of the Labour Party.

Gerard has heard from reps up and down the country that they are not getting the help they need, when they need it. Many members have had to work hard through the pandemic, but they don’t feel their Union has worked for them.

He will focus on supporting the members, not playing political games or wasting their hard-earned money.

Unite has spent nearly £100 million building a hotel and conference centre in Birmingham. Gerard has called for a full, independent and published review into this project.

He will introduce a clear and transparent procurement policy and process, a code of conduct, a register of interests and a requirement to declare all gifts and benefits. These will apply to everyone in Unite including the General Secretary.

Gerard will make Unite a fairer, more transparent and more democratic union.

Gerard will not only change the culture of our Union, he will also modernise how we work and improve the services and support we deliver to members.

Our economy is changing fast, and facing the effects of Covid, different trade deals after Brexit, new technology and the need to address climate change.

He will make better use of technology and training to support reps and make membership of Unite better value for money, so we attract new members into our Union.

Gerard is developing industrial strategies to improve pay and conditions in consultation with reps for every sector of our Union. You can join the conversation and he wants to listen directly to your views.

Gerard will empower members and reps and will dedicate more resources to the branches and elected representatives of the Union.

Please vote for Gerard Coyne and sign up for his campaign: gerardcoyne.org.uk