Will Sharon Graham lead Unite back on the path to working for it's members rather than the ideologues?

 

The result of the General Secretary election has come as a surprise to most observers who foresaw either Turner inheriting his mentor Len McCluskey's crown or the top leftist candidates splitting the vote and allowing mainstream pro-Starmer candidate Gerard Coyne to slip in and win as he was only 4% behind last time round.

The actual votes were as follows:

Sharon Graham - 46,696 (37.7%)

Steve Turner - 41,833 (33.8%)

Gerard Coyne -35,334 (28.5%)

Turnout -123,866 (out of aprox 1.4 Million members)

As someone who supported Coyne the result is disappointing however it would seem that there is possibly something to be gained in that the BBC reports:

"As general secretary, I will put all the power of our union into defending their jobs, improving their pay and protecting their rights."

As the former head of Unite's Organising and Leverage Department, she led recent disputes at British Airways and Crossrail as well as campaigning to unionise Amazon.

She says her focus will continue to be on workplace rights rather than internal Labour party politics or "settling old scores" at Westminster.

Sharon Graham was backed by a number of hard left organisations including the Socialist Workers Party  and the Socialist Party (Militant) which was why I amongst many others had ruled her out as a possibility. However if as she says she will stay out interfering too much in Labour affairs this could be to Starmer's advantage.

A trade unions activities should always be geared towards acting directly for it's members. Unions are not political parties and will contain members from right across the political spectrum. The hard left have always abused this even in those unions like PCS which are not affiliated to the Labour Party.

I am prepared to give Sharon Graham the benefit of the doubt though I do hope she heeds the words of Labour Against Antisemitism  who have issued the following statement: 

Euan Philipps, spokesperson for Labour Against Antisemitism, said:

“LAAS congratulates Sharon Graham on her election as General Secretary of Unite the Union.

During her campaign Ms Graham was clear that as General Secretary of one of the UK’’s largest unions she would avoid interfering in the running of the Labour Party. We trust Ms Graham will be true to her word and allow Keir Starmer and the Labour Party leadership a free hand to undertake the large reforms required to effectively tackle antisemitism.

We also hope Ms Graham will look to the concerning evidence of widespread antisemitism in her own organisation and begin reforms to tackle anti-Jewish racism there.”