Why the elections to the top of the United union cause anxiety to Labor in the United Kingdom
The article by Daniele Meloni
It will be a stage race that will last all summer and, only at the end of August, will we know who will be the replacement for Len McCluskey at the head of Unite, the second British trade union with 1.4 million members and the first affiliate to the Labor Party. This is an important election, not only for the members of Unite – ranging from the big business of auto and drug multinationals to SMEs, British small and medium-sized enterprises – but also for the leader of Labor, Sir Keir Starmer , attacked in the past by the Corbynian McCluskey and also under fire within his own party after the disappointing results in the administrative elections last May 6.
The financial aspect should also not be underestimated. Rather. Unite contributes £ 1.3 million annually to the Labor Party budget, but it is the donations that make the difference: before the 2019 election, £ 3 million went into Labor's coffers to finance the (unfortunate) election campaign. It is precisely on the question of contributions to the party that the campaign of the 4 candidates to lead the Union is focusing. Howard Beckett, McCluskey's assistant since 2015 with responsibility for political relations and legal, is rushing to replace his old boss and has already made it clear that the flow of money that goes from Unite to the Labor party could be interrupted in the event of his election to general secretary at the same time as Starmer maintained the same centrist policies. Beckett proposes an increase in the Strike Fund from 40 to 50 million pounds and a platform in which the "industrial action" that had given prestige to the unions in the 1970s – but then also determined the defeat against Margaret Thatcher in the following decade – you regain a new centrality. The problem for Beckett is verbal intemperance. After calling Interior Minister Patel's immigration policy "disgusting" and demanding that she be "deported" instead of irregular immigrants, Labor suspended him from the membership list. His victory would be a blow to Starmer.
The favorite of the race, however, is the pragmatic Steve Turner, a former bus driver and also assistant to the general secretary. Turner defines himself as "pragmatic", wants to have a seat at the negotiating table with any government and has shown he can collaborate with the Tories in drafting the furlough, the work-leave program established during the pandemic. Last year he received support from Unite Left, the left-wing group within the union, but Beckett disputed the final result of the vote.
Also racing will be Gerard Coyne, a former union executive in the West Midlands, centrist and defeated by McCluskey in 2017, and Sharon Graham, whose goal is to detach the movement from internal struggles within Labor and devote herself "more to members than to politics".
To obtain a place on the voters' ballot, candidates must be nominated by 7 June: the support of at least 5% of the territorial branches of the party is required. Between July 5th and August 23rd, participants will make their choice by post. The outcome of the dispute will be announced on August 26th.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/perche-le-elezioni-ai-vertici-del-sindacato-unite-mettono-ansia-ai-laburisti-nel-regno-unito/ on Tue, 01 Jun 2021 09:35:50 +0000.