By Socialist Alternative members in UNISON
This Spring, UNISON will be electing its National Executive Council (NEC). This is a particularly important election, as it will be the first under a Labour government since 2009, and it will be followed in the autumn by the General Secretary Election.
These two elections will decide how the largest union in Britain operates in the context of a Labour government that is already showing itself to be more concerned about fiscal stability for big business than the financial wellbeing of ordinary people. Having already cut winter fuel payments for pensioners, and betrayed WASPI women, the Labour government has launched a serious attack on disabled people and is looking to further rein in public sector spending.
UNISON is based mainly in the public sector, with large numbers of members in schools, councils and the NHS, amongst others. These are areas that faced the sharp edge of Tory austerity, and there has been little to blunt the ongoing impacts of these cuts. Council funding remains at critically low levels, with thirty councils recently receiving emergency bailouts of over £1.5bn in loans.
The NHS remains in severe crisis, with Labour opting to direct limited additional funding to private providers. Against this backdrop, the government’s proposed 2.8% pay rise will do little to address the chronic understaffing and the poverty faced by many NHS workers.
Building a fighting union
The UNISON bureaucracy has loyally backed Starmer and his coterie, including Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting, despite their policies being in contradiction to those democratically agreed by the union. And for much of its thirty years of existence, UNISON has faced a declining membership, as under a right wing-led NEC, General Secretary and bureaucracy. It has been wedded to an individual, servicing model, that sought to minimise attacks on members, rather than outright opposing and challenging them.
However that has changed since 2021, when the broad left activist-based Time For Real Change banner saw supporters win a majority on the NEC. This has led to a change of approach withing the union, to a collective, organising approach which is paying dividends. Progress has not been quick or easy, given the resistance from those opposed to organising, gathered around the General Secretary Christina McAnea.
Nevertheless, real progress has been made. Under the Organising to Win strategy, the union has turned towards supporting members in struggle. The number of disputes is up, and significantly the number of disputes being won has been tremendous. This has led to the largest growth in membership since the union was formed, and last year saw a 6% increase in the number of activists.
Union bureaucracy under pressure
Continuing this progress as an organising, campaigning union that delivers real wins for members is what is at stake in the NEC election. Those who stand in opposition to this are feeling the pressure and are actively organising, although they offer little more than attempted slurs and misguided rhetoric against Time For Real Change and its approach.
Christina McAnea, described as “close to Starmer” has felt the pressure, and has started to criticise, albeit cautiously, the Labour Party. Clearly shaken by the effective campaigning of Time For Real Change, at the recent Women’s Conference, she stated “there is no vacancy” for General Secretary, glossing over the fact that there is an election. It will be the union’s members who will decide who should be our General Secretary, and what type of union we want this time next year.
Socialist Alternative members are fully committed to continuing the transformation of UNISON into a fighting, campaigning, organising union. We are fully supportive of the Time For Real Change campaigns, in this NEC election and beyond. Time For Real Change is standing 55 candidates in this election – including a number of Socialist Alternative members – and is seeking to increase its majority on the NEC.
There are eight seats where Time For Real Change is instead supporting Socialist Party candidates, after an agreement for them to not to stand against each other. That was a welcome development.
It was disappointing, therefore, when a Socialist Party member announced he was standing against current TFRC NEC members in the North West, and is clearly standing as part of an anti-TFRC alliance in the region. Nevertheless, such minor irritants will not detract from the overall goal of transforming UNISON.
The election is open from 21 April to 21 May. We urge UNISON members to vote for all candidates nominated by Time For Real Change.
