By Socialist Alternative members in UNISON
The General Secretary election in Britain’s largest trade union is extremely significant for the workers’ movement. It is a choice between the left candidate, Andrea Egan, and the right-wing incumbent. It is an opportunity to consolidate the gains won by the left-led National Executive Council (NEC) over the past four years, an NEC that has recently slipped back into the control of the right-wing and bureaucracy.
A left-led NEC over the last four years was able to promote and establish the Organising To Win (OTW) strategy, aimed at involving our rank-and-file members collectively, to win the disputes, campaigns, and struggles in the workplace. The left in UNISON, including the Time For Real Change (TFRC) activists, are rallying behind the Andrea4GS Campaign, in a bid to stop a continuing lurch to the right in the union.
The choice is stark: vote to continue the left’s campaigns to democratise our union, to invigorate our campaigns on Palestine, trans rights, racism and to get on the front foot to fight for the pay rises we need in the NHS and Local Government; or vote for one of Keir Starmer’s chief union backers. The election could be a referendum on the Labour government.
A General Secretary on the picket lines, not the sidelines
UNISON branches will be able to nominate Andrea Egan for General Secretary from August 20 to September 26. The voting will take place from October 28 to November 25, with every one of the 1.3 million UNISON members asked to vote. Socialist Alternative members play a key role in this campaign, and support Andrea as a lay activist who will take only a social workers’ wage, taking on the grossly overpaid bureaucrat on £181,000+.
This campaign can be part of the process across the country to change politics. Egan’s campaign should boldly come out in support of the new party. Among the over 800,000 who have signed up to join ‘Your Party’, there will certainly be thousands of rank-and-file UNISON members who can be activated in the fight to transform our union! That’s why we have also taken the initiative of publishing an open letter calling for UNISON members to organise to disaffiliate the union from the Labour Party and to support ‘Your Party’.
