Unite’s general secretary is more interested in the industrial struggle than the political one. For workers, that could be a blessing
The surprise election of Sharon Graham to head Britain’s biggest trade union, Unite, is more about the labour movement than the Labour party. Her victory represents a desire to make organised labour matter rather than let it sleepwalk into irrelevance. Ms Graham’s rise through Unite has been marked both by her attention to policy detail and a willingness to mobilise the power of workers to secure better terms and conditions. With a base in the union’s shop stewards, her arrival in the top job represents the triumph of workplace concerns over a leadership style that prioritised political positioning.
Unlike her defeated male rivals, Unite’s new general secretary is not beholden to any section of the bureaucracy. Over the past 40 years, this union machine has sent officials to negotiate with bosses from a position of weakness. Unite’s bark has been worse than its bite. Ms Graham’s pitch was that she wanted to force change in the workplace, not have change forced on workers. A leftwinger, her manifesto is open about Unite exercising its strike muscle to deter bullying employers.