Unite and Fight

Here's an editorial which appeared in the Independent newspaper the other day about the behaviour of Unite over the vote-rigging scandal in Falkirk - and the events at Grangemouth where party politics became caught up in an industrial dispute. 

Now I agree with the Independent that this is a 'fight' for proper standards of behaviour on the part of trade unions - professional standards if you like which are commonplace in other walks of life.

At the moment, Unite is judge and jury in its own cause and there is no independent body to whom union members can complain - if they feel aggrieved about how they have been treated which I believe is wrong.

Yet unions like Unite are amongst the first to demand independent regulation and oversight in other areas - for example, in relation to the UK press.

At the same time, the Labour Party refuses to instigate an inquiry capable of getting to the bottom of this whole affair which may come back to haunt Ed Miliband - and it's difficult to believe that this has nothing to do with Unite's role as Labour's biggest financial donor.   

Unite and fight: Trade union bosses are doing their members a disservice

Alistair Darling, Jack Straw et al are right: the public deserves answers about Falkirk

Ed Miliband is desperate to end the damaging Falkirk by-election affair. Despite a growing list of senior Labour figures calling for another investigation into claims that the Unite union signed people up to the party without them knowing – with a view to ensuring a left-wing candidate won the selection – Mr Miliband is emphatic. Even the doubts now being cast over general secretary Len McCluskey’s own election are yet to change his mind.

Alistair Darling, Jack Straw et al are right: the public deserves answers about Falkirk. But there is a broader issue here, too. Put together with the Grangemouth oil refinery debacle, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Britain’s largest trade union – or its leaders, at least – are over-reaching themselves.

This is no attack on organised labour. The case for workers to be represented, and their rights protected, is self-evident. There is also plenty of recent evidence of wholly constructive industrial relations; the aftermath of the financial crisis saw many trade unions working closely with management to minimise job losses in the best interests of companies and staff. But too many union bosses want war, not dialogue. Grangemouth is a case in point. The decision to close the plant – subsequently reversed – was the result of trade union intransigence born of a mind-set focused too much on contest and not enough on the economic forces against which Ineos was battling. Some 800 workers nearly lost their jobs as a result.

The alleged links between Grangemouth’s Unite convener and the carry-on at nearby Falkirk only add to the murk. Nor were the tactics employed earlier in the dispute any more edifying, with one director facing a demonstration outside his house. Yet Mr McCluskey has not only refused to apologise for the upset caused to the executive’s wife and children, he is promising to employ the strategy again. “Fighting trade unionism is back,” he says.

The whole business, from Falkirk to Grangemouth, is an unholy mess. Mr McCluskey claims that his union is being attacked as a “proxy for smearing the Labour Party”. Not so. It is Unite that is the problem.