Birmingham Hotel report: Time to end the Trumpian theatrics

The new ‘interim’ report into the Birmingham Hotel project is a serious issue for our union. Where wrongdoing is alleged it must be proven and it must be dealt with responsibly.

The way this issue is being mishandled by Sharon Graham is a gift to the right-wing media. It brings our union into disrepute. It undermines hardworking reps in the workplace. It loses our union members.

The issue of the Birmingham hotel has hung over our union for years. It needs to be investigated and resolved responsibly so our union can move on reunited. It does not need to be sensationalised by a General Secretary whose only concerns are attention and re-election.

It is unacceptable that workplace reps – the real leaders of our union where it matters – heard the long-promised findings of this report in the media first and now face questions from members and their employers they are left unable to answer.

End the political theatre:

The release of the report, with open letters, media interviews and a hastily called Executive Council (EC), has been a disgraceful act of political theatre. Narcissistic and Trumpian in both content and relationship with the truth, Sharon Graham’s statements are attempts to distract from some uncomfortable truths.

First and foremost, the rush to the media is a desperate attempt by Sharon Graham to distance herself from the previous leadership. In reality, former General Secretary Len McCluskey has described Sharon Graham as ‘an integral part of my senior team throughout my time in office,’ a fact reflected in her role in McCluskey’s re-election campaigns. If there was an ‘ask no questions culture’ in our union at that time then Sharon Graham was complicit in it.

Irresponsible trial by media:

Members of the Executive Council (EC) have for many months been repeatedly calling for the Birmingham report to be published and for Sharon Graham to stop weaponizing the issue to smear and attack those that simply disagree with her.

Despite this Sharon Graham once again acted in her own self-interest by rushing through a special meeting of the EC (notice was only given at 5pm the day before the meeting was due to take place at 1pm), with pre-arranged media stories publishing only minutes after the meeting concluded. Disgracefully, Sharon Graham’s statements once again smeared and attacked those brave EC members who have fought to hold her to account and who have dared to question how this issue is being misused.

A responsible General Secretary does not rush to denigrate our union in the media. The findings should be brought to the senior reps in the Executive and across our democratic structures. Our elected reps hold our union to account. They must not be bypassed and undermined.

What has changed? Obstructing financial scrutiny

The biggest omission in the report is: What’s really changed in the last four years? The problems of governance, lack of accountability over the union’s finances, and culture named in the report have all continued under Sharon Graham to this day.

The Certification Officer, the union regulator, has only recently ruled that Unite – under Sharon Graham’s leadership – had been actively preventing Executive Council members from being able to access our union’s finances in order to carry out their governance duties.

EC members were even threatened with legal action if they persisted in their attempts to get oversight of the union’s current financial situation.

Under Sharon Graham Unite is now the first union to have a fine imposed on it in over 10 years.
 
“Toxic bullying culture”:

As the recent strike by Unite staff exposed publicly, Sharon Graham has presided over a toxic and threatening culture that confronts our union’s officers, staff, and organisers.

It must not be forgotten that Sharon Graham’s husband – Jack Clarke - was at the centre of strike action by his own staff due to multiple claims of bullying and intimidation and a toxic work environment.

Sharon Graham ordered her loyalist thugs to intimidate and ‘bust’ the picket line. This included self-styled ‘enforcer’ Chris Stiles, who faces multiple complaints about harassment and intimidation.

Staff at Unite HQ in Holborn voted overwhelmingly for strike action to support their colleagues in Clarke’s department, who were forced out of the organisation.

The new interim report alleges a link between membership of internal factions and officer appointments. It is outrageous to claim that good officers or staff have only been employed because of their membership of any factions. Especially when multiple officers are now reporting phone calls from Chris Stiles telling them they ‘owe’ their jobs to him and the General Secretary.[1]

Attacking union democracy:

It must not be forgotten that Sharon Graham fought hand over fist to keep the Unite EC Chair Andy Green in his position despite the fact that he had been voted out of office by a majority of the EC (31 to 28 with 1 abstention).

Sharon Graham spent hundreds of thousands of Unite members money on expensive lawyers favoured by the Royal Family to defend Green’s position. As a result he is now only in office at the behest of a High Court Judge’s ruling.

Sharon’s desperation to keep Andy Green in place was driven by his willingness to help suppress Unite lay democracy by repeatedly ruling out of order any challenges to Sharon Graham over the union’s finances under her leadership. Perhaps the hundreds of thousands of pounds of Unite members money is considered by Sharon to be money well spent if it’s warded off unwanted scrutiny and accountability.

Questions that must be asked now:

If Sharon Graham is serious about wanting to clean up our union then serious questions must be answered:

·        Why has Unite not submitted accounts for the last three years? Why has the Certification Officer had to intervene and insist that Unite submit its accounts?

·        Why are ‘Settlement Agreements’ being used to silence Unite employees who are forced to leave the organisation? Why was this disgraceful practice systematically denied and hidden until the recent Certification Officer ruling granted EC members access to the information?

·        Why did valued members of our union’s staff feel the need to take unprecedented strike action against the toxic working environment? Why have Unite officers across all regions of our union felt the need to join an independent union in order to ballot for strike action?

·        Why have EC members had to take legal action to try and enforce democracy and accountability in the union. Why have EC members had to repeatedly complain to the Certification Officer to deal with obstruction of their duties?

·        Why do EC members and others who dare to ask questions face being systematically bullied, threatened, and intimidated?

Answers are needed to serious questions about our union’s recent past and about how our union is being mis-run today.

We cannot accept our union being publicly denigrated by Sharon Graham for her own agenda.

Attacks and distortions are part of an established playbook by Sharon Graham - the Trump of the UK trade union movement. Her only concern is to keep herself and her husband in charge of our union. We cannot let that happen.

We must support our Executive Council members and reps seeking to hold the General Secretary to account now.

We must stand with those attacked within the toxic culture Sharon Graham has created.

We must defend our union from attack – from without and now from within.

An election for a new Executive Council will take place later this year and the election for General Secretary is expected soon after that.

We must Reunite to reclaim our union!

[1] Widespread commentary from various officers and staff.