Former Unite head says he felt uncomfortable testifying against his old union and didn’t want to be critical of successor Sharon Graham – but testimony to employment tribunal in discrimination case was still explosive
Long-time former Unite general secretary Len McCluskey testified to the Irish Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) in Dublin today in union legend Brendan Ogle’s discrimination case against the union now run by Sharon Graham. Despite McCluskey’s obvious discomfort having to testify against his old union and his expressed determination not to speak critically of his successor, his testimony was infused with explosive criticism nonetheless. McCluskey was not thrown off course by hostile questioning from the union’s expensive legal team from Dentons, the world’s largest law firm, which has been engaged by Graham and Unite for both the tribunal and Ogle’s separate defamation claim. The adjudicator in the case is former war-crimes prosecutor Elizabeth Spelman.
Unite’s lawyers tried to portray McCluskey’s insistence – that Unite was always going to keep Ogle on full pay if he was able to return to work from treatment for life-threatening cancer, regardless of the duties he was able to carry out – as somehow outlandish. In a bristly cross-examination, McCluskey told the tribunal he was astonished that anyone would contend that it was bizarre not to want someone to be penalised for being ill and that such a matter of basic decency was part of the ‘union’s culture when I was general secretary’.
Sharon Graham has been heavily criticised among union members and activists in the union – and by more than one Irish politician – for Unite’s treatment of Brendan Ogle, one of and perhaps the highest-profile and effective union figures in Ireland. Ogle, who backed Howard Beckett rather than Graham during the last Unite general secretary election, returned from successful cancer treatment expecting to take up his old duties, but was ‘sidelined’ to a lesser position in Dundalk, over fifty miles from his Dublin base. The situation caused such outrage that union members picketed Graham’s long-delayed visit to Dublin, Unite’s Community section condemned it as ‘disgusting’ and a whole sector branch threatened to disaffiliate.
Unite’s lawyers claimed the union’s policy was to ‘red-ring’ the salaries of ill employees for two years only, but McCluskey said that this had not been Unite’s practice when he was in charge. The union’s legal team also tried to claim that Ogle’s position had been created specifically for him, presumably implying that this was some kind of ‘grace and favour’ position, but McCluskey angrily rejected this, pointing to the union’s changes in Ireland during its disaffiliation from the Irish Labour party over the party’s support for austerity, the organisational changes this necessitated, and the extensive approval of Unite’s executive for the need for such a position and for Ogle’s appointment as the most suitable candidate by a distance.
McCluskey told Skwawkbox that he felt very uneasy testifying against the union he and his team had built, but had been forced to do so because Unite had included claims about him in its submissions to the tribunal in the case.
Ogle’s testimony began this afternoon but is expected to continue into tomorrow.
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McCluskey told Skwawkbox that he felt very uneasy testifying against the union he and his team had built,
I’d have ZERO qualms, Len, lad. Graham has shat all over your legacy. And from a great height – hence this case.
Graham also obviously thinks you’re corrupt, hence the investigation into the conference centre/hotel.
I certainly wouldn’t be pulling MY punches. Got Corbyn nowhere.
He is not the only one to let loyalty to an idea makes him powerless. Len considered steadfast and true. This loyalty will part of the forgotten left. Do they still love their partis, unions the co op. These were stalwarts of the left, giants fot fs. Now they feast with the brown shirts. I spoke to my commie cancer consultant and asked about the NHS. His reply would cause socialists endless amnesia. He called it a war of attrition. Well he’s not gonna tell me porkies. He’s bee honest with me from day one. He’ll stand to the end and I’ll be shoulder to shoulder with him. Why did I mention this? Because he still carries his old union card in his breast pocket.the oneness the heart. Something that the brownshirts will never have. Ogres got one.
Too many mistakes bt this auto machine. But you get the idea.
Ogle backed Steve Turner. It is a matter of record.
Thousand’s of Labour former-members will empathise with Len’s unease about testifying against the institution they once loved and served. The Union and the Party matter.
That’s why we must shame and reject their AS (anti-socialist) pretend ‘leaders’.
Yep. Len has had a chance to highlight the shit show Graham’s turned the institution into. As I said, if it were me, my conscience would be clear.
‘Tis graham chose her course(s) of (in)action. Graham has shat the bed, she should be made to wallow in it.
The dog’s turned rabid, it must be put down. McCluskey’d be helping disinfect the kennel, too.
I’m sure there’s plenty of former labour, and current unite members would understand and empathize with that.
Dunno what he’s hiding his face for, neither. Nowt to be ashamed of, and we all know what you look like, Len. 😉
Unless of course the dauphin of phone hacking (harpic) was skulking around…
And when Starmer puts Graham in the House of Lords for giving him absolutely no trouble at all, you can be sure the alleged socialist (actually Communist) controlled opposition paper The Morning Star will be celebrating the fact as a great achievement!
I used to support the MS rag for years. Cost a pretty penny but that was unity. No more, it’s a disgrace.