Union general secretary’s ‘unhinged’ letter to staff, officers and organisers continues to backfire as insiders say numbers she is now attacking were part of her job to report
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham’s bizarre letter to all the union’s staff last week, attempting to undermine a number of criticism that have been levelled at her and her management of the union, was described by union insiders as ‘unhinged’ and a ‘rant’ – and it continues to backfire.
As Skwawkbox has already covered, Graham told recipients that the union under her will always prioritise jobs in the weapons industry above the fight to stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Her letter also claimed that an unfavourable interim financial report had been faked wholesale and that the forger had gone to the extent of copying the font and layout of actual reports to fool members. The union did not respond to an enquiry whether it stood by the claim despite the screenshots of the report appearing to show that it was found on the union’s official ‘Sharepoint’ network. The letter also claimed the union’s financial value was ‘pushing up towards half a billion pounds’ – but insiders say that the value was already around half a billion when she took over two and a half years ago.
And another issue with Graham’s claims has arisen – relating to Unite’s membership figures. In an apparent attempt to refute union insiders’ claims that membership has fallen by more than two hundred thousand during her tenure, Graham wrote:
Despite inheriting membership figures that included 32,000 members on union funded subs (essentially free) and dealing with a 60,000 loss in aviation and other areas during Covid, the work we have all put in collectively has recouped these loses and more. Furthermore, we recorded an additional 16,647 net membership increase in 2023. These are real membership increases, not the phony [sic] figures of the past.
Emphasis added
One insider told Skwawkbox that the 32,000 ‘essentially free’ members were in fact members supported by Unite when they lost their jobs during the pandemic, so that they could retain their membership protections until they found new work.
But even more significantly, another said that before Ms Graham became general secretary, one of her key responsibilities as head of organising was to monitor and report on the membership – and that the membership figures before her tenure were therefore compiled and reported by her and her organising team.
The senior insider told Skwawkbox:
The figures she’s calling phoney are her own figures.
Skwawkbox wrote to Unite:
Another question with regard to Ms Graham’s email to officers, organisers and staff. This one concerns her claim of ‘phony [membership] figures of the past’. She wrote:
“Despite inheriting membership figures that included 32,000 members on union funded subs (essentially free) and dealing with a 60,000 loss in aviation and other areas during Covid, the work we have all put in collectively has recouped these loses and more. Furthermore, we recorded an additional 16,647 net membership increase in 2023. These are real membership increases, not the phony figures of the past.”
Ms Graham as head of organising was responsible for reporting membership figures to the general secretary and executive. Is she really saying that she submitted ‘phony’ [sic] numbers? By 5pm today, please.
At the time of writing, more than ninety minutes after the reply deadline provided as standard journalistic practice, no reply had been received from the union.
The outrage provoked by the letter is not the first time members have been angered over Sharon Graham’s position on Gaza. She has been alleged by insiders to have:
- banned Unite officials and national banners from pro-Gaza protests
- banned and smeared films and books exposing the ‘Labour antisemitism’ scam
- placed an official under investigation who refused to cancel a Palestine solidarity fringe event at Labour’s 2023 annual conference
- told her chief of staff to threaten a soon-to-retire official with the loss of a pension bonus if he did not soften his support for Palestinians
Her supporters also prevented debate and votes on Gaza at a meeting of the union’s elected executive earlier this month.
Her tenure as Unite boss has also been marked by a string of other allegations – which neither she nor the union has denied – including destruction of evidence against her husband in threat, misogyny and bullying complaints brought by union employees. She is also embroiled in both an employment tribunal for discrimination and a defamation lawsuit brought by Irish union legend Brendan Ogle for the union’s treatment of him and comments made about him by Graham and her close ally Tony Woodhouse.
According to human rights group Euro Med Monitor, since 7 October last year Israel has killed over 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded more than double that number, overwhelmingly women and children and many of them with life-changing injuries, while Gaza’s health and school systems have been bombed into collapse, often using US- and UK-made weapons and systems. More than a million people have been forcibly displaced and Gaza is in famine because of Israel’s blockade of food and vital supplies. Israel is formally on trial for genocide before the International Court of Justice and ordered to stop its slaughter – and has been found by UN human rights investigators to be committing genocide.
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I suppose we’ll all just have to wait and see what (if anything) is revealed when the actual figures are published.
Not sure the sharepoint url is particularly damning – even easier to fake than fonts
There are legitimate reasons why Unite are late publishing their accounts, reasons that the Certification Officer is aware of and accepted.
Unite said publication of its accounts had been delayed to allow for a “full re-audit” of the 2021 filings, to ensure nothing escaped proper scrutiny.
“Every invoice is being checked. A dedicated job is being carried out,” it said. “That 2021 audit has to include the final impairment of the asset value of the hotel and related matters.”
It said 2022 accounts were almost complete but could not be published before the 2021 filings had been finalised, adding: “The Certification Officer is fully aware and involved in all these related issues.”
The CO confirmed that Unite had not submitted its accounts but said it would “not be taking any enforcement action” because it knew why the union had yet to do so.
https://www.ft.com/content/fde04c25-82d4-4048-a5bc-708176b9a074
And what’s that got to do with gumby graham pouring scorn on the figures she herself used to be in charge of collating?
(Dunno why I’m asking some blert that insists that keef is more popular than Corbyn ever was when membership numbers irrefutably prove otherwise)
https://mcusercontent.com/ceb437017cd651e33813473af/images/3fe26e4b-fefb-2afc-c9a9-cf7634ea752d.png
WTF is that meant to be, plums?
Corbyn 2015 membership 180k
Corbyn 2019 membership 500k+
Smarmer 2020 membership 430k
Today? Not even that. And shrinking by the day.
Toffee – “WTF is that meant to be, plums? “
I think it is self explanatory
ps According to the Labour party’s official figures (published by Corbyn’s team) the Labour party had 430,359 in Nov19.
.
Given that you left the Labour Party over 2 decades ago (not rejoining or even bothering to vote during the Corbyn years) I’m struggling to see why you are obsessing about Labour’s membership numbers. Surely what actually counts is the electorate’s voting intentions and all the polls indicate that Labour are consistently on-track to win the next General Election with a very substantial majority.
I have my doubts that Labour will be overly worried that Rishi is now as ‘popular’ as Jeremy once was, don’t you?😏
Given that you pissed off to the Caribbean (allegedly) there is ZERO reason for you to plague a UK socialist-based website and pollute it with your general shite, seeing as you’re neither socialist, nor a UK resident.
Has keef been so popular as to have almost treble the membership?
No. Nor will he ever. Corbyn did end of discussion.
Toffee – Oh dear, do you feel better now?
You’ve already told us all that you didn’t bother to vote, were you also fast asleep when the results were announced that Corbyn had lost big time at the 19GE?
Why did the 1,000s of melodious chants fail to translate into actual votes, were all his devoted supporters like you?
Whether you like it or not I still get to vote. Will you be bothering to vote this time?
**General smarmer-obsessed shite.
Toffee – ……but you are self evidently the one who is ranting obsessively.😕
Haven’t you seen the latest MRP polls, they are predicting that the Tories will have less than 100 seats. after the next general election.
Re Gaza……
I went onto UNRWA’s website earlier to check something out, and came across the following statement by the Commisioner General from November 2018 in which he or she says:
This brings me to the Agency’s ongoing commitment to neutrality and challenges we are addressing in this field. There can be no doubting how seriously we take neutrality. Neutrality is embraced by us as an action-oriented principle, which is crucial to preserve access, trust and credibility in highly polarized environments.
Among the challenges are this year’s financial crisis which affected capacity in some neutrality functions. We are making internal arrangements to ensure resources focus on critical areas. The Great Marches to the Gaza border posed another challenge, particularly in the social media sphere, as heavy loss of life and massive injuries sparked widespread outrage. So far we have not discovered, nor seen allegations of, social media violations by our staff in this relation – a testament to their dedication to UNRWA’s mission.
Last year – and this is something you’ll see in the report – a number of events in Gaza created some of the most serious neutrality challenges in recent memory. As reflected in my current report to the General Assembly, when an Agency investigation – our investigation – concluded that two staff members held or were elected into senior positions in Hamas, we swiftly ended their employment. Tunnels were also discovered by UNRWA under two of our schools during repair works last year in Gaza. UNRWA issued strong public condemnation, protested vigorously to Hamas, and sealed the tunnels with concrete – a move few humanitarian organizations would make, I think I can safely say.
We will continue being vigilant; should there be other challenges of this kind and we will not hesitate to take action again.
https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/commissioner-general%E2%80%99s-statement-special-political-and-decolonization
I think we can safely assume that representatives of the US and UK and Israel heard this at the time, along with many others (or read the transcript afterwards).
Timeline:
So on Jan 26 the ICJ made its ruling against Israel, then on the following day and the day after that the MSM was full of the twelve UNRWA staff that Israel are now claiming were involved with Hamas, and then just two weeks or so later the IDF just happened to discover a tunnel (or tunnels) – a command tunnel, no less – under UNRWAs headquarters in Gaza City. But it was all just coincidence of course!
Skwawkbox posted about the tunnel at the time debunking the claim, but here’s the DM article which, apart from anything else, I’m posting so that you can check out some of the Best Rated comments (no doubt posted by their shills):
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13069905/Israeli-military-says-Hamas-command-tunnel-U-N-Gaza-HQ.html
That rag takes some beating. How it prints its rubbish with a straight face used to upset me, along with contributions from the Groan etc. Now I just read links from my favoured sites and laugh at the childish insanity that they expect us to accept. Some of the contributions are quite insane and clearly hate filled. I have no idea of the leaderships of these rags whatever they claim I am certain that they are disingenuous. I would ask poster’s for figures but I am pissed of with being told to do my own research. I shall remain an ignoramus.
My head is spinning with all this ..
.. and this post is nothing to do with Ms Graham – let her sort her own confusion out ..
This is just to remind*** folks of something which has already been posted and commented on
here – that the “tunnels” were constructed by Israel when they were in charge of the area.
They were part of the basement areas of the hospitals and were for some medical reason.
**** as if they need to be reminded !
Just came across THIS….. the malignant, malevolent and totally evil Zionist black propagandists are everywhere (in the West). Scroll down through the following Quora questions, and the replies (all the handywork of the Israeli Nazis propagandists):
https://www.quora.com/Should-donor-countries-continue-funding-UNRWA-despite-the-allegations-against-its-workers
And THIS:
Israel will no longer permit the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East to drive convoys bearing food aid into northern Gaza, even as the area is on the brink of famine.
Israeli officials informed the U.N. of the new restrictions on Sunday, prompting outrage and dire warnings from U.N. officials and other human rights advocates.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-unrwa-northern-gaza
AND this….. not the video (which is entitled ‘UNRWA Commissioner-General on his denial of entry into the Gaza Strip’), but quite a few of the comments, yet again the malignant lying Israeli black propagandists at work. Here are a few examples:
UNWRA is going down
He does not know anything anyways…….even when tunnels are built under his building and using his electricity.
Hahaha. Worried about his so call job.
That’s their aim. To keep their jobs the refugees are not resettled after 75years, GENERATIONS of refugees…..Which other UN agency take 75 years and job still not done
UNRWA features squarely as Hamas’s asset: filling boxes marked as humanitarian aid, always filled with bombs, weapons, artillery, munitions. . . Well over 75% of UNRWA workers (including faculty) are Hamas members. UNRWA played a crucial role in kidnapping, hiding, and moving the hostages.
Get UNRWA out of Israel and Gaza and the world
What upsets me the most is that people choose to believe things, no matter how ridiculous. Socialist are right to call it ‘The Struggle’