Exclusive: Community union GS writes to Graham – ‘shocked and appalled’ at ‘Murdoch’ tactics

Rickhuss condemns Graham’s anti-worker manoeuvres and refers her to TUC

As Skwawkbox covered a week ago, the national officers’ group (ONC) of the Unite union has accused Unite general secretary Sharon Graham of using anti-union laws, brought in to help press baron Rupert Murdoch block the unionisation of workers after the print-workers’ strike, to prevent the ONC and its members obtaining formal recognition of their unionisation under the Community union.

The complaint was, at the time, the latest scandal of allegations of union-busting manoeuvres against the general secretary of one of the UK’s biggest unions – but far from the last: this week, one of Unite’s main sector branches has demanded an immediate investigation into the ‘union-busting’ conduct of Graham and her cronies against Unite staff, represented by the GMB union, who are in dispute with Unite over alleged bullying and abuse by her husband and his allies in the unit set up for him to run after she became general secretary.

And now, Skwawkbox can exclusively reveal that the general secretary of the Community union – which the ONC members want to have as their representation in their work for Unite – has written a furious letter to Graham about her measures to block their union recognition.

Roy Rickhuss’s letter, seen by Skwawkbox:

• has told Graham that he is ‘shocked and appalled at [her] disgraceful anti-trade union tactics‘
• condemns Graham’s alleged use of ‘the abhorrent Murdoch clause‘ to block Community’s recognition as the officers’ union, which ‘attack[s] trade unionism itself‘, as ‘quite frankly a disgrace… [that] brings Unite into disrepute‘
• condemns Unite’s manoeuvres to block the outcome of the officers’ ballot, which was agreed and organised through conciliation service ACAS and in which almost two thirds of members voted in favour of recognition, as ‘disingenuous and blatant efforts to deviate from your commitments to honour the democratic will of Unite’s officers‘
• accuses Graham of ‘reprehensible‘ ‘attempts first to bully the ONC to dissolve before you would recognise Community, and then to insist on joint recognition for the ONC and Community‘
• tells Graham that her ‘hostile management structure’ means that trust in her among members ‘is in short supply‘ and has made workers feel they need outside, independent protection

Rickhuss then warns Graham that:

in light of your union-busting approach we are in the process of taking legal advice with regards to the available next steps,

that he has copied his letter to TUC general secretary Paul Novak and will be discussing the matter directly with Novak, and closes with a further warning that:

Regrettably this is a matter which has far reaching implications for our movement as well as for inter-union relations and the TUC going forward.

The Unite union is riven with disputes and allegations of abuse and anti-union behaviour. Bargaining and Dispute Support Unit (BDSU) staff are in dispute with the union and her husband Jack Clarke over alleged bullying and abuse by Clarke and his allies – far from the first such allegations against Clarke – and who claim that she and her management team are employing intimidation, suspension and anti-union tactics against the staff in the dispute. The sector committee’s letter to the elected executive, mentioned above, agrees.

So bad has this alleged conduct been that more than 90% of Unite staff working at the union’s Holborn HQ have voted for strike action. Three – some say four – of the five women who worked in Clarke’s department since Graham formed it and put him in charge of it have left it, with union sources saying that they also alleged bullying and abuse. The Unite union staff branch unanimously condemned Unite’s abuse of its staff and the influential Officers National Committee (ONC) has accused Graham of using Murdoch-esque anti-union tactics against workers.

Graham’s tenure at Unite has also been marked by a string of other serious allegations, which neither she nor the union has ever denied – of abuse, cover-up and failure to protect women:

• that she attempted to have evidence destroyed in bullying and misogyny complaints about her husband, whom she now employs in her office despite a final warning from the union for his behaviour – Graham’s lawyers recently confirmed that the evidence, including recordings, had been destroyed
• after her supporters failed in their bid to take control of the Unite executive despite ‘dark money’ spending on advertising, ineligible and racist members being allowed to stand and the alleged use of paid organisers in and following the exec election campaign, her faction has resorted to Starmerite tactics to try to discredit the executive members
• that her chief of staff threatened a (now-retired) senior officer with the loss of a pension bonus if he did not soften his support for Palestinians against Israel’s genocide
• that Abellio truck drivers were tricked into accepting a deficient pay deal after they originally voted to reject it

In addition, the union’s strike fund has collapsed by more than 90% under her tenure, she has been exposed behind the union’s decision to ban showings in Unite’s buildings of a film exposing racism, smears, rigging and abuse by the Labour right and has been accused of turning Unite into right-wing Labour leader Keir Starmer’s ‘poodle’, while members’ elected representatives have not been allowed to see the union’s accounts for two years.

The Unite union has previously denied that it has engaged in union-busting or the victimisation of workers in dispute.

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