Unite raises member subs for 2nd time in a year – despite claims of rising numbers

Email sent in name of finance director who’s off sick after alleged bullying

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham is increasing members’ subscription rates for the second time in a year – and trying to ‘sell’ it as the second rise in six years, while sending the notification email to members in the name of the union’s finance director who is still off on long-term sick leave amid rumours that she was allegedly bullied by Graham.

The increase comes despite claims by Graham’s management team of increased membership numbers – claims that involved Graham dismissing previous membership figures that she herself had managed for the last general secretary and which have been disputed by union insiders, who say they instead fell sharply and had not been updated as required annually.

The latest increase brings the monthly subscription to £18.16 per month from 1 April for full-time workers and mirrors the same increase imposed a year ago.

In an effort to minimise the fallout of yet another increase, Unite is trying to present it as ‘only the 2nd time in 6 years’, even though it is the second time in twelve months and Graham has only been in post since the summer of 2021 – and has put the signature of finance director Emma Gibbons at the bottom of the email, even though she is not at work and, according to auto-reponses on her email, has ‘no access to emails’, framing the rise as:

The General Secretary and Executive Council have accepted my recommendation as Finance Director to raise membership subscriptions.

The increase comes after union insiders told Skwawkbox that Unite’s strike fund has fallen calamitously by around £40 million to just £4 million, despite the claimed increase in members. Skwawkbox has put in a requisition to the union under Section 30 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1992, which gives any member of the public the right of access to trade union accounts, for the records relating to Unite’s membership between 2020 and 2024.

Graham is also allegedly engaged in her own war on workers within the Unite union while Unite increased its funding to Keir Starmer’s Labour party, which is rowing back on its promises to enhance workers’ rights. Unite staff working for Graham’s husband Jack Clarke are in dispute with Unite’s management over complaints of abuse by Clarke – who was promoted to run the disputes department Graham created after she became general secretary, despite being on a final warning for his conduct after previous bullying and misogyny complaints – and others.

 At least three and by some reports four of the five women working in Clarke’s department have quit and Graham and her team have been accused by furious workers of employing union-busting tactics to break up the strike, including having allies join the GMB union that represents staff working for Unite to try to vote down the strike action, an allegation that the union’s sector committee has demanded be investigated. Unite’s officers have also accused her of using anti-union legislation to stop them organising collectively.

And in a stunning development exclusively revealed by Skwawkbox in December, lawyers acting for Unite and Graham also confirmed Skwawkbox’s reporting that the union had destroyed evidence gathered by staff, particularly women, who had recorded Clarke’s behaviour in their 2018 complaint that he was behaving abusively and misogynistically.

After initial 2021 reports, shortly after Graham’s election, that Unite was going to cut its financial support to Labour, funding in fact increased despite the union’s apparent shortage of cash. In eleven months from October 2023 to September 2024, Unite donated some £1.7 million to Starmer’s party.

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