Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

right-wing union leaders maintain control by any means necessary

wsws | 01.06.2002 14:05

,

Britain: right-wing union leaders maintain control by any means necessary
By Julie Hyland
31 May 2002

Allies of Prime Minister Tony Blair are engaged in constitutional shenanigans to maintain right-wing control over two of Britain’s largest unions.

In an extraordinary display of bureaucratic skulduggery, Barry Reamsbottom, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), has refused to recognise his elected successor, Mark Serwotka, just days before he was due to stand aside. Serwotka, a supporter of the Socialist Alliance—an umbrella organisation comprising left groups such as the Socialist Workers Party—was made general secretary-elect in a postal ballot of the union’s 280,000-strong membership in 2000, winning 40,740 votes in a 30 percent turnout. Reamsbottom had agreed to retire on May 31, 2002, leaving Serwotka in sole charge from June 1.

The union’s annual conference in Brighton reaffirmed the result earlier this month. But at a National Executive Committee meeting on May 23, Reamsbottom produced legal advice that merger terms agreed between the Public Services, Tax and Commerce Union (PSTCU) and the Civil and Public Services Association (CPSA) to form the PCS in 1998 meant the postal ballot which led to Serwotka’s election was invalid, and that he would continue in his position until 2004.

Under transitional provisions for the 1998 merger, each union appointed joint general secretaries, John Sheldon and Reamsbottom respectively, to serve in the PCS. In the event that one of the joint general secretaries retired, the remaining functionary was to be appointed sole general secretary until 2004 or his retirement, whichever came first.

Following conference demands for new elections to be held, however, the PCS NEC was forced to agree to a ballot for general secretary in October 2000. Reamsbottom refused to stand and took legal action in the High Court to prevent the ballot, arguing that it breached the transitional agreement under which he was not to face re-election for five years.

In the event, the union bureaucracy stitched-up a deal to smooth their differences, in which Reamsbottom could remain as general secretary until May 2002, after which he would continue to draw his full salary until his retirement in May 2004. In the meantime, the elections would take place and Reamsbottom would work with the victor, “with a view to implementing a smooth transfer of duties and responsibilities”. The deal was meant to be “in full and final settlement” of Reamsbottom’s claims against the union. As it later transpired, Reamsbottom would not have been able to contest the 2000 election as he failed to gather the requisite number of nominations. In the subsequent ballot for general secretary elect, Serwotka beat Blairite “moderniser” and PCS assistant general secretary, Hugh Lanning, to the post.

If these manoeuvres leave a nasty taste in the mouth, it is hardly surprising. The bottom line was that, irrespective of the memberships wishes, nothing was to be done to jeopardise Reamsbottom drawing his salary and, one can surmise, a substantial “golden handshake” on retirement. Rather than honour the agreement, however, Reamsbottom used his period of grace to marshal his forces and prepare a counter-strike against his successor and the stated wishes of union members.

After presenting legal opinion that Serwotka’s election was invalid, the NEC meeting on May 23—by now comprising mainly Reamsbottom’s supporters as it had reconvened to another room—proceeded to revise standing orders, make appointments to all sub-committees and authorise “negotiations” with Serwotka on his taking another officer’s post at headquarters, or leaving union employment altogether. Whilst the Socialist Alliance has yet to issue a statement on events, reports are that Serwotka is considering his own High Court challenge against Reamsbottom.

With supreme hypocrisy, the right-wing in the PCS hailed Reamsbottom’s coup as a victory for the membership and for union democracy. A PCS press release on the May 23 NEC meeting proclaimed, “Moderates rescue Whitehall’s biggest trade union”. In red-baiting language, one group of Reamsbottom’s allies, the self-designated “Moderate Group”, regularly issue statements filled with bile against “trots” (Trotskyists) whom they accuse of pursuing a political agenda. They, in contrast, “are getting on with the job of promoting and protecting the interests of PCS members”—we must presume through over-turning ballot decisions by bureaucratic fiat!

They continue, “By his action Barry has saved the union thousands of pounds of members’ money and becomes sole General Secretary for the next two years with guaranteed responsibility for all the areas of the union he wants” (emphasis added).

In a related development, the general secretary of the Amicus engineering and electricians union, Blairite Sir Ken Jackson is facing an electoral challenge from Socialist Alliance candidate Derek Simpson between June 24 and July 12. Senior officials are said to be so worried about the outcome that they have been accused of ballot-rigging to ensure Jackson’s re-election. The union’s executive has convened a three-man investigation into the allegations, after three officials—Geoff Saunders, Rob Johnston and Stuart Wallis—admitted voting twice to nominate Jackson. A number of other officials are also said to be involved and at least one is alleged to have voted three times. Earlier this week, top official Roger Maskell, the southeast England regional secretary, was asked to appear before the inquiry after allegations that he had doctored computer records in order to hide union headquarters’ involvement in the scam.

Such alleged malpractice by the right-wing leadership of Britain’s unions is nothing new. For the bureaucracy, the unions are their own personal fiefdom to do with as they please. Leadership positions are a source of significant social privileges, including fat salaries, generous pensions, access to the corridors of power and more often than not, a seat in Britain’s boardrooms and/or the House of Lords. In return they are charged by their social betters with stifling all forms of working class discontent that might endanger the interests of capital.

But five years after Labour took office pledged to reverse the social devastation caused by its Conservative predecessors, the trade unions have been largely discredited by their collaboration with the employers and a government that has acted as the faithful champion of big business. Disenchantment with Labour has found expression in low electoral turnouts, but also in a limited increase in strike activity and support for left-wing candidates within the unions who claim to oppose the sitting pro-Blair leadership.

Besides the PCS, over the last year leftist candidates have won elections in the rail and postal unions as sections of workers seek to express their hostility to the union tops and their pro-business agenda. The support for the radical left should not be exaggerated. Many workers have left the trade unions in disgust, while the turnout for elections has generally been small (only one-fifth of the PCS membership voted). But any indication of a rebellion against the Labour government and its trade union counterparts is enough to set alarm bells ringing for the ruling class. Hence the media and sections of the establishment have raised the spectre of a return to 1979, when a militant industrial movement brought down the Labour government. Some have even criticised Blair because in his efforts to distance Labour from the trade unions, as part of its general turn away from the working class, he has left the government exposed on its left flank.

In reality, the successful candidates, mainly from the Socialist Alliance (SA), do not represent a genuine alternative to the union bureaucracy. The SA is opposed to leading a political uprising against the union leaders because this would jeopardise its own goal of maintaining and bolstering the authority of the trade unions over the working class. It functions as a loyal, albeit sometimes noisy, opposition to the right-wing, while at all times seeking to cultivate relations with the ostensibly more left-leaning sections of the bureaucracy. However politically accommodating the radicals are prepared to be, any talk of defending workers interests is enough to send the union leaders into a frenzy. For the union bureaucracy the emergence of any working class opposition is as much a threat to its own privileges as it is to the government of the day. Hence its brazen efforts to reassert control, by any means necessary.

See Also:
Britain: Socialist Alliance vows political loyalty to the trade union bureaucracy
[2 April 2002]

wsws
- Homepage: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/may2002/cps-m31.shtml

Comments

Display the following 2 comments

  1. extra — info-woman
  2. You what? — Jim
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech