Unite official Matt Smith played an extensive role in Sharon Graham’s 2021 election campaign to become the union’s general secretary. But in the current general secretary election he is calling on members to back her rival Simon Dubbins for the job.

Smith’s commitment to a Graham win was so great that he said “we will all work so hard to get Graham elected as Unite’s next general secretary”:

Smith was then promoted in 2022 to Unite’s head of Member Relations:

Changed tune

But now, after five years of Graham running Unite, Smith has changed his mind completely. Now he has published a lengthy Facebook post telling members to vote for Graham’s challenger Simon Dubbins. The reason is simple: a second Graham term will be an “utter disaster”:

Smith is straightforward in his reasoning. Having experienced five years of Graham’s rule, he believes she has increased corruption instead of fighting it. Jobs for ill-qualified allies, secrecy over Unite’s finances, failure to address blacklisting of Unite activists, even creating a fake job to silence a potential rival. And Graham’s insecurity and paranoia working against members’ interests:

I believe that another five years of Sharon as Gen Sec would be an utter disaster for our union.

She has failed to deliver on her manifesto promises, wasting five years that should have been used to turn this union around. Now we’re told she needs another five years to finish the job. Sharon faced no effective opposition preventing her from delivering her manifesto, yet she still failed.

There always seems to be an excuse as to why Sharon can’t publish our accounts, conclude an investigation into blacklisting or even disclose her own salary. She hasn’t cleaned up any reported corruption quite the opposite.

In my view, appointing people to long term acting roles, promoting some of the least capable people industrially in our movement without any member led process, creating a “ghost organiser” job, where one individual was reportedly paid for two years without actually working for Unite, while also receiving a second salary, is just as unacceptable as allowing the union to be ripped off over a hotel.

As a leader, in my opinion, she has shown all the signs of being insecure, paranoid, and suffering from imposter syndrome from the very start of her term. Now Unite needs a serious adult as GS, backed by a principled industrial team, to get this union back on track and deliver the real change our members were promised.

Unite and Graham’s anti-union record

Matt Smith has become the latest in a string of former die-hard supporters to call on members to vote Graham out. But he could have gone far further in his criticisms.

Despite running Unite, Graham has repeatedly been accused of using appalling, anti-union tactics against workers employed by Unite, leading to several strikes. In many cases, these tactics have been seen as Unite’s attempts to protect her husband, Jack Clarke. Clarke is the target of much of the industrial unrest among Unite staff.

Soon after her accession in 2021, Graham created a new Bargaining and Disputes Support Unit (BDSU). Outside of the union’s usual procedures, Clarke was appointed to run it. The appointment was made despite Clarke being on a final warning for bullying and misogyny. As striking workers picketed against Clarke, Graham’s faction staged counter-demonstrations against them and attacked their reps.

Most recently, Graham’s plan to shut down the union’s popular ‘Community’ section has been exposed. And she has been accused of letting odious Labour right-winger Wes Streeting and his team write an attack in her name on potential next chancellor Ed Miliband, to boost Streeting’s prospects under Andy Burnham.

Unite lawyer’s explosive admission

Explosively, Unite’s lawyers admitted to Skwawkbox that the union had destroyed evidence that workers had gathered against him. This did not stop further complaints and strike action from workers in his new fiefdom, with almost all the women working under him quitting and 90% of Unite’s HQ staff backing strike action.

The challenger and the hide-and-seek

Dubbins, by contrast, has spoken out consistently against Israel’s genocide and against Unite’s disengagement from wider politics to suit Graham’s narrow ‘workplace only’ agenda. He was suspended as Unite’s international director after refusing to cancel a pro-Palestine fringe event at a Labour conference.

Graham hid from union branches and declined to debate Dubbins at any hustings event during the nominations phase, angering many, including allies, by sending weak proxies instead. Last week, Dubbins publicly challenged Graham to stop hiding and face him in an open debate in front of members.

Any of these issues could and should be decisive in a union election with a history of low turn-outs. Based on recent history, Graham’s paid organiser team will be working hard to secure support for her – but members need to hear the voices of those who used to be prominent in campaigning for her and now see her as an ongoing disaster.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

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