With unemployment rising to over 2 million for the first time in ten years, we look in vain for signs of serious trade union resistance. One explanation for this is that trade unions have not organised amongst those workers whose jobs have been most at threat over the past few months – in the retail sector and the lower-paid in financial services. Yet this is not the only reason. The trade unions remain committed to supporting the Labour Party; they continue to form larger and larger monopolies; they continue to have a significant stake in capitalism with their immense wealth. Their leadership continues to be paid at an extravagant level, and they continue to organise preferentially amongst a narrow section of the working class, mainly better-off workers in the public sector.
Supporting Labour
Unions remain responsible for about three quarters of Labour Party funding. In 2007 and 2008, the three biggest trade unions gave over £13 million in donations of more than £250,000, with the Unite conglomerate giving £8 million in such donations. This has staved off bankruptcy for the Labour Party for the moment, and the unions will ensure that it remains solvent in the lead-up to a general election which will have to take place within about a year.
Membership
The proportion of workers in a trade union fell to 28% in 2008 from 32% in 1997, with membership of TUC-affiliated unions falling to 6.4 million from 6.8 million over the same period. The combined membership of the two largest TUC affiliates – Unite and Unison – stands at 3.3 million, over half of TUC membership. Unions have continued to take on the form of giant monopolies with the formation of Unite from the T&GWU and from Amicus – itself a merger of the old engineers’ union AEU and the MSF in 2001. There is nothing progressive about these developments: they are designed to increase the powers of the union leadership over the membership.
Growing wealthier
Trade union wealth continued to grow up until 2008. Gross assets of Unite were £241.4 million (up from £215.2 million in 2005) with an annual income of £173.1 million. Second largest union Unison also did well: gross assets were £160.4 million in 2007 (up from £111.2 million in 2005), whilst annual income was £168.1 million, up from £132.8 million in 2005 on an unchanged membership of 1.35 million. The ten largest TUC-affiliated unions had an annual income of £600 million and gross assets in shares and property worth £614 million (up over £100 million since 2005).
Trade union leaders have shared in this bonanza: in 2007, eight general secretaries from the ten largest TUC-affiliated unions earned more than £100,000. Many general secretaries of smaller trade unions also earn more than £100,000: Brian Caton of the POA, for instance, was on £120,000 including benefits. Top of the pay league was Unite-Amicus general secretary Derek Simpson, with a remuneration package worth £155,000. He has the use of a grace-and-favour house for life worth £800,000 just outside London. On the occasions when the 35-minute train journey home from his Holborn office has been too much for him, he has stayed in a luxury suite at the Waldorf Hilton, £399 a night. His union was completely unabashed, saying of Simpson:
‘He is the joint leader of a multi-million-pound organisation, in which capacity he represents our members in dealings with employers of all sizes, including leaders of global companies as well as government. It would be undermining to his ability to deliver for those members if the union prioritised cheapness of accommodation above appropriate facilities and location as necessary for the particular event.’
Trade union leaders act more and more as if they were company chief executives.
Organising amongst better-off workers
Trade unions continue to organise amongst the better-off sections of the working class, particularly in the public sector. By the end of 2007:
• 58.6% of trade unionists worked in the public sector compared to 27.2% of all employees.
• More than half of trade unionists, 52.7%, were either managers, professionals or associate professionals (41.9% for all employees). The figure in 1991 was 34%.
• 45.7% of trade unionists had a degree or other higher education qualification compared to 33.9% of all employees.
• 40.9% of trade unionists worked in health and education compared to 10.5% in manufacturing; the figures for all employees were 22.9% and 13.7% respectively.
Fewer than one in six workers in the private sector were trade unionists – 16.1%. The figure in 1997 was 19.8%. Trade unions barely figure for young people: fewer than one in ten aged between 16 and 24 is in a union.
At the end of 2007, when the median wage for full-time workers was £457 per week, approximately 4.5 million, or 60% of all trade unionists, were earning between £500 and £999 per week. This was nearly ten times the number of trade unionists in full-time employment who were earning less than £250 per week.
Are there signs of change?
No. The number of days lost through industrial action in 2008 remains at the historic low it has been at throughout the years of the Labour government: 758,000 (average 600,000 since 1997); nearly half these days were due to a one-day public sector stoppage in July. In the recent ballot for the post of Unite-Amicus general secretary, Derek Simpson got 60,000 votes on a mere 12% turnout; his left-wing opponent Jerry Hicks got 25% of the vote with 40,000. Socialist Worker commented:
‘The size of the vote for Jerry Hicks shows the mood that exists among members for a left wing and fighting trade union. If the left in Amicus had united behind Hicks instead of a number backing Simpson, the left vote would have been even higher.’ (14 March 2009) This is just wishful thinking. If such a mood had really existed, then members would have voted – but 88% didn’t. Unwilling to risk their fiefdom for a struggle against the anti-trade union laws, most trade union leaders will be actively campaigning for Labour in the next general election, ignoring its record of betrayal both at home and abroad.
Robert Clough
FRFI 208 April / May 2009
