Unite officers vote for strike action over lack of union recognition

The officers’ branch of Unite has voted overwhelmingly for ‘all-out’ strike action over the refusal of Unite’s management to recognise its union.

Of a huge 80% turnout, 85% of officers voted in support of the strike.

This is the second time Unite’s general secretary, Sharon Graham, has faced strike action from union employees after staff working for Graham’s husband, Jack Clarke, walked out complaining of bullying, misogyny and intimidation.

The ballot result comes as Graham campaigns for re-election and as her hangers-on try to get elected on to Unite’s executive.

Unite: ‘It’s time to Reunite and end the toxicity’

The Reunite the Union activist group welcomed the strike vote and promised solidarity with the workers, which includes a “three-point plan to resolve the dispute”. A statement from the group stated it’s “time to Reunite and end the toxicity which is dividing our union”.

It continued:

Self-defeating intransigence is a familiar trait of Sharon Graham’s management.

It is the same approach which resulted in picket lines outside Holborn against a ‘toxic bullying culture,’ complete with a ‘counter-demo’ led by Graham’s self-styled enforcer Chris Stiles and our union’s Organising Director Tayra Lopes-Lister. This resulted from the BDSU researchers simply requesting a meeting with their line management over grading.

It is the same approach which forced members of our Executive Council to turn to the Certification Officer to compel Sharon Graham’s management team to disclose our union’s finances.

Politically, the same intransigence has led Sharon Graham to remain silent on Reform’s direct attack on our union and our members.

Industrially, the same intransigence has led important disputes to defeat. For example, the nearly six-month strike at Bakkavor in Spalding ended in members having to accept the same percentage pay offer originally rejected at the start of the dispute. That dispute was continued from above, despite growing numbers of members crossing their own picket. From Veolia to Port Talbot, a pattern of behaviour repeats itself.

A pervasive culture of toxicity and division has been created in our union. It manifests in different ways, but the cause is the same.

In the elections, Graham has so far failed to condemn homophobic comments by one of her ‘exec’ candidates who supports fascist racist Tommy Robinson. But her behaviour had outraged union staff and activists long before that, often centring around the alleged conduct of Jack Clarke and her measures to protect him.

Graham and Clarke vs workers

Clarke was promoted shortly after Graham took over the union in 2021, overseeing the newly-created Bargaining and Disputes Unit (BDSU). Union insiders point out that Unite’s approval procedures for the promotion had not been followed. Prior to his promotion, Clarke was on a final warning from Unite for his behaviour.

BDSU staff were soon in dispute with the union and Clarke over alleged bullying by Clarke and his cronies. However, their complaints were not the first such allegations against Clarke.

In 2018, before Graham became Unite’s general secretary, she asked colleagues to destroy evidence of bullying and misogyny gathered by staff working under him in his previous role. In a stunning December 2024 development, Graham’s lawyers admitted that, following her takeover, the union destroyed the evidence.

Graham and Unite have also spent huge amounts of members’ money on lawyers’ fees, most recently to sue barely-followed and anonymous X accounts on behalf of Clarke.

Anti-union union?

Staff have also accused Graham and her management team of employing intimidation, suspension and anti-union tactics against staff in the dispute. This outraged Unite’s National Industrial Sector Committee (NISC) for the print and graphics sector, and the leaders of two unions representing Unite staff and officers.

So bad has this alleged conduct been that more than 90% of Unite staff working at the union’s Holborn HQ 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. Union sources say they also alleged bullying and abuse.

Unite’s staff branch unanimously condemned the union’s abuse of its staff. The influential Officers National Committee (ONC) accused Graham of using Murdoch-style anti-union tactics against workers and officers unionising and taking collective action.

Now, after fighting Graham’s moves to undermine their attempts to organise since the beginning of 2025, Unite’s officer group will soon begin strike action. It is an action that may well impact her attempts to get herself and her hangers-on re-elected.

Featured image via the Canary

Comments 2

Joe Cooke says:

3 months ago

I’m disturbed to find that after decades of being able to vote in the Automotive Section, as a retired member in the Ford & Associates LE1115 Branch, I’ve been designated as being in the Retired Members section, with one vote in the EC elections for candidates I’m unfamiliar with. There’s frequently been admin errors with incorrect assignment of retired members in our branch but these have usually been corrected after actions by our Secretary. This reassignment without consultation or explanation, when crucial EC elections are taking place, is very suspicious to me. Cock up or conspiracy? Joe Cooke

Tom McDonald says:

3 months ago

Dear Colleague,

As you may be aware, relatively recently we agreed to union recognition for Unite Officers with the Community union.

We agreed to this on a non-sole recognition basis.

This was because it was agreed that officers who wanted to remain under legacy Unite Officer representation could automatically do so. A mirror of the arrangement that we have for the staff.

This caveat was made, as a significant number of Officers expressed that they did not wish to join Community. This was for a variety of reasons; Community’s industrial stance on some issues affecting Unite reps and members, political stance on some issues, or simply because many officers wanted to remain under legacy representational terms in the union they ‘grew up in’.

It is obvious that we cannot simply row back on commitments made to groups of employees.

These commitments were given in good faith during the recognition process with Community and additionally at a meeting under the auspices of Paul Nowak, TUC General Secretary, who has confirmed this was the premise of the discussions and subsequent agreement in his offices.

Essentially what we have is a disagreement between officers on representation.

The Union has been trying to bring the two sides together to agree a way forward but unfortunately this has not yet been possible.

We had thought we were there. On Monday 13th April, the Senior Management Team, led by myself, discussed a proposal based on a discussion that the GS of Community and our GS had last week. The GS of Community told us, in a genuine attempt to try to solve the dispute, that the substantive issue that the Community Branch had, was they did not think officers who are not currently in Community wanted to be in the UOG. It was through those discussions that the proposal to test this point through a vote of officers who are not in Community was established.

On the same day that the GSs’ discussions took place, the GS of Community rang the senior Community Branch representative about this potential proposal. The Unite senior Community Branch representative concurred that they thought it was a possible solution. Indeed, they went on to discuss how we could decipher who was in Community and who wasn’t, so that the vote could take place. The vote being under ACAS was also discussed for data protection reasons.

As a result, the proposal to conduct such a vote was tabled by me on the 13 April because it had been agreed that it as a viable option by both parties.

It is unfortunate that the goalposts now seem to have been moved and we are back to the drawing board.

We are in ACAS on Monday, at our request, to try to find a different solution.

Unite will continue to try to bring both sides together and honour the commitments made to protect the bargaining rights of all Officers as we do for staff.

It is of course regrettable that there seems to be a rush to take ‘continuous industrial action’. It seems very unusual that this is being escalated in such a way so quickly.

It goes without saying that Unite is ready to play its part in helping to find a path forward for both groups.

Unite buildings will be open as usual on all days of action. Contingency plans are in place.

The vast majority of employees are not involved in the dispute, but we understand that some employees may have a preference to avoid being subject to any possible issues with colleagues.

If anyone feels that they would prefer to work from home on these days, this can be facilitated and line managers have been made aware. As you would expect no employee will be asked to cross a picket line.

Thank you for your assistance.

Best wishes

Sarah Carpenter