As workers in Britain continue to suffer from the worst cost-of-living crisis in generations, the gulf between union leaders’ pay and the workers they claim to represent is only growing.
The average worker in Britain earns £37,430 per year (although many earn way below this). This is hardly enough to keep up with rising bills, rent, and over a decade of attacks on real wages.
Meanwhile, according to the Taxpayer’s Alliance think-tank – a right-wing outfit – trade union leaders are enjoying eye-watering salaries that put them firmly in the top 5 percent of earners.
Of course, the Taxpayers’ Alliance is only hypocritically highlighting these figures (with distortions and exaggerations) to defend the capitalist class they represent, and to discredit the unions in the eyes of workers.
But as members of the workers’ movement, we refuse to skirt around the issue just because our opponents use it cynically. A stopped clock is right twice a day, after all.
The response of the bosses’ lackeys to these figures is: “see, your money is all spent on the union leaders’ bloated salaries. The union doesn’t represent you, so you’d better leave it!”
But for organised workers, it is a matter of strengthening our union, not weakening it. We want to get rid of careerism and corruption, and for the rank and file to be in control.
We need our unions to fight for its members, and draw in more as-yet unorganised workers. But as long as most workers rightly view the unions as something that doesn’t belong to them; as a gravy-train that is separate from their struggles, this remains difficult.
Top five percent
The TUC general secretary sits pretty on £167,229. Even Unite – a supposedly “left” union – pays its leader well over £100,000 a year!
These union heads ‘earn’ a wage that’s an astounding three to six times the average worker’s wage. And sitting below them, there is also a whole layer of petty bureaucrats with bloated six-figure salaries.
But base salaries don’t tell the full story. In 2023, Christina McAnea – the general secretary of Unison, the largest union in the country – ‘earned’ a salary of ‘merely’ £125,450.
On top of this however, came “salary sacrifice” (benefit schemes) above £13,000, a London weighting of over £6,000 (!), and other benefits surpassing £10,000.
And we cannot discount the £50,000 employers’ contributions to her pension and national insurance – from which she will reap all the rewards in the long run, and which alone amount to more than the average workers’ wage.
This brings the official ‘total’ cost per year for one general secretary to a whopping £181,641.
But wait… there’s more.
All the perks
These figures still don’t paint the whole picture. Besides the official ‘benefits’ listings on their financial statements (clothing, travel etc), the union bureaucrats do everything to provide a lavish lifestyle for themselves.
The union’s grand buildings, their fancy conference venues, the awards with luxurious prizes – all of these should be added onto the bill.
And for the tops, their lifestyle gets a boost from the bosses – whom they are meant to be opposing, but with whom they ‘wine and dine’ instead.
But if all this high-end lifestyle only had an effect on the highest positions, that would be one thing. One union leader, making one rotten deal with a boss whom they have cosied up to, can be quickly ousted.
We saw this back in 2018, when UCU leader Sally Hunt’s faction was voted out following her betrayal of striking academic staff. When her compromise with the bosses was published, strikers marched on the union headquarters and attempted to storm them! The UCU since, however, has not fundamentally changed.
It’s not just one or two cases of schmoozing up to the bosses. Careerism permeates the labour movement from top to bottom. Members are given a tempting glimpse of it as soon as they get pulled into any form of activity that goes beyond attending their branch.
At every level, a trade unionist will find all sorts of perks and privileges. Often they are told they ‘deserve’ it for giving up their time to attend meetings and conferences – nevermind sacrifice for a greater cause! But in reality, these rewards are intended to lure honest members into the careerist conveyor belt.
Having got a taste for the finer things in life, the small-time bureaucrat dreams of becoming a big bureaucrat, and then perhaps onto a cushy job in industry – for which their time securing backroom deals gives them plenty of connections.
These ladies and gentlemen must think to themselves: “I am for the liberation of the working class: one by one, starting with myself!”
Clear out the bureaucrats!
For trade unions to be genuine fighting organisations of the working class, union officials should live with the same conditions as those they represent.
The Revolutionary Communist Party stands for all union officials to take the average wage of a skilled worker in their industry, and for any necessary expenses to be vetted by the membership.
This would mean that leaders share the same material interests as their members, spurring them on all-the-more to fight for wage increases. What’s more, it would deter any parasitic careerists looking to leech off of members’ dues.
Making our leadership accountable would galvanise workers looking to fight for their interests, but who feel alienated from the unions in their current shape.
Along these lines, the RCP also demands that all officials be elected, with the right to immediately recall them if they try to use and abuse their position for their own personal gain.
Only then can we ensure that our unions are fighting organisations, ready to wage class war on behalf of the working class, and not an instrument for defending the privileges of a bureaucratic clique.
The struggle for a better future for workers must begin within our own movement. It’s time to clean our own house.
Where in the world is Unison?
After more than 15 years of unrelenting, real-terms attacks on pay, public sector workers could be forgiven for being unsurprised by the government’s paltry 2.8 percent offer earlier this month.
Over recent years, the bureaucratic trade union leaders have held back the movement with a call to ‘wait for Labour’, promising milk and honey under Starmer.
So what can we now expect from Unison, Britain’s leading public sector union, now Labour are in?
The sight of right-wing general secretary Christine McAnea spewing praise for austerity chancellor Rachel Reeves was probably enough to make most Unison members sick.
The same can be said for health secretary Wes Streeting’s invitation to attend Unison’s upcoming health conference – akin to “inviting Harold Shipman to your gran’s funeral”, in my colleague’s words.
This is the background for the upcoming Unison general secretary and national executive committee (NEC) elections.
The left, organised around Time For Real Change (TFRC) has tabled its list of candidates for both, nominating former president Andrea Egan to stand for general secretary.
The RCP offers critical support to TFRC candidates. We would encourage our readers who are in Unison to vote for them. However, to get ‘real change’ we need to be precise about how to fight for it.
The union machine is the right’s home turf, as are battles in the backrooms. The left can only beat the right wing by organising the membership through mass mobilisation around socialist demands, and by preparing them for ruthless direct struggle against internal sabotage.
Unison represents over 1.2 million workers, all performing vital services for the day-to-day running of society. This could be an incredibly mighty force – leading the way for all workers in fighting against the government.
This will remain only potential, however, if the right-wing leadership remains intact and the left fails to organise the membership to challenge the government head-on.
Unison’s enormous membership is a sleeping giant. To pave the way for socialist change, it’s time it was woken up!
Dane Y, Unison North West (personal capacity)
