Huge membership fall since last official figure in late 2020, say insiders – but management hasn’t reported official membership despite requirement to do so every year – and continues to donate millions to anti-worker Labour party

Yesterday, Skwawkbox reported the collapse in the Unite union’s strike fund – the fund members rely on to pay their bills and feed their families when they are on strike – from £35m when current general secretary Sharon Graham took office to just £11m now. Some insiders say the fund was increased to £50m just before previous general secretary Len McCluskey retired, though Skwawkbox has not yet been able to confirm this.

£11m is only enough for about eight months, based on spending in each of the last two years.

Senior union figures have also complained that the union management is not being transparent about the union’s membership and has not signed off financial accounts since Ms Graham took over in 2021 Unions are required to report membership annually, but Unite has not done so – and risks severe sanction from the Certification Officer. One senior official of another union told Skwawkbox:

Unions have to declare membership every year to the Certification Officer. Unite doesn’t appear to have done so for several years and the CO could effectively decide to shut them down if she chooses.

But well-placed Unite insiders have now told Skwawkbox that the latest internal estimates show a catastrophic fall. Unite’s membership in late 2020, the last official figure, was 1.081m:

• Automotive Industries 72,453
• Aerospace & Shipbuilding 63,238
• Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Process and Textiles 43,134
• Civil Air Transport 65,892
• Community Youth workers and not for profit 42,985
• Docks, Rail, Ferries & Waterways 17,228
• Education 17,335
• Energy and Utilities 32,485
• Engineering, Manufacturing and Steel 57,753
• Finance and Legal 61,559
• Food Drink and Agriculture63,589
• Government, Defence, Prisons & Contractors 10,751
• Graphical Paper and Media & Information Technology 36,810
• Health 88,770 Local Authorities 61,783
• Passenger Transport 76,861
• Road Transport Commercial, Logistics and Retail Distribution 62,619
• Service Industries 50,564
• Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians 68,083
• Community 14,971
• Unknown 6,668
• Retired 65,503

Total 1,081,034

According to internal estimates, it is now around 870,000 – a fall of a fifth (19.5%) from the 2020 figure Graham inherited – and is still falling. By a different measurement, sources say that the 2020 figure was 1.28m, which would mean a fall of almost 400,000 in two and a half years.

Against that backdrop, according to the Electoral Commission the union under Graham has donated around £4m since the winter of 2021 to Keir Starmer’s Labour, despite Starmer’s assault on democracy, betrayal of and contempt for striking workers, blocking of union candidates in parliamentary seats and his support for ‘spycops’ and anti-protest laws.

Sharon Graham’s failure to speak out on Gaza and behind the scenes attempts to quell free speech on the issue since Israel’s genocide there began last October has outraged many members and others. She

Graham has been publicly silent about the slaughter, but has:

• been criticised for banning Unite officials and national banners from pro-Gaza protests
• banned and smeared films and books exposing the ‘Labour antisemitism’ scam, placed an official under investigation who refused to cancel a Palestine solidarity fringe event at Labour’s 2023 annual conference
• allegedly told her chief of staff to threaten a soon-to-retire official with the loss of a pension bonus if he did not soften his support for Palestinians

Her supporters also prevented debate and votes on Gaza at last week’s meeting of the union’s elected executive.

Ms Graham’s tenure as Unite boss has also been marked by a string of other allegations – which neither she nor the union has denied – including alleged destruction of evidence against her husband in threat, misogyny and bullying complaints brought by union employees. She is also embroiled in both an employment tribunal for discrimination and a defamation lawsuit brought by Irish union legend Brendan Ogle for the union’s treatment of him and comments made about him by Graham and her close ally Tony Woodhouse – a situation that has caused outrage among Unite members and politicians in Ireland.

Unite has been contacted for comment.

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