“Steve has spent his life winning the best for working people”
Leb McCluskey, Unite General Secretary.
In a hugely important election for the future of the Labour movement, Len McCluskey has added his support to Steve Turner’s candidacy for General Secretary of Unite. The endorsement of the standing General Secretary comes as ballots drop to all Unite members, with results to be announced on Thursday, 26th August.
You can read his statement in full below:
Colleagues
In seven weeks I will be standing aside as your General Secretary. The election for my successor comes at a critical time for our union.
I urge all of you to vote when you get your ballot papers over the next few days.
I will be voting for Steve Turner.
There are many reasons for that choice. Steve stands for the progressive trade union outlook I have championed all my life.
Steve will change and develop our union in many ways, uniting our members and building on our achievements, not tearing them down.
His Unite will be run by and for the members, not The Sun newspaper or our establishment enemies.
But above all Steve has the experience and integrity essential to lead a union as diverse as Unite, with members across the economy of Britain and Ireland.
Support for Steve runs deep across our industrial heartlands. He is the candidate to take our union forward, ensuring departments, sectors, regions and nations work together, ensuring equalities, education and anti-racism are at the heart of our union in all our industrial, political, organising and community work.
He has walked the talk at every level of our union – shop steward, tutor, local officer, organiser, national officer and Assistant General Secretary.
He has worked with members, and has held chief executives and government ministers alike to account to deliver on jobs, pay and most recently, real progress on a workers‘ transition to a green economy.
Steve has spent his life winning the best for working people, including bringing the country’s first electric battery plant to the north east securing 6,500 jobs.
He led for Unite in winning the furlough deal which has been so essential for over 11 million workers during the pandemic, and continues to fight to overturn 10 years of ideological austerity imposed on our public services and members.
He is as at home on the picket line as he is negotiating with CEOs in the boardroom and ministers in government. He has led and won difficult disputes in sectors across Unite.
So Steve has my support in this ballot.
I urge you once again to use your vote and support your union’s democracy, and it’s enduring role as the most progressive organisation for our communities in these islands.
Yours
Len McCluskey
