uniteWORKS Comment


NEWS in pictures DURHAM MINERS’ GALA CONFIDENCE RETURNING


Len McCluskey General Secretary


On the highway to hope


My admiration for the work that you, our members, do is boundless. But it has swelled even more so as in the past few months this country has seen Unite members come to the aid of those facing terror.


Be it tending injured and bereaved caught up in the horrific Manchester concert attack or helping others put together a new life after the one they had was engulfed in the flames of Grenfell, Unite members are there, sharing their expertise, bringing compassion and comfort.


In these pages you can read about the Unite heroes who bring hope. The health professionals and community workers who go the extra mile and more to help our fellow human beings through trauma.


You will also read about those workplace heroes too, keeping up the fight against wage injustice and the abuse of power – more often than not, Unite’s members always win too.


Our strength is built on our members’ determination to make this country a better, fairer nation. And we are going to need every ounce of our convictions and courage as this country sets out to fashion a future outside the European Union.


With a hobbled Theresa May propped up in a Bung Parliament via a dodgy deal to buy votes, support, this shameless Tory government is on life support.


Lucky then, that we have an alternative government waiting in the wings. Led by Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour party is offering this country the chance to shake off the chains of ruinous austerity and transform itself into the progressive, forward-facing nation its people urgently need it to be.


So this union stays on an electoral footing. Yes, we are all a bit worn out by political life at the moment but politics has never mattered more than it does now.


This country is at crossroads. Ahead on the right is the tired old Tory path of cuts, insecurity and inequality. Or there is the alternative, the left turn, the one towards a future for the many, not the few.


Read about the incredible work our fellow members do to win for you, standing by your side, day in day out. With Unite in your corner, and a Labour party ready for victory, our friends, families and communities certainly are on the highway to hope.


July 8 was a great day. Over 200,000 people packed out Durham for the 133rd Durham Miners’ Gala or ‘Big Meeting’ as it’s known.


Unite’s contingent, accompanied by the marvellously entertaining Unite brass band, was the largest single group on the march. Unite general secretary Len McCluskey addressed the crowd, slamming Theresa May’s recent £1bn “bung” to the Democratic Unionist Party and calling for the government to now invest in all “our nations and regions.”


He attacked the Tories for letting the Redcar steel works close in 2015 and allowing thousands of skilled workers to be thrown on the scrapheap.


Unite rep Andy Thompson from Birmingham told uniteWORKS, “You can feel the confidence is returning to the labour movement. The Tories destroyed the mining areas but only after a fierce resistance struggle by the communities affected. Similar battles are very likely in the future and this time we must and are going to win.”


uniteWORKS No:27 Published quarterly by Unite the union, 128 Theobalds Road, London, WC1X 8TN. Phone 0207 611 2500. Editor – Amanda Campbell Magazine enquiries and letters to the editor, by post, phone, or email uniteworks@unitetheunion.org Distribution enquiries contact your regional office Available in alternative formats from Taylor Humphris 020 3371 2557


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