Former dockworker Len McCluskey
The largest trade union elected a new leader on Sunday, a left-winger who has vowed to take strong action to resist government spending and job cuts.
Former dock worker Len McCluskey easily defeated three rival candidates to become general secretary of Unite which was formed from the merger of two large unions, the TGWU and Amicus, in 2007 and boasts some 1.5 million members.
“My first task will be to bring our union together and unite it in a campaign against the devastation the government is unleashing against working people and their communities throughout the land,” McCluskey was quoted by media as saying.
The union has been at the forefront of Britain’s most high profile industrial action in recent years, the series of strikes staged by British Airways cabin crew that cost the airline some 150 million pounds.
McCluskey played a leading role in the dispute, which started a year ago and has yet to be resolved, and promised if elected to deliver the “full potential of Unite in the fight back” against the government’s spending cuts.
“Len McCluskey’s victory will push Ed Miliband even further away from the centre ground of British politics,” said chairman of the Conservative Party Sayeeda Warsi.
“Labour’s reliance on Unite’s bank balance means that Len McCluskey can hold the party to ransom and win extreme left wing policy concessions.”