If these left victories were earth shattering, events in the engineering workers’ union AEEU/Amicus were truly unprecedented. The defeat of Blair’s favourite union leader Sir Ken Jackson by Derek Simpson, the candidate of the Left, turned the trade union world upside down. It was described correctly by The Financial Times as “a defining moment in the history of the labour movement.” Paul Routledge, the popular Daily Mirror columnist, described Jackson’s demise as “the dying bad breath of the dirty work fusiliers who provided scab labour to Murdoch’s strike-breaking move to Wapping.”
The vote against Jackson represented an earthquake measuring size 10 on the Richter scale. Jackson had been the standard bearer of the arch right wing in the British trade unions. His defeat dealt a shattering blow to the Blair government, the capitalist class and all their shadows in the labour movement. The defeat was all the more galling to them because it was completely unexpected. According to the pundits, Jackson couldn’t lose the election. “When Sir Ken decided to stand for re-election, defeat was seen as to be as likely as Saddam losing Baghdad Central”, stated Patrick Wintour in The Guardian. At first Jackson – who lost after three recounts by 89,521 votes to 89,115 – refused to accept the result and attempted to stage an unconstitutional coup d’état within the union.
“It makes me weep to think our union is now in the hands of the hard left”, stated Jackson. “If this man stays in charge it could spell a return to the strife, which damaged our country for 30 years. We risk throwing away all we have worked hard for – jobs, prosperity and security. We’re on the brink of a return to chaos and I can’t let it happen.” Sir Ken had the effrontery to claim that a vote-rigging scandal in the early stages of the campaign had seriously affected his support. In fact, it was Jackson’s own supporters who carried out the ballot rigging as full-time officials were transferred from branch to branch to vote for him.
“Tony Blair’s most loyal trade union ally is accused of being deeply involved in a ballot-rigging scandal intended to secure his re-election, according to legal notes seen by The Guardian. Sir Ken Jackson, narrowly beaten in the poll earlier this year, is alleged to have discussed the double voting plot with lieutenants by the Amicus-AEEU regional secretary, forced out of his job after admitting his own involvement. Roger Maskell, who is to claim constructive dismissal at an employment tribunal in November, says he discussed with Sir Ken in March and April a scam to transfer officials between branches to nominate him more than once”, reported The Guardian.[4]
The newspaper report went on with an account of a conversation between lawyers representing Maskell and Simpson which set out details of meetings Maskell alleges were held with Jackson. One meeting in March 2002 attended by Jackson, Maskell and another official – according to the note written by Simpson’s solicitor – discussed branch transfers to secure nominations at any cost with “no no-go areas”. The note goes on to say the “completion of nomination forms irrespective of whether branches met” was discussed and: “The team was told to bus in officers and to flood branches if necessary.” The account also states:
On 12th April RM (Roger Maskell) met SKJ (Sir Ken Jackson) at the union’s West Brom office and one to one discussed the issue of transfers and double voting. SKJ told RM not to worry and that it was not a problem. SKJ said things would be dealt with and to deliver the nominations.
In a separate statement, Chris Joy, the union’s head of information systems, said he was instructed by another senior official to amend balloting software to ensure 730,000 members could vote when the correct figure was 618,000 by including those who had ceased paying subscriptions two years earlier. Joy said he was ordered to block emails sent by Simpson and access his Derby office computer when he was not in work to check if the left-winger had accessed membership records. He had not.
The AEEU has been at the very heart of the right wing in the trade unions and Labour Party for more than two decades. It acted as its central command structure. The right took over the engineering union in 1977-8 with the election of Terry Duffy, followed by Gavin Laird and Bill Jordan. During the EETPU merger with the Engineering Union, and prior to the election of Jackson in 1996, a rule was brought in which allowed the general secretary position to be elected by the 225,000-strong EEPTU section of the union, while the president’s position was chosen by the 550,000-strong AEU section. Davy Hall, the candidate of the left-wing Gazette, won the election for AEEU president against two right-wing candidates. But Hall lost his nerve and agreed to stand down under pressure when the position of union president was bureaucratically abolished by the right wing. Jackson, who was elected by the EEPTU side, had never stood for election in the merged AEEU.
The right-wing AEEU leadership, in typical gangster fashion, then sought to strengthen its grip still further through an amalgamation with the MSF under right-winger Roger Lyons. Due to retire at 65, Jackson pushed through a rule change allowing him to stay on beyond official retirement age, his 67th birthday, to “oversee the new merger”! When challenged, he initially refused to call an election. Then, faced with a legal battle, he was forced to change his mind and proceeded to mobilise the entire union machine to secure his re-election. The reports of Jackson’s full-time officials turning up at different branches to influence and even vote in nominating meetings read more like a mafia story than a trade union election. When this ploy was discovered, the computerised membership records at union headquarters were wiped clean. When news of this operation leaked out, the membership records were hastily rebuilt, but with major errors compared to the originals. This was nothing short of a criminal conspiracy against the union and its members. It is sufficient to compare the diplomatic treatment of Sir Ken by the press to the media hysteria surrounding the ETU trial of 1960-61 to reveal the close relation between the billionaire press barons and the right-wing trade union leaders.
Since it was the right wing who were up to their necks in ballot-rigging, the story was played down in the media. All that happened was Roger Maskell, London Regional Secretary, was forced to resign after he was found out employing “flying voters” – full-time officials operating on the principle of “vote early, and vote often”! At the London Construction branch, full-time official and Jackson acolyte Stuart Willis subsequently admitted voting at another branch. On the nominations night, people never seen before, under the watchful eyes of their officials, swamped AEEU branches. Desperate to cling to office, every trick in the book was pulled to guarantee Jackson’s success. Nevertheless, the left secured 94 branch nominations – an amazing result under the circumstances – against Jackson’s 353.
At AEEU headquarters, a full-time union organiser was “unofficially” orchestrating Jackson’s campaign, while Simpson was denied access to every facility. At the time of the election, the official AEEU/Amicus journal featured no less than a dozen photographs of Jackson, while his opponent was never mentioned once. The Blairite minister and one-time EETPU political officer and head of research, John Spellar (known as “ex-spellar”, for his role in the witch-hunt against Militant), was heavily involved in Jackson’s campaign and had his own office at the union’s HQ in Hayes Court.
“Questions have been asked about how a busy transport minister could find so much time to involve himself in the internal workings of our union and the election itself,” commented Simpson. The questions were never answered. But it was clear that Blair himself must have sanctioned Spellar’s “double life”.
Spellar still remains active in the attempt to unseat Simpson. Jackson was a key man for Blair in the trade union movement. It was essential that he be given all the assistance he could muster.
Nothing was too blatant for the Jackson regime, including all kinds of skulduggery. They believed themselves invincible, which served in turn to make them extremely over confident. But they were completely out of touch and divorced from the ranks of the union. The Jackson regime was a house of cards, ready to collapse. Despite all their shenanigans and all the resources at their disposal, an unknown opposition candidate brought the house down. After three recounts Simpson was declared the winner. Under these adverse conditions it was a truly stunning victory! The right-wing spell had been broken.
The result revealed a fundamental change in the mood of the members. But there was also a vital factor in the outcome. Simpson’s success was largely the result of the tireless work of the left-wing rank-and-file activists around the Gazette who leafleted building sites and workplaces attempting to get the message across to the broad membership. The final margin was narrow – just 410 votes decided the outcome – but Simpson’s victory was the equivalent of a team at the bottom of the fourth division coming from nowhere and beating a top team in the premier division. It was an action replay of the battle between David and Goliath.
Jackson supporters, who for so long ruled the roost, were completely shell-shocked. In a final throw of the dice, the right-dominated executive council used the rule that in the event of an unfair election they could call a fresh one. They attempted to use the reports of their own ballot rigging, which they claimed had an adverse effect on their campaign, to order a re-run! A few left-wingers walked out of the meeting leaving the EC inquorate. Realising they would be laughed out of court, Jackson’s clique were forced to reluctantly concede defeat. It marked the beginning of the end for them and the beginning of the end for the right-wing domination of the British Labour movement.
The experience demonstrated in a laboratory fashion how even the most right-wing and bureaucratic of unions can shift to the left on the basis of changed conditions. This is a complete answer to the impatient ultra-lefts and sectarians on the fringes of the Labour movement who wrote off these unions in the past, just as they wrongly write off the Labour Party today. Those who are totally mesmerised by the power of the right-wing apparatus show a lack of confidence in the working class. If we have no faith in the ability of the workers to change their organisations, how can we have confidence in their ability to change society? In fact, one thing is predicated on the other.
With 176,000 manufacturing jobs lost in the three-month period leading up to the AEEU/Amicus general secretary election, engineering pay stagnating and “social partnership” leading to further attacks on the workforce, AEEU members finally rebelled against the leadership. Quantity had changed into quality, and the membership had had enough. The impact of speed-ups, years of attacks on the shop floor, the destruction of manufacturing industry, etc., resulted in this dramatic change in the AEEU. It represented the molecular changes in the minds of workers – the slow, gradual process of the growth in consciousness that at a certain point gives rise to a qualitative transformation of the situation. This is what fundamentally undermined the domination of the right wing in the unions, and which tomorrow can be reproduced in the Labour Party, to which the unions in Britain are indissolubly linked.
While many were taken totally by surprise, supporters of Socialist Appeal within the AEEU, who could see the groundswell against Jackson, had confidently predicted what was going to happen. As early as July 2000, an article written by AEEU delegate Des Heemskerk in the Socialist Appeal entitled, A Sea Change is about to take place in the AEEU, explained that the writing was on the wall:
His [Derek Simpson] victory in the election for AEEU general secretary would mark a major turning point in the history of the union. It would clearly indicate that a sea change is about to take place over the next few years in the British trade union movement.
A year later, the Marxist magazine stated:
“In reality the right wing are on the run. Their time is almost up… Increasingly AEEU members can see that, and that will be reflected in a victory for the left when elections for the leadership of the union eventually take place.”[5] Again, “Left-wing AEEU activists believe that he has an excellent chance of beating the right wing in the election; continuing the trend of left victories in a number of general secretary elections in important trade unions including CWU, RMT, NUJ and PCS.”[6]
Socialist Appeal supporters played a leading role in securing the election defeat of “no strike” Jackson and the victory of Derek Simpson through the distribution of election material in numerous workplaces and construction sites. Consequently, the Appeal was sent a generous £100 donation from the AEEU Unity Gazette, the union’s broad left, “in recognition of the assistance given by your publication in the campaign to elect Derek Simpson as general secretary.”
The defeat of Jackson was a great step forward but it was by no means the end of the struggle in the AEEU. As I write these lines, the AEEU is engaged in new elections for the new executive committee of Amicus, which was still under the control of the right wing. The Left within the union, if it works seriously, has every chance of sweeping out the right wing and winning a clear majority. This is essential if the Left is to consolidate its position. Such a victory would be without precedent. The nearest the Left came to victory in the AUEW was in 1978, when the left and right on the National Committee were evenly balanced. The ETU was under right-wing domination since 1960. This shows how far the shift in the merged union has gone.
When Derek Simpson was elected the employers were trembling in their shoes for fear that this might put in jeopardy the “sweetheart deals” made under Jackson.
“The loss of Sir Ken Jackson as the leader of Britain’s biggest private sector union Amicus AEEU may have been a blow for Tony Blair, but employers are wondering how much symbolic significance it holds for them, too”, states the organ of British finance capital, The Financial Times. “More than any other union leader in the country, Sir Ken represented the ‘partnership’ approach to industrial relations that has dominated union thinking since the mid-1990s. Writing in the human resources magazine at the start of this year, he said, partnership with employers was ‘a preferred way of industrial life. Partnership will promote mutual help, respect and deliver better work from people because they feel valued’.”[7]
Jackson’s so-called “social partnership” was nothing more than plain old class collaboration. Following in the footsteps of the EETPU, “sweetheart” no-strike deals were signed with a string of companies, including LG Phillips, the electronics plant in South Wales and the Western Mail newspaper. All in all, about thirty no-strike deals were signed by Jackson involving more than 30,000 workers. But workers increasingly saw through these company agreements. At Nissan’s Sunderland site, the single union agreement resulted in only 797 workers being prepared to join the union out of a total workforce of 4,672. Union activists and ordinary members loathed these deals, which were regarded correctly as an employers’ charter. “They’re really some kind of serfdom. Maybe comfortable serfdom, depending on the circumstances, but serfdom nevertheless”, stated Ken Gill.
Discontent with this class collaboration was growing. The unofficial strike on the Jubilee Line in London towards the end of 1998 was symptomatic of the groundswell of opposition to Jackson’s regime. What began as a dispute over safety, developed into a strike over victimisation. The “sparks” on the Jubilee Line created a powerful rank-and-file organisation in the process, which constituted a direct threat to the right-wing AEEU leadership. The workers donated £2 a week to a hardship fund and set up a body called simply “The Shop”, which acted as the catalyst for their unofficial struggles. With militant determination and organisation, they defied the Tory anti-union laws and took on their employers, the vitriolic campaign in the media, the Labour government and, not least, their own trade union leaders. In the end, they picketed every site, bringing everything to a standstill and scoring a magnificent victory with the reinstatement of the 12 victimised men. These actions reflected the growing discontent within the union that was to burst to the surface in the election for general secretary.
The newly elected general secretary Simpson dropped a bombshell by announcing that all “sweetheart deals” would be up for review and, if found incompatible with members’ interests, would be scrapped. Right-wing union officials rushed to publicly deny the change. But within weeks, the key no-strike deal at the Japanese carmaker Honda, involving 4,000 workers, was ditched: “The scrapping of the peace agreement”, warned The Times, “is expected to spread to other large Japanese car companies in the UK and many other employers, and herald an era of tougher employment relations in industry.” Within a matter of months, a strike was “dangerously close” at the Nissan car plant in Sunderland. A stoppage at the Japanese car giant’s factory would have been the first in its 19-year history, but this time, it was narrowly averted.
British trade unionism has entered a new turbulent phase. After a long period of right-wing domination, the Left is in the ascendancy. The setback for the right wing has dramatically altered the balance of forces with the Labour movement. The group of newly elected left general secretaries can become the focal point for a dramatic shift to the left within the TUC in the next period.
After the hard-hitting debate at the 2002 TUC Congress on employment rights, which at last supported the repeal of all anti-union laws, came the debate on the Iraq war. This debate set the Congress alight as an anti-war amendment from the rail union TSSA was tabled to the “soft” resolution from the TGWU (which was supported by the General Council). The TSSA resolution served to galvanise opposition to the pro-United Nations stance. In effect, the debate became a battleground between the new Left and old right.
A stream of left general secretaries – Crow, Rix, Hayes, Dear, Serwotka and others – challenged the Blair/Bush hypocrisy and strenuously opposed the war. All were met with thunderous applause from Congress delegates, which reflected the new mood – in marked contrast to previous years. When the motion was put to the vote, the president of the TUC, Sir Tony Young, was forced to concede – to rapturous applause – that the TSSA amendment had been passed. However, not to be outdone, the right wing demanded a card vote. With the combined votes of the TGWU, GMB and AEEU/Amicus cast against, the amendment was declared lost by a margin of a million votes. Even then, nearly 2.4 million trade unionists, or about 40 per cent of the union movement had voted for outright opposition to any US/British attack on Iraq.
The fact that the AEEU/Amicus had cast its block-vote against the anti-war amendment proved decisive. The union’s delegation was still right-wing dominated, reflecting the old composition of its executive committee, which had not faced election for over three years. They were clearly out of touch with the membership. If the AEEU/Amicus had cast its 700,000-plus votes with the rest of the left, then the TSSA motion would have been carried a big majority. But this lag at the top of the trade unions is only temporary, as is shown by the further progressive and left victories in the TGWU, CWU, GMB and other unions. The composition of the executive committees will tend to catch up once the real mood within the rank and file asserts itself.