Unite the Union, one of the UK's largest trade unions spent £112 million on building a hotel in Birmingham to house members and hold conferences. Initial estimations stated the construction would cost £57m, meaning construction has run way over budget.
Furthermore, once the building was completed, independent evaluators valued the hotel at only £29 million, likely meaning that around £83 million of members' money was wasted on this project. [1]
The union's plan was to build a 195-room complex that would be an investment for Unite, as well as saving costs for its events.
The investigation has been going on for years. Questions have been raised since at least 2021 [2].
Police have already raided Unite offices and seized dozens of files, documents and computers [3]. The Serious Fraud Office has also been involved in this investigation into allegations of bribery, fraud and money laundering.
In addition to the £83 million wasted, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham has identified a further £14 million missing from the project's final accounts.
A Unite spokesman said: “It is important to note that Sharon Graham has had to endure repeated attacks by those with much to lose since she launched these inquiries, from both inside and outside the union...
…We are also pursuing legal claims to recover money lost to the union and the general secretary has put safeguards in place to ensure that such things can never happen again.” [1]
The union says it is committed to “holding anyone responsible to account”
At present, the trade unions in Britain and most other countries have suffered from the lack of leadership of a party that truly represents the interests of the workers. They have become largely bureaucratic institutions operating entirely within capitalist boundaries. The mismanagement of funds acquired from union dues shows a lack of seriousness and, if fraud has indeed taken place, it only further illustrates the flaws in the capitalist system.
Workers are likely to lose even more confidence in the unions as a result of this corruption and misuse of their money.
The unions are shrinking in size and influence [4] because they are only trying to win small, temporary concessions for the working class or in many cases, attempt to work with capitalists rather than support the economic struggle of the working class. Capitalists can only make a profit by minimising their expenditure – including on wages – as a result, the interests of capital and labour are inherently antagonistic. Unions that attempt to plaster over this for better relations with the capitalists betray the fundamental interest of the worker which they are supposed to be fighting for.
This is a far cry from the revolutionary struggles of the past (within which unions played a pivotal role) which seriously threatened capitalism and in some cases defeated it and replaced it with socialism, a system in which workers control the means of production and are no longer exploited.
Strikes and collective action carried out by trade unions give workers experience in organisation and collective struggle, it gives workers confidence in their strength and shows them that they do not need to meekly submit to exploitation and immiseration.
The trade union struggle, as well as helping workers understand the class struggle, can show them why they must go beyond fighting for simple economic concessions. It can show them why workers must completely replace the capitalist system.
Trade unions alone cannot resolve the contradictions of capitalism, and their commitment to the working class and socialism and their functioning will continue to deteriorate without the leadership of a vanguard party.
A truly communist party will have the necessary theory to understand the problems of capitalism and the actions to be taken that will benefit the struggle of the working class. The communist party must be able to link short-term struggles for better conditions to the long-term goal of ending exploitation by achieving communism. By working with trade unions in these immediate struggles, the communist party gains the trust of the working class and leads it towards socialism.
As it stands, there are no real communist parties in the UK and most other countries in the world and this has had a serious impact on the trade unions. If you want to work towards the formation of these parties, consider joining Politsturm.
Sources:
[1] BBC — Serious Fraud Office probe £112m Unite union hotel 21/10/2024
[2] BBC — Unite union faces questions over £98m hotel scheme — 07/04/2021
[3] The Guardian — Police examining contracts related to Unite’s £98m Birmingham hotel project — 08/04/2022
[4] TUC — Three charts on trade union membership — 02/08/2023