Len McCluskey wins Unite General Secretary election

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Figures from the BBC:

Len McCluskey 101,000 42.4
Jerry Hicks 52,000 21.8
Les Bayliss 46,000 19.3
Gail Cartmail 39,000 16.5

Impressive win for McCluskey. Terrible result for Bayliss; though perhaps not a surprise, given his inept campaign.

Proper figures, which may look slightly different, will be released on Wednesday. Turnout around 15%, which is normal.

McCluskey will probably be portrayed in the media as a dangerous hard-leftist, but that's bollocks. He was the mainstream candidate (Hicks is on the hard-left, Bayliss a right-winger, Cartmail tried running as a non-factional candidate) but, more importantly, the T&G candidate. The others had all been in Amicus.

[Iosif]

I read that as United Nations general secretary and was confused as to why none of the name sounded foreign.

The days unions become politically irrelevant can't come soon enough.

[Kevinstat]

Was Jerry Hicks the same Hicks who challenged Derek Simpson for Amicus Section General Secretary in 2009?  Who did Simpson endorse?  I imagine Kevin Coyne (and Sir Ken Jackson, if he's at all relevant anymore) supported Les Bayliss.  Reuter might have supported Cartmail.  Also, who did the three Amicus candidates support for their section's General Secretary in 2009?  (I imagine Hicks had supported himself if he was the same Hicks who ran in 2009.)

Was this the first election for a single General Secretary of Unite?  If so, who were the outgoing General Secretaries from the Amicus and T&GWU sections?  I imagine Derek Simpson was the Amicus one.  Was McCluskey the T&G Section General Secretary, and if so did his reign at the top of that section predate the merger?  (Simpson's had, right?)

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Was Jerry Hicks the same Hicks who challenged Derek Simpson for Amicus Section General Secretary in 2009?

Yeah, that's the one.

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Bayliss, I think. Basically this mostly split T&G/Amicus and then within what was Amicus. Though McCluskey will have had some support from parts of ex-Amicus and Hicks will, presumably, have won the votes of some hardlefties in ex-T&G.

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No idea.

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Yes

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Simpson Amicus, Tony Woodley T&G.

[Kevinstat]

Thanks for the information.