Bob Sparks assesses the results of the recent United Workers Union election and what they mean for the two groups of union careerists fighting to control the union.
The bitter election battle for control of the United Workers Union (UWU) is drawing to a close. The first stage of the union’s election process is over and the results have been declared. In themselves, these results change little. Under the guise of the United For You ticket, former leaders of United Voice (UV) have retained their comfortable majority within the UWU. But the election battle has given them licence to settle accounts with their rivals, something they will almost certainly do at the union’s National Convention later this month.
The main surprise is that United For You ticket leader, current United Voice national president and Albanese loyalist, Jo Schofield, was not elected as a convention delegate, leaving a big gap in the incoming national leadership.
The amalgamation that formed the United Workers Union in 2019 was always an uneasy one. The new union brought together the United Voice union aligned to the ‘Albanese left’ and the National Union of Workers that traditionally belonged to the Labor right. So while UWU national secretary Tim Kennedy hailed from the NUW, UWU national president Jo Schofield and two-thirds of the amalgamated union’s national executive were former UV officials.
Relations between the two sides started to break down in early 2023 and only deteriorated from there. This breakdown in relations eventually developed into a fight for control of the union, which became formalised in the two separate election tickets: Tim Kennedy’s Members First ticket with its ‘rank and file’ coloration and Jo Schofield’s ‘official’ United For You ticket.
The long-term union careerists and aspiring apparatchiks on both sides understood that this was a “winner takes all” battle for control of the UWU. And both sides spent up big. One source suggests that the United For You ticket spent over $187,000 and Members First over $42,000 on Facebook ads alone. So it is safe to assume that both tickets spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in what became the bitterest election battle in recent memory.
The election results that changed little
Despite its ferocity and the occasional big name casualty, the UWU’s bruising election campaign actually did little to change the balance of forces within the union. In the end, the United For You ticket won 304 (63%) of all 483 National Convention Delegate spots up for grabs, only a handful less than the number held by former United Voice forces in 2022.
Much of the socialist left got behind the Members First ticket, arguing it was a more ‘militant’ campaign aimed at building industrial capacity to strike. Leaving aside the question of elevating strikes from a tactic to a strategy, the failure of Members First to win means the illusions peddled by the socialist groups cannot be put to the test.
The United For You ticket won convincingly in the traditional United Voice strongholds of Queensland and Western Australia. The ticket scored between 75% and 90% of the vote across all six Queensland union electorates and between 75% and 80% in the three WA electorates.
The ticket faced a tighter contest in South Australia but still came out on top in that state’s three electorates. United For You just got over the line in Central Adelaide with 52% of the vote, did marginally better in Northern Adelaide and Regional South Australia with 55% and won comfortably in South Adelaide and the Hills with 66%.
The United For You victories in Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia are enough to give the ticket a majority at the union’s upcoming convention. Even without the NSW and Queensland electorate of Northern New South Wales and the Gold Coast, these victories give the ticket 262 National Convention delegates (54%), more than enough to control the convention floor.
The one election bombshell occurred in Sydney where the United For You ticket was unexpectedly defeated. Members First narrowly defeated the United For You ticket in all four electorates across Greater Sydney and the Central Coast with 55% to 60% of the vote in each. These Members First victories also claimed the scalps of none other than UWU national president Jo Schofield and NSW state secretary Mel Gatfield, who both failed in their reelection bids in the electorate of Sydney – South East.
The Members First ticket swept the board in Victoria. This came as no surprise. The ticket of former NUW leader Tim Kennedy easily took the three Melbourne electorates with votes between 66% and 95%. The ticket also won easily in North Eastern Victoria (73%) and South West Victoria (95%). Its victory was narrower in the Tasmania and Southern Victoria electorate (54%), where Kennedy’s ticket was up against United Voice’s old base in Tasmania.
The Members First ticket was always fighting an uphill battle, especially given its primary base was confined to the old Victorian NUW. The ticket’s overstretched resources can be seen in the two electorates immediately north of Victoria, Western NSW and Southern NSW, where a majority of its NSW candidates were actually based in Victoria.
The United For You camp now holds 15 of the 26 union electorates and 304 of the 483 National Convention Delegate spots, giving it clear control at the union’s upcoming convention.
Showdown at National Convention
Given the undisputed dominance now held by the United For You ticket, the union’s upcoming National Convention beginning on 27 July can only play out in one of two ways. There is a slim chance that the United For You ticket will feel charitable and strike an eleventh-hour deal with its rivals, which would offer the convention a “unity ticket” that pushes the Members First forces into a totally subordinate role within the union. Far more likely is the United For You ticket taking every position on the union’s national executive for itself and asserting its full control of the union.
A Members First campaigner told Labor Tribune that they expect bloodletting after the convention with the removal of organisers loyal to the Kennedy ticket by the incoming leadership.
The second and third stages of the UWU’s election process take place at the union’s upcoming National Convention. The 483 National Convention Delegates will elect 50 councillors to the union’s Member Council and then elect 12 national officers: the UWU National Secretary, National President, four National Vice-Presidents and six other National Executive Members. Given that the UWU rules allow for team nominations in both the Member Council and National Officer elections, the United For You forces are likely to draw up their full team tickets, use their numbers to ram them through the convention and take all elected positions available.
Furthermore, with UWU leaders Jo Schofield and Mel Gatfield now ineligible for re-election, Labor left powerbrokers Gary Bullock and Carolyn Smith are short-odd favourites to take the union’s national secretary and national president positions.
The UWU’s upcoming National Convention might just offer up a surprise or two. But it’s almost certain that the United For You camp will use the convention to marginalise its Members First rivals and establish its total dominance in the United Workers Union.