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Profile: Sharon Graham

04/09/2021

Sharon Graham

BBC Radio 4 - Profile, Sharon Graham

New, private, socialist, back-to-the-workplace leader of the Unite union, Sharon Graham.

Sharon Graham has unexpectedly been elected the first woman leader of Unite, the UK's second largest union. Edward Stourton discovers her route to the top and what makes her tick.

Following a sometimes ugly campaign, Britain's second largest trade union, Unite, has elected its first woman leader, Sharon Graham.  But who exactly is she?
Jealously guarding her privacy, Unite's new 52 year-old head represents a significant break with the union's retiring chief, Len McCluskey and, it would seem, his close political links with the Labour Party.  
Instead, centering her campaign on bringing the union "back to the workplace", Sharon Graham has emphasised her own focus on jobs, pay and conditions.
She has called for "an obsession" with the Labour Party to stop and instead for "bad bosses" to be held to account.  She claims to have won fifteen disputes without a defeat. 
But her policies are not without their critics.  The strategy she has pioneered for "leveraging" disputes with employers by applying pressure across company activities has been attacked as "chilling".  And within the union itself - where two-thirds of the members are men - accusations of misogyny have been levelled.
Edward Stourton discovers how Sharon Graham has made it to the top of Unite, what makes her tick and what the union's members, employers, politicians and the public at large can expect from her.
Among those taking part: Roz Foyer of the Scottish TUC; John Cooper of Unite; Gail Cartmail, President of the TUC; and Sebastian Payne of the Financial Times. 

Producer Simon Coates

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