BA and Unite dispute is stuck in 70s like Life on Mars, says Bayliss

From The Guardian, by Tim Webb
Monday 18 October 2010 19.12 BST

Unite leadership candidate Les Bayliss is critical of the way the union has handled its dispute with BA.
The bitter industrial dispute between British Airways and Unite resembles Life on Mars, the BBC drama set in the 1970s, according to Les Bayliss, one of the candidates in the union's leadership election, which begins next week.

In a thinly disguised dig at his leadership rival, Len McCluskey, who has been a vocal supporter of the strike, he told the Guardian that the union lost the year-long dispute a "long time ago". "It [the dispute] has been disastrous," he said. "It has lowered our standing and reputation. We need to make sure it never happens again."

His outspoken criticism of the way Unite leaders have handled the BA dispute will further inflame an election campaign that has exposed the infighting and factionalism that continues to plague Unite.

Bayliss is presenting himself as the moderate candidate in the election to become general secretary of Unite, the UK's largest union. His main rival, McCluskey, is supported by Tony Woodley, one of the union's two current joint general secretaries. Bayliss is backed by Derek Simpson, the other joint general secretary.

Referring to the cult television series – centred around a police officer who is hit by a car in 2006 and wakes to find himself working at the same police station in 1973 – he said the BA dispute demonstrated that the union militancy that characterised the 1970s and 1980s did not work. "We have nothing to show for it [the BA dispute]," he said. "It shows that as an organisation we have got to focus on issues in a different way. It was like looking at an episode of Life on Mars with Willie Walsh on one side and Tony Woodley on the other."

The annual Trades Union Congress conference last month was dominated by disagreement over how best to respond to the impending spending cuts. Bayliss believes that the experiences of the trade union movement under Thatcher – when strikes were defeated and laws introduced to curb unions' power – should provide a salutary lesson to anyone suggesting a re-run today. There are many parallels, he said. "We need to learn the lessons of the past. Although we were supposed to have a lot of power then, we weren't able to win much. People use the argument about the poll tax, but that did not change any government."

He believes militant unionists are intent on an ideological fight with the coalition government. "There will be some [trade unionists] who want to see that [mass industrial action] sooner rather than later. It would be a mistake to go into that without a clear strategy. I'm worried that other candidates could use the union as a vehicle for their political views."

He also believes the government is itching for a fight with the unions and would welcome an outbreak of industrial unrest to distract the country from the impact of spending cuts. "They are saying bring it on, they want a distraction," he said. He also warned that it could result in further restrictions on unions' right to strike, particularly if the likes of Bob Crow, leader of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, instigates further walk-outs in London ahead of the Olympics in 2012. "There is an issue with transport particularly when you get closer to the Olympics. That [further restrictions on unions] may well resonate with the government."

Bayliss believes unions should engage more with employers, citing the example of the steelmaker Corus, which partially mothballed its plant in Teesside before finding a new owner, with the help of unions. "It has been a great result. But it does not get column inches."

Unite, which has 1.5 million members, was formed in 2007 by the merger of the Amicus union and T&G, the old Transport and General Workers' union. But despite the union's name, it is anything but united, and much of the organisation is split between the two old Amicus and T&G factions. The integration of the two unions into one organisation has not been made easier by having the two former general secretaries running Unite together. Woodley was head of the T&G, while Simpson came from Amicus.