Left winger Andrea Egan
Keir Starmer’s favourite trade union leader has suffered a humiliating defeat in the Unison general secretary election.
The left wing candidate, Andrea Egan, unseated right wing incumbent Christina McAnea in the election to lead one of Britain’s largest trade unions.
Social worker Egan won almost 60 percent of the vote in the two-horse race with McAnea, who’s worked in the Unison bureaucracy since the union’s founding.
Egan told Socialist Worker, “We public sector workers are on the frontlines of chronic underfunding, low pay, and outsourcing. We bear the brunt of it all. Unison’s central task is to change that reality—our reality.
“This result means ordinary Unison members are at long last taking charge of our union. We will put faith in members’ decisions and stand up to any employer, politician or cabinet minister who acts against our interests.
“Together, we will turn Unison into the remarkable force for change it should be. That journey has begun today.”
Egan is Unison branch secretary in Bolton and the first lay member to be elected general secretary in Unison’s history.
She has promised to lead and support strikes—a major shift from McAnea.
Liz Wheatley is the Camden Unison local government branch secretary. She told Socialist Worker, “I think this is a brilliant result for Unison members—one of us has been elected.
“She’s someone who understands what it’s like not to be paid enough, to be overworked, to deal with bullying managers—all while trying to deliver services.
“Andrea campaigned around better workers’ rights, better pay and for a better society. She spoke up on Palestine, and got involved in fighting racism and above all wants to fight for our members.”
Egan has twice visited the picket lines of low-paid teaching assistants (TAs) at a primary school in Camden.
“The strikers really appreciated that,” said Liz. “And I know she will continue to do this and back workers now she’s been elected.”
Egan’s victory comes against the backdrop of widespread dissatisfaction with the Labour government (see below).
It is a boost to trade unionists to organise the bigger fightback that is needed. As Liz says, “It can help branches organise and resist—it’s a real boost for reps and activists to know that they’re backed”.
Let’s use the win to take the fight to the bosses—and a Starmer government that cosies up to them.
Christina McAnea has been a pillar of support for the Labour government.
As Keir Starmer refused to scrap the two-child benefit cap, McAnea echoed his attempts to dampen working class people’s expectations. She said it was the “start of a long process to mend what’s been broken” and “generate the growth to get public services thriving once more”.
“We all knew there was one hell of a mess to clean up after 14 years of Tory failure and it wasn’t going to happen overnight.”
Starmer and Reeves want to cosy up to the bosses, while throwing a few sweeteners to the trade union leaders. And, despite tensions with union leaders, they’ve largely got their way with McAnea in tow.
But now an embattled Starmer will face a union led by a left winger who his leadership expelled from Labour three years ago.
Egan has promised a “comprehensive review of the relationship between the union and the Labour Party”.
This comes as Labour haemorrhages support in the polls ahead of local elections in England and the Scottish and Welsh parliamentary elections in May.
The vultures are circling Starmer already, with the possibility of Andy Burnham from the “soft left” challenging for the leadership next year.
McAnea’s attitude reflects the relationship between Labour and the trade union bureaucracy. They see Starmer as “our government”, and that means not leading a fight against austerity mark 2 or his other betrayals.
This attitude was on show over the Employment Rights Bill, which was set to become law on Thursday.
The Unison leadership hailed it as a “massive accomplishment” for the union itself” and made a point of thanking “the group of Labour MPs with links to the union”.
The Employment Rights Bill is a step forward—but it would have much stronger had the union leaders not signed off on Starmer’s betrayals.
McAnea said, “Every employee will now be able to enjoy the rights that only those working for good employers previously enjoyed.”
That’s been the strategy of the likes of McAnea in the Unison machine—keep in with Labour, aim for “social partnership” with “good bosses”.
It’s grassroots members, and working class people in general, who pay the price for inaction.
One of the betrayals was over “day one rights” over unfair dismissal, sick pay and parental leave. Bosses demanded Labour drop the manifesto promise—and the union leaders, not wishing to upset Starmer, signed off on it.
But why should workers have to wait six months for basic rights? Did the bureaucrats who accepted that U-turn have to do that?
Another thing the outgoing Unison leadership is very quiet about is repealing the Trade Union Act 2016.
The Tory law brought in the 50 percent turnout threshold in strike ballots. It is one of the greatest barriers to national strikes—and one of the greatest alibis used by union leaders such as McAnea who don’t want to lead strikes.
Unions should have pushed Labour to swiftly scrap the law and bring in electronic balloting in strike votes.
But HR lawyers Lewis Silkin say, “The relevant provisions of the Trade Union Act will be repealed two months later, without further consultation. Electronic balloting is expected to be introduced in April 2026.”
McAnea’s leadership hoped that the repeal of sections of the Trade Union Act would “pave the way for a better relationship between central government and unions that will prevent the need for strikes”.
Instead, the belated removal of those restrictions should be a spur to a much higher level of strikes against bosses and Labour.
Rank-and-file activists and members in Unison can take confidence from Egan’s win in the general secretary election.
The left’s victory is an opportunity to fight for a different vision. It’s one based on class struggle—not social partnership—organising at the base, and using workers’ own collective power to change their lives.
And it’s an opportunity to push for a higher level of working class struggle across the labour movement to drive the nail into Starmer’s coffin.
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