GMB – The Generally Male Bullyboy union?

By Professor John Robertson

In the Guardian today:

One of Labour’s biggest union backers has been accused of employing “bullyboy tactics” in an alleged attempt to take over a smaller rail union and seize control of its assets.

Maryam Eslamdoust, the left-leaning general secretary of the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA), claims that the GMB union is using an in-house agreement to block staff recruitment and take control of the white-collar union to access its buildings.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/04/gmb-accused-of-bullyboy-tactics-in-alleged-attempt-to-take-over-tssa

Anyone shocked to hear that the GMB leader is accused of bullying, again?

Nope, here’s why:

Only last month, the GMB union leader was exposed as a bully and misogynist, after having campaigned to become leader, promising to eradicate the bullying and misogyny at the heart of the union.

In the Herald in March 2024:

The GMB has warned MSPs against the planned hike in minimum unit pricing (MUP) saying it will hurt lowest earning Scots hardest. The trade union, representing many drink industry workers, said ministers had “been too quick to accept the untested assurances of advisors and lobby groups.”

So that’s a culture of bullying and misogyny plus promoting alcohol consumption? There’s a dangerous cocktail. Might we call it ‘Smack my bitch?’

In November 2021, the GMB called out its refuse workers to help Labour exploit littering Cop26 crowds, only to be disappointed by as lack of good images, managing little better than this kind of thing:

Ah ha! Two bits of paper on the street! I blame the SNP.

Earlier that year, the GMB had been active, using its members ruthlessly, in a political campaign on behalf of Labour:

Before that, in 2020, we had the unedifying site of the GMB leader campaigning together on Reporting Scotland, on behalf of private care home owners, to divert blame for Covid deaths onto the SNP:

One more thing but a big one. The GMB with Scottish Labour champions nuclear power generation and nuclear weapons, and opposes, just as it now does on alcohol, expert advice on the health risks for those living around the facilities, such as Hunterston A and B in Ayrshire.

The Labour Candidate for Ayrshire Central, Alan Gemmell OBE, is a ‘proud GMB member‘.

For more on nuclear risks, see: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/?s=nuclear

8 thoughts on “GMB – The Generally Male Bullyboy union?”

  1. Oh but one is not supposed to say Owt against a Trade Union if one is on the side of the workers don’t you know…..ah but do those who say that not realise that via some Trade Unions there is distinctions…..where some align themselves way way too closely, via photo ops and rhetoric, with the Labour party in opposing the SNP in Scotland….indeed one Gary Smith was very prominent in the BT NO side campaign in the 2014 Independence Referendum (shoulder to shoulder with Labour politicians)…..that ended well for the workers….NOT.

    As an organisation they were created to exist FOR the workers….not, as some Trade Unions and their representative behave, in them seemingly existing only in being an extension of ONE particular political party in them actively campaigning FOR that ONE particular political party and very much playing politics for that ONE particular political party……against another…in Scotland…and too against that other party’s raison d’etre………. as in against the SNP and also independence for Scotland…

    BullyBOY tactics…..well is this behaviour not what we also saw with the GMB Union and Labour Glasgow council with Equal pay for women in the council……all for one and one for all as the GMB united with….the Glasgow Labour council…and not the female Council workers….

    However in a display of uber Brass neck the GMB then organised a protest on this very matter once Labour were ousted from Glasgow council and the SNP took over….with some Labour politicians marching with these women and GMB Reps on this protest march also….I assume the women involved in this were not oblivious to the facts and truth of WHO it was who was initially against them, preventing justice for them and then in a hypocritical manoeuvre , based purely on playing politics, tried to pin it all on the new SNP Glasgow council…..

    Once Labour were considered the party one would vote for if one was a member of a Trade Union….those days are now long long gone….as now the current New New Labour party are now recognised as a poor imitation of a Labour party that existed long long ago (though perhaps they too were an illusion)….alas some careerists within the GMB have not , as yet, either accepted or recognised that fact yet…..and I do believe some, within that Union, are ‘doing it deliberately too’ ……..as in they know that we know that they know….that is that New New Labour are all but Tories in all they say and do….with the only exception being their actual party name…..they could of course change their party name to gain vicTORY in the next GE….many GMB Reps would still do their dirty work for them in Scotland…….of that I am confident.

    The list of rogues who work against the people (workers) is growing and way too extensive…..but still we can but only do our best in promoting that fact via examples……as every little (and big) bit helps enlighten those who may still be delusional on both the behaviour and alliance between some within the GMB Union and the New New Labour party….minus the former red flag flying….as that symbol has now been lowered and another has taken it’s place….as in the Flag (or two flags displayed) that represents the British state…..and too the New New labour leader…..also known as Two Flags Starmer (and a right (wing) Union(ist) Jack he is too…..and also a Nike Flag complainer as well it seems…on behalf of England that is)……….

    NMRN

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  2. The GMB union like every other organisation from the Roman Catholic Church via the Mothers’ Union and RBS to the committee of the local bowling club all have a tendency towards ‘goal displacement’.

    That is that the raison d’etre of the organisation is distorted by a group of people within the organisation for their own particular ends. The power of the organisation is used to serve the ends of some of those within it rather than for all its members.

    So, the Roman Catholic Church was distorted to serve the ends of senior clergy and, usually, their friends in the ruling classes, the Mothers’ Union by some who had alliances with companies which promoted formula feeding, RBS by serving the greed of Fred Goodwin and the local bowling club by passing rules which forced out some members.

    Trade Unions come to serve the needs of the officials. In the case of Glasgow City Council (and others) it served the needs of male cronies at the expense of female members.

    The GMB, at this time seems to be behaving particularly egregiously on a number of fronts, such as allying with the owners of care homes against the interest of their low paid members who often have to work unsocial hours in a number of establishments.

    PS I was a trade union member for my entire working life and was for a time a ‘shop steward’.

    Alasdair Macdonald

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  5. Was the GMB not the union that helped the mandarins at GCC to create the pay deal that discriminated against their own female members? Was that not the deal that cost Glasgow almost a billion pounds to eventually rectify the injustice to our female workers and that has almost bankrupted the city; costing many public service workers their jobs, which has resulted in a real reduction in those public services?

    The GMB in Scotland seems to despise everything Scottish and appears happy to demean, diminish and destroy anything good here. They come across as, anything, but a ‘trade union’.

    I too was a union member most of my working life and a shop steward on a number of occasions. I was blacklisted from the north sea and have been arrested just for standing peacefully on picket lines. Modern trade unions appear to be very different today. The GMB seems to me to be first among those unions who now seem to sympathise more with those who pay wages than those fighting for a decent one.

    I remember standing at a Glasgow polling station in 2019 and talking with a young GMB guy from the north of England who was “bussed in” due to a dearth of local labour activists. The conversation turned to trade unions and when I voiced concern about the lack of direct action these days by modern unions. He responded by saying that it was difficult to take actions in most cases now as the government would heavily fine unions.

    When I told him that I thought unions must be much more bold in the face of Tory aggression because fines are nothing. Y’know, I said, they used to shoot or hang trade unionists in this country. He went very quiet and did not speak to me for the rest of the hours we were there.

    Shame, he was a nice enough lad.

    Dr Joe Murray

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    1. Aye thought it was that Gary Smith slagging off the SNP repeatedly. Disappeared for a while after the bullyboy misogynist tactic were noted. Many of the members support Independence. The leaders do not represent these members.

      The trade unions fund the Labour Party. Illegal wars, increased migration. Total waste of money Trident, nuclear, Brexit. Tax evasion and financial fraud. All wasting £Billions.

      Then demand people in Scotland pay more tax to pay their higher wages. Total hypocrites. They also side with the employers against the workers. Notorious.

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