Organising strategy will be tool for success says Unite leader

In contrast to the hard-fought campaign for the top position in the Unite general union, two other union general secretaries have recently been returned unopposed.

Paul Kenny will serve another five-year term at the helm of the GMB general union after he was not challenged for the job.

Kenny took over as acting general secretary in 2005 on the resignation of Kevin Curran. He was elected unopposed in 2006 and again in late 2010.

And Bob Monks has been returned as leader of the URTU transport union and will commence his third five-year term from 1 March.

Meanwhile, recently elected leader of the 1.5 million-strong Unite general union, Len McCluskey, has confirmed his "absolute commitment" to the union's strategy for stemming the decline in membership.

He told the weekly labour movement Tribune magazine: "Unite is the largest private sector union by far and therefore the ravages of the recession have hit us bad."

But he emphasised that the union's organising strategy was the only way to deal with that. It had been "successful in the sectors that we have concentrated on but we have to improve," he admitted.