Les Bayliss was the contender for the leadership of the Unite union last autumn who called on the movement to resist the urge for mass strikes.
In the end it was the more openly left-wing Len McCluskey, from the old T&G branch of the superunion, who swept to power at the end of December.
Bayliss came third. I’m told that since then the former Amicus official has left Unite along with four other colleagues. Read into that what you will.
(Meanwhile today it has emerged that 88 per cent of donations to Labour in the fourth quarter of last year were from unions).
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey