State of the Union: GMB, Unite and the beer-tie

"We're back in the 1970s."

That was the withering assessment of JD Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin after Alistair Darling's latest Budget blow. The outspoken chief was, in this case, referring to "huge public deficits" and the ramping up of taxes.

But there's another element of the 1970s rearing its head within the pub industry - trade unions.

Both GMB and Unite have made public statements in the last few weeks on the behaviour of the major pub companies and the issue of the beer tie.

So why now? Why have these two giants of the trade union movement decided to raise their heads above the parapet on an issue that has been bubbling under in the industry for months? And how are they taking things forward?

GMB

Let's take GMB first. Known as Britain's general union, it has created the biggest stir with two inflammatory press releases based on figures around closures of pubco-owned pubs.

In essence, it is trying to prove the theory the beer tie is causing pubs to close, and not - as others argue - issues such as beer tax and off-trade competition.

In a release issued last month, a GMB study claimed 1,131 pubs, owned by seven pubcos had closed in the last three years. It also called on the government to look again at the way the pubcos operated.

In response, Enterprise Inns said the figures were "inaccurate" and "highly misleading", suggesting the survey was in fact "hard evidence" the tied model worked as the closure rate among the seven pubcos was less than a third of overall closures.

Two weeks later another GMB release was aimed squarely at

Britain's largest pubco, Punch Taverns. Based on figures from a leaked internal report, the union claimed that 32 per cent of Punch's entire tied estate had changed hands in the last three years.

Punch echoed Enterprise's previous rebuttal, dismissing the figures as "totally incorrect and highly misleading". However, this didn't stop the story making the national press.

At the time Paul Kenny, GMB's general secretary, said: "This high level of churn is not unique to Punch and will be replicated in other pubco estates.

"The churn shows that the number of closures in the big pubcos are the very thin end of the uneconomic wedge in this sector and that the level of failure is high because of unrealistic rents and wholesale beer prices charged by 'pubcos'."

So why now for GMB? According to Paul Maloney, a GMB senior organiser, the numbers of licensee members has increased because some original members, having been made redundant from other jobs, were tempted to take on a pub.

But what really sparked theinterest was a meeting GMB general secretary Kenny had with a group of licensee members a couple of months ago.

"Paul had a meeting with members who felt they were a victim of a bad deal and were asking the union for help," says Maloney.

"In the process of researching the issue we found that our members were not on their own."

It was at this point that GMB researchers set to work and in the process discovered the anti-pubco campaign group Fair Pint. "We found we were ploughing from the same field so we decided we would work with them," he adds.

And GMB appears happy to play the long game on this issue. As Maloney puts it: "It's very early days for the union on this campaign."

The union, which has "a couple of hundred licensee members", is also using its full political might in the hope of having an influence. According to Maloney, its political researchers are organising a team of licensees to meet with advisers from 10 Downing Street.

Maloney explains: "The union's diagnosis is that this problem started off in Parliament and it will have to go back to Parliament."

Unite

And what about Unite, the country's biggest union - how did it arrive at the party? Well, as Jennie Formby, Unite's national secretary for the food, drink and tobacco sector, is keen to point out, it has not just "suddenly got involved".

Unite has its own separate publican arm - Licensees Unite - which was formed in February 2008 as a result of the National Association of Licensed House Managers (NALHM) merging into the union.

And while GMB has made the most headlines so far, it is arguably Unite which could have most impact. For a start, it has a significantly larger licensee membership than the GMB, with around 10,000 registered publican recruits - the majority of these being tied tenants or lessees.

And Formby is clearly slightly riled that other groups are attempting to muscle in on this issue.

"I'm a little concerned that a number of organisations are jumping on the bandwagon because it's a popular issue," she says. "It's not helpful."

An ideological divide also appears to exist between the two unions. Whereas GMB wants to "break-up" the pubcos, and its ally Fair Pint wants an end to the tie, Unite wants to "loosen the tie".

"There's no point in getting rid of the pub tie, because pubcos will just increase the rents," she says. "We need to look at loosening the tie and come to an accommodating point where there's a win/win situation."

Formby is also wary that too many messages from too many sources could create confusion.

"All the people who have a genuine interest in the industry need to be talking to each other," she explains.

"We have people talking about axing the beer tax, we have people saying end the beer tie, and others talking about the smoking ban. But all the time more pubs are closing. We have got to find a sensible solution."

Unite, for its part, has aligned itself with Justice for Licensees, the campaign run by Enterprise licensee Inez Ward, which has less extreme aims than Fair Pint. As a result, Unite is helping organise a "major" demonstration at Westminster next month against the pubcos.

David Hall, national chairman of Licensees Unite, has made clear the reason for this action.

"Licensees are joining forces to campaign against the behaviour of these big management companies and breweries which are putting the very existence of the great British pub under threat," he says.

Unite has also compiled a charter that will set out its position in relation to the pubco situation.

And Formby suggests people are taking notice. "Some people within the pubcos are starting to listen, they can see their profits disappearing," she says.

Whether the pubcos will truly engage with the trade unions remains to be seen, but there may be some reluctance.

Ultimately, the net effect is proving to be a widening of the spotlight on the issue of the pubco model and the beer tie.

The message that all is not well in the land of tied licensees is now filtering through to Parliament - and the flames were further fanned by a debate on the pubcos in Parliament last week (see News, page 1).

And whether the Business & Enterprise committee's inquiry into pubcos, due to report very soon, will help resolve the issue will certainly be interesting to see.

What is GMB? ​

GMB was formed in 1889 and began life as the Gas Workers and General Union. Any type of worker can join the GMB, which currently has a total of around 600,000 members. One in every 32 people at work in the UK is a member of the GMB, it claims. It currently has "a couple of hundred" licensee members.

For more information visit: www.gmb.org.uk​

What is Unite? ​

Unite is the UK's largest trade union with nearly two million members. It was formed as a result of a merger in 2007 between two of Britain's leading unions, the T&G and Amicus. It regards itself as a "fighting back union, winning in the workplace".

Licensees Unite was set up in February 2008, after the merger of the National Association of Licensed House Managers (NALHM) into the union. It currently has around 10,000 members including pub managers, licensees and restaurant and club manag