page_title: Unite the Union
section_title: 2013 general secretary election
hierarchical_section_title: Unite the Union / General secretary / 2013 general secretary election
caption_attribution_description: English: Len McCluskey speaking at the 2016 Labour Party Conference in Liverpool.
context_page_description: Unite the Union, commonly known as Unite, is a British and Irish trade union which was formed on 1 May 2007 by the merger of Amicus and the Transport and General Workers' Union. With 1.2 million members, it is the second largest trade union in the UK. The general secretary of Unite is Len McCluskey.
  On 2 July 2008, Unite signed an agreement to merge with the United Steelworkers to form a new global union entity called Workers Uniting which represents over 3 million members in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and North America. Unite retains its separate identity in the United Kingdom.
context_section_description: In late 2012, Len McCluskey called an early election. On 4 March 2013, Unite announced that two candidates were standing in the election: McCluskey, who had won 1089 branch nominations, and Hicks, who had won 136 nominations. This was Hicks's third successive attempt at becoming Unite's general secretary. On 14 April 2013 it was announced that Len McCluskey had been re-elected for a five-year term.
caption: McCluskey speaking at the 2016 Labour Party Conference
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