Unrepresentative Unions

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I read recently that 43,000 Unison members have a vote in the ballot that is about to get underway to elect a new leader for the Labour party.

Now according to my calculations this means that out of a total of 1.3 million Unison members, only a tiny proportion amounting to 3.3 per cent share their union's enthusiasm for the Labour party.

Apparently 430,000 Unison members pay into the union's Political Fund, but that does not allow people to vote unless they do so as individual party members or as registered supporters.

Of the 43,000 who are eligible to take part 28,000 will do so as Labour party members with another 15,000 people signed up as 'registered' Labour supporters.   

Seems to me that trade union meddling in Labour's internal affairs looks even more ridiculous under this new system, devised by none other than Ed Miliband, of course.

Far more trade union members in Scotland support the SNP these days than support the Labour party, yet trade union bosses keep using their money and muscle, in the most shameless fashion, to influence the choice of leader.

Last time round in 2010 Britain's union bosses (the Bubs) handed the Labour crown to Ed Miliband which didn't work out too well of course.  

Five years on, after a catastrophic general election defeat, Unison is urging its members to vote for Jeremy Corbyn whose views are closer to left-wing Labour and trade union activists, but are clearly not shared by the wider, grassroots union membership.

Otherwise they'd would all be lining up to pay Labour's political levy and vote in the party's leadership election.

But if you ask me, a lowly 3.3% kinda speaks for itself.

As does the fact that only 15,000 Political Levy paying members (3.49%) out of 430,000 took up the 'Bubs' invitation to register as Labour supporters.

Doesn't augur too well, I would say, for the new government legislation that will require trade union members to make an informed decision about whether or not part of their hard earned pay should end up in Labour coffers.  

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