Tuesday 16 July 2013

How could Labour or anyone opt out of UNITE?

One of the interesting parts of Ed Milliband's speech last week was the very relaxed attitude of the Unions to his claims of being keen on changing their relationship.

We know why of course, it is because they know who pulls the strings in reality and whilst it made for good telly and bluster to put a stop to endless criticism, over the summer and winter the ideas will be quietly droppped and nothing will happen. Which is why they are so keen to be seen to be supportive today.

In reality, Labour cannot survive without Union funding and the left wing of the party cannot dominate its policy agenda without Union block votes.

The UNITE union is also well capable of playing a duplicitous game. We have seen from the likes of Guido how carefully and cynically they have managed their campaign to elect 'UNITE' MP's. it is a very impressive thing too, can you imagine if we had Barclays MP's for example of British Airways MP's in the numbers of 30 or 40? (Which reminds me, a ludicrous number of MP's are ex-lawyers and barristers, so perhaps this plus lobbying/political research is the real counter balance to UNITE MP's).

However, as demonstration of how underhand UNITE can be, I have looked here at their application form. Nowhere does it explicitly mention either the support for the Labour party nor offer any way to get out of paying it. Except in Northern Ireland, where I guess they would have trouble finding a party to give their money to, as Labour does not stand in Northern Ireland!

UNITE are led by cynical, communist leaders who have no interests at heart except their own. I can't see any change coming soon, whatever the Leader of the Opposition says on the Grandstand.

15 comments:

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Agence Web said...

"" The UNITE union is also well capable of playing a duplicitous game. We have seen from the likes of Guido how carefully and cynically they have managed their campaign to elect 'UNITE' MP's. it is a very impressive thing too, can you imagine if we had Barclays MP's for example of British Airways MP's in the numbers of 30 or 40? (Which reminds me, a ludicrous number of MP's are ex-lawyers and barristers, so perhaps this plus lobbying/political research is the real counter balance to UNITE MP's).
""

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Vishal said...

Nice article. But MPs - not MP's. Please stop apostrophe abuse wherever you see it!

Richard Baron said...

I had a look at their website. There may be something, somewhere, about the political levy, but it certainly did not jump out at me.

I also found this in the small print at the bottom of
http://www.unitetheunion.org/growing-our-union/joinunite/contributionrates/
but with no indication of the amounts that might be involved, or what the GB5 fund might be:

"When you join Unite, you are also authorising the Union to deduct an additional amount for your subscription to your GB5 local branch fund."

You might or might not be told about the political levy, or the additional amounts, if you go through the online joining process (I could not be bothered to do so), but downloading the form you reproduce, which says nothing about these things, is also an option that is offered on this page, so even if the online process does cover these matters, you could easily not be told about them:

http://www.unitetheunion.org/growing-our-union/joinunite/

andrew said...

This will bubble away for a long time.

A good / great strategist would

Get this in the political blogs over the rest of this year (like this one).

Promote to newspaper / local news coverage in the affected areas in mid 2014

Move to National TV (Panorama / Despatches) summer '14.

(a) Labor gets disconnected from unions and has no money to run the national campaign.
(b) Every labor candidate is tarred with the same brush

Late '14
Get Clegg / Cable to say how nasty and undemocratic it all is and how the Libs are so much nicer early '15

The meme will not have been planted, taken root and flowered.

Election May ' 15

People do not like sneakiness - or at the moment, the impression of sneakiness.

Anonymous said...

Yes. I agree with you about Unite.

But there is not one 'professional' political or Government body that I have faith with in Britain today.

The middle class is infested with thieving scamsters in it for themselves.

This era's equivalent of the '80s unionists are the lawyers, actuaries, accountants, bankers, quangocrats ...

THEY are the ones grinding the country down to a far greater extent than the miners ever could.

Anonymous said...

Well said Vishal. An incorrect apostrophe is bad. An example of correct use might be: As the MPs left the room, I noticed an MP's ego had been left behind.

CityUnslicker said...

I am very pleased that my grammar and spelling has improved so much that criticism is now for misplaced apostrophe's. THis is good progress by my own low standards...

SadButMadLad said...

There is this - http://www.unitetheunion.org/news/uniteandthepoliticallevy/

which says...

There is some confusion about Unite’s position in relation to the political levy and today’s announcement by Labour leader Ed Miliband. This is because the same words are being used to describe two different things.

"Opt in" or "opt out"?
One is whether trade unionists should “opt in” or “opt out” of their union’s political levy – the very small part of their membership subscriptions which is paid into a separate political fund, the uses of which are regulated by law.

Unions have to secure the continued assent of their members to maintain a political fund in a secret ballot once every 10 years, as Unite members did by an overwhelming margin just two months ago. The legal position is that unions must also offer their members an opportunity to “opt out” of paying into the political fund. Should the member not do so, the payment is made automatically.

Changing this situation to an “opt in” – as the Conservative government did in 1927 as an act of revenge for the General Strike – would deplete the union’s political fund, inhibit its ability to campaign on a range of political issues and constitute a further interference in the right of trade unions to regulate their own affairs, democratically accountable to their members. It would also, obviously, require fresh parliamentary legislation. This is the issue Len McCluskey was referring to in his article in The Guardian this morning.

Associate Labour Party members
As Ed Miliband made clear today, he is not proposing any changes to this arrangement. Instead, he is proposing that those members who pay the political levy – the great majority of Unite’s membership – be additionally asked whether they wish to be considered associate members of the Labour Party. The union would then only affiliate those members to the party.

This is a further “opt in” which does not require any legislation, and is a matter for the Labour Party itself. It would, of course, reduce the number of members Unite affiliates to the Labour Party from, effectively, all political levy payers to those who indicate an individual willingness to be so affiliated.

This is an extremely significant change but it is one which Unite is determined to positively engage with, unlike a legislative assault on the political fund, which it would strongly oppose.

Vishal said...

Apostrophes, not apostrophe's
:)) but thanks for acknowledging it. ..I am fighting a battle, one misplaced apostrophe at a time, even at work. Though I should probably stop pointing out errors in emails from HR :)

Blue Eyes said...

Agreed. Ed M is stuck though. The Tories' attacks appear to be sticking, and if he doesn't do something it will be a stick to beat him with at the election. Hopefully. His only hope is state funding of parties and the Tories have been seeming to indicate that they are against paying more for politics when public spending is supposed to be being cut.

Interesting.

Agence communication said...

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