Time For Change
A recent article in the Guardian newspaper confirmed that the big four unions – GMB, Unite, Unison and Usdaw - donated more than £8 million of the £9.2 million donated last year to the Labour party.
And that’s not even an election year - when spending shoots up dramatically.
Do ordinary union members get value for their money?
Well on equal pay, for example – the long running union link with Labour has failed to make much of an impact - not much has improved over the past 12 years.
Over the past decade – the affiliated unions must have donated around £100 million to the Labour party – money raised from members’ paying their weekly or monthly subscriptions.
But maybe that money would have been better spent campaigning hard on the real priorities of ordinary union members – instead of filling the coffers of just one political party.
In Scotland union members vote the same way as everyone else – they support the SNP, Lib Dems, Green Party, Conservatives, the different Socialist parties and even the odd Independent.
In Scotland, Labour is just another ‘minority’ party - and an increasingly unpopular one at that.
So, the unions continuing love affair with Labour makes no sense – it doesn’t reflect the views of the wider membership.
Time for change.
And that’s not even an election year - when spending shoots up dramatically.
Do ordinary union members get value for their money?
Well on equal pay, for example – the long running union link with Labour has failed to make much of an impact - not much has improved over the past 12 years.
Over the past decade – the affiliated unions must have donated around £100 million to the Labour party – money raised from members’ paying their weekly or monthly subscriptions.
But maybe that money would have been better spent campaigning hard on the real priorities of ordinary union members – instead of filling the coffers of just one political party.
In Scotland union members vote the same way as everyone else – they support the SNP, Lib Dems, Green Party, Conservatives, the different Socialist parties and even the odd Independent.
In Scotland, Labour is just another ‘minority’ party - and an increasingly unpopular one at that.
So, the unions continuing love affair with Labour makes no sense – it doesn’t reflect the views of the wider membership.
Time for change.
