Strange Priorities
According to media reports, Unite is planning to raise £700,000 in a 'cash call' on its membership to keep the British Airways strike going.
Now this is a very odd thing to do - because super-sized unions like Unite are very wealthy organisations indeed - with tens of millions of pounds in their piggy banks.
So much money in fact that they're able to give lots of it away - on a regular basis.
£11 million has gone into Labour party coffers over the past five years - despite the fact that the great majority of ordinary Unite members are not even Labour supporters.
The additional funds are being raised by a levy on Unite’s 3,000 branches - not individual members - but this is the members' money too - who's asking them how it should be spent?
If trade unions like Unite got behind their members with all their resources - and stopped diverting huge sums to the Labour party - they'd be able to support their members properly in the event of a strike.
By a strange coincidence just about half of Labour's front-bench team at Westminster are all members of Unite - so don't expect any rank and file rebellion to start from there.
Now this is a very odd thing to do - because super-sized unions like Unite are very wealthy organisations indeed - with tens of millions of pounds in their piggy banks.
So much money in fact that they're able to give lots of it away - on a regular basis.
£11 million has gone into Labour party coffers over the past five years - despite the fact that the great majority of ordinary Unite members are not even Labour supporters.
The additional funds are being raised by a levy on Unite’s 3,000 branches - not individual members - but this is the members' money too - who's asking them how it should be spent?
If trade unions like Unite got behind their members with all their resources - and stopped diverting huge sums to the Labour party - they'd be able to support their members properly in the event of a strike.
By a strange coincidence just about half of Labour's front-bench team at Westminster are all members of Unite - so don't expect any rank and file rebellion to start from there.
