Spending the Members' Money
The Times reported the other day on attempts by the GMB union to throw its weight around in the Labour leadership contest.
General secretary, Paul Kenny, told the Times that the GMB would consider withdrawing its funding from Labour, if the party elects David Miliband or Ed Balls as its new leader.
The GMB is supporting Ed Miliband in the leadership race - and gave £28,000 of their members' money to support the younger Miliband brother's leadership campaign.
Surprise, surprise - Unite and Unison, the two other big public sector trade unions - are also backing Ed.
All three trade unions will spend a small fortune trying to persuade their members to vote in Labour's leadership contest - which gets underway in earnest this week.
Now this is all hot air from Paul Kenny - he's making it up on the hoof as he goes along - rather than having the support of union members for what's he's saying.
Certanly the ordinary members were never asked what they thought of spending £28,000 on Ed Miliband's election campaign - what kind of way is that to spend the members' money?
In fact if you asked GMB members in a properly organised ballot - the great majority would oppose the £1.5 million that the GMB has donated to Labour in the first half of this year.
The GMB political machine was partly responsible for installing Gordon Brown as Labour leader - so the union has a poor track record on picking winners.
Ordinary union members must be scratching their heads in disbelief.
General secretary, Paul Kenny, told the Times that the GMB would consider withdrawing its funding from Labour, if the party elects David Miliband or Ed Balls as its new leader.
The GMB is supporting Ed Miliband in the leadership race - and gave £28,000 of their members' money to support the younger Miliband brother's leadership campaign.
Surprise, surprise - Unite and Unison, the two other big public sector trade unions - are also backing Ed.
All three trade unions will spend a small fortune trying to persuade their members to vote in Labour's leadership contest - which gets underway in earnest this week.
Now this is all hot air from Paul Kenny - he's making it up on the hoof as he goes along - rather than having the support of union members for what's he's saying.
Certanly the ordinary members were never asked what they thought of spending £28,000 on Ed Miliband's election campaign - what kind of way is that to spend the members' money?
In fact if you asked GMB members in a properly organised ballot - the great majority would oppose the £1.5 million that the GMB has donated to Labour in the first half of this year.
The GMB political machine was partly responsible for installing Gordon Brown as Labour leader - so the union has a poor track record on picking winners.
Ordinary union members must be scratching their heads in disbelief.
