Union Democracy

As the row rumbles on over the influence of union bosses on the Labour Party, here's a good idea that would solve the problem at a stroke: more choice for union members  about what to do with their own money.

Now the laugh of it all is that the unions don't even collect members' subscriptions these days; the employers do all the work via their payroll and this service could easily be passed on to other political parties or even charitable organisations, for example. 

The only safeguard required would be to check periodically that individual employees  would be asked periodically whether they wanted the payments to continue and not all employees are union members, of course, so many more people would be encouraged to participate. 

Good Idea (15/07/13)

Now here's a reader's letter which appeared in the Times newspaper recently - and which makes a good point about party funding.

Union contributions in these modern times are not actually collected by trade unions - long gone are the days when union stewards used to go around the workplace every week - chasing people up for their union 'subs' (subscriptions).

No, employers do the job nowadays for trade unions - under local DAS agreements (deductions at source) which involve lifting a sum of money from the union member's pay every week or month - and passing the funds collected on to the 'end user'.

The same thing is done over income tax, for example, which is then handed on to HMRC - and the employers collecting these funds charge a fee to cover their costs - which all sounds very reasonable.

So why not open this facility up to a much wider range of political parties and/or charitable organisations - because who could disagree or find fault with that idea?

It's fair, easy to implement, democratic - and might encourage more individual citizens to spend a few bob of their hard earned money supporting a political party - or a charity which is struggling to make ends meet.

Labour and unions

Union members should be able to support any political party they wish to, which might be a democratic solution to the problem of funding 

Sir, Mr Miliband wants union members to opt in to paying dues to the Labour Party and through this become party members (July 10). Why not, at the same time, add a facility for the union members to be able to become members of any other political party they wished?

A majority of the population do not support the Labour Party so it is quite possible that many union members support another party; this would widen party membership and be a democratic solution to the problem. Union leaders might then find out the views of the majority of the members, not just those of a few activists. 

Nicholas Russell 

Cambridge