TRADE UNIONS BASHED BECAUSE OF ILLEGAL DONORS

Having attended the SNP Trade Union Group AGM yesterday, it is clear that the Trade Union movement in general recognises that the Scottish Government shares their values.

I have spoken to a number of Senior Trade union figures in Scotland in recent weeks, who all comment on how the SNP Government is doing, how it looks in charge, and how it is allowing Trade Unions access to shape policy, and to address concerns. They all comment on the difference from the previous New Labour led regime.

In parallel, the Westminster Government is attempting to use Trade Unions funding as a sacrificial lamb for the whole illegal donors scandal.

It is clear that any reshaping of funding policy will include restricting the amounts Trade unions can use to fund any political party. Earlier this year, the FBU and RMT used monies to fund SNP candidates. On the whole however, most still use funds for Labour candidates. For those of us who are employed in the Public Sector, these funding arrangements are akin to giving petrol money to an arsonist who wants to torch your home!

It is however scandalous that the Trade Unions become the fall guy for millionaires either shipping money to a political party illegally, or because a political party accepted donations from a millionaire they knew to be wrong.

However, any attempt to address Trade Union funding for any political party must address concerns over transparency.

Either the law or the Trade Unions must address the nonsense that many members do not even know that they are funding a political party. Many unions automatically allocate members to a political fund without their knowledge, and it is much more difficult to withdraw from the fund than it is to join it. UNISON, however has a different mechanism where members are given some level of choice to either join a general or affiliated fund. Even though this gives some flexibility, UNISON were caught out at a previous conference where it was admitted that members who had shown no preference or who had simply left it blank were allocated a fund without their knowledge.

Some Trade Unions have decided to set up a political fund to support individual candidates across the political spectrum, and these are decided by a panel within the union. I suspect that this will be the way most trade unions will utilise funding in future. It must make clear that candidates are being funded because the candidate supports the Unions policies.

All in all, the Trade Unions should not be used as a political pawn because of others stupidity or illegality. They must however, be more transparent to avoid criticism from the right wing media, who take any opportunity to bash the trade union movement, and the majority must seriously look at its curious relationship with a political party who sold out on the principles of the Trade union movement years ago.