Billy Hayes, General Secretary of the CWU, has been the first General Secretary of an affiliated Trade Union to speak out on Ed Miliband’s plans for “opt-in” rather than “opt-out” for affiliated trade unionists. He told the Today Programme:
“It’s a very old-fashioned idea. It was introduced in 1927 by Stanley Bladwin in the trade disputes act, so we’ve had it before. And it was the 1945-51 Labour government that repealed that aspect about having to opt in. So it’s not a new idea, it’s a very old idea and it was introduced to weaken the trade unions’ link with Labour, so I don’t think it’s good idea, people have the right to opt out if they want to.
“This is all about dog whistles. It’s about signalling to people there’s a problem with the relationship with the trade unions. I don’t think there is.
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